Atom with PMC?

Of course, any thoughts on the Atom would be really interesting ro read!

Not quite sure whether the Atom is the right choice for your 20.26... Certainly I wouldn't go down this route. I would suggest a second-hand SuperUniti to stay in budget. (Sometimes, a good deal doesn't turn out that great in the end...)

Forget Atom, get the SuperUniti.

It depends on the size of room and how loud you like to turn it up to. I have heard the Atom driving very large Focal floorstanders at the factory and it was very good, but the Nova was better. 

I used to have a Uniti which was great at moderate volume but I like it LOUD so a Superuniti was much better for me. I have now traded the SU for a Nova. The Atom and Nova both have the new streaming tech and that is a huge future proof step forward but the Nova costs £4000. For £2000 you can have the new tech and moderate volume with the Atom or old tech and all the volume you need with a Superuniti. Your choice....

Well, i can't play at high volume at home so i'm looking for a all in one solution with good sound quality, so i guess the atom is a good option. Is the slubd quality improved with the new uniti series compared to the superuniti?

Sound quality*

In sound quality terms I have found the Nova a suprisingly big step up from the SU. I have heard the Atom several times and have always been impressed - the Nova is better but at over twice the price it should be. The Atom was by no means disgraced. I am lucky in that my nearest neighbour is about 1/4 mile away so I regularly blow the dust out of my woofers. If I were you I would go for the Atom - If I never played it loud it would be good enough for me.

The twenty.26 is a large and demanding £6,000 speaker. The Atom, while very good, is simply not in the same league. When I had twenty.23s I used a SuperUniti, which was very good, but when I tried the speakers with a 250DR I realised what they were capable of. Buying large speakers because they are cheap, and then trying to drive them with modest electronics is rarely successful. I’d up the budget to at least a used 272/250DR, or get alternative speakers that match an Atom properly. 

The Twenty.26 is a very capable loudspeaker, but I agree with HH that you really need something like a 250 or bigger to get the most from them. A NAP300 would be even more appropriate, but your box count would increase significantly. 

I have tried for example Moon and Hegel with my PMC's and i have enjoyed it but the sound quality was not that much of an improvment from what i got today. The PMC's sounds great but an all in one solution is what i'm looking for. If i get a big improvment in sound quality within my budget today, thats a bonus. Otherwise i will wait a few years and get a better amplifier with streaming. I am aware that my speakers deserve a "high end" amp, but right now, i our current apartment, it would be a waste of money to be honest. 

So, perhaps i will wait and keep my current system, but it sure would be nice to downsize and still get an improvment in sound.

I really don’t get the 6k spekers demanding expensive amps. Of course they will shine even more with better kit but some cheaper pairings can still be great. 

I agree, i don't think the 3-4k amps have been that much better from what i got today. It's better - yes, but i don't think it's been that much better when it comes to dynamics and detail. The pmc's are quite easy to drive and i know they have a lot to offer, so i'm really looking for a all in one system that i can live with and be happy with when we have quite a small living room. 

Olle90 posted:

Well, i can't play at high volume at home

In that kind of situation I wouldn't have bought the 26s. You're probably missing a lot.

Olle90 posted:

So, perhaps i will wait and keep my current system, but it sure would be nice to downsize and still get an improvment in sound.

If you need to downsize the electronics to fit your apartment, it’s surprising that you have bought speakers the size of small wardrobes. A Nova with twenty.21s or 23s would seem far more appropriate. But hey, what do I know. 

Small wardrobes? The twenty 26 are not bigger than Dali zensor 7s

Anywho, thanks for the input. 

Olek_K posted:

I really don’t get the 6k spekers demanding expensive amps. Of course they will shine even more with better kit but some cheaper pairings can still be great. 

I share the view that good things sound good, and can improve with the addition of better things. The Atom is a very nice box as mentioned above, and has the new streaming tech.

To agree with a previous comment however, the SuperUniti is an awesome unit and good value on the used market now and, while you give up Roon and the screen, is a much beefier amp than an Atom.

I did not have the chance for side-by-side on Atom vs Super but had previous experience with a Qute: Kudos S10 sound very nice with Super but not so impressive with Qute. Not broken, not horrible, nothing like that... but not particularly special; a little hollow or shallow or something. For me, it was the first understanding of what people mean when they say “not enough amp”. In contrast to comments above, I found low volume bass response and balance in the mix to be the biggest gap, although to be honest I never push things to particularly high volume so might not have hit that edge.  

Now, the Atom was much more impressive than the Qute, and the Nova even more so. But I’d seriously think about listening to the Atom and the Super if you are looking at all-in-one at that price point. Alternative external digital sources to add Roon to Super (such as DigiOne) are not expensive, if that is a factor.

I’ve never heard your speakers, so this may all be useless advice - except for the part that a medium term solution for your apartment, especially at low volumes, might be better with bigger “old tech” than smaller “new model”. Worth exploring anyway, and who knows what you might like. And that, for myself, is really what’s important: get what will make you happy, then enjoy!

Regards alan

If you want to stay with the all-in-one could you possibly go with the 'Star' vs the 'Atom' (70w/Ch @ 8 ohms  vs 40w/Ch @ 8 ohms)?

I've got 20 24s which I tried with Nova and was very disappointed. Yet they worked tolerably well with bottom of the range Naim separates. To be honest, as others have said, you need a far better pre/power combination.

Rich 

You can get Naim Allae really cheap this days,it's a 6ohm speaker with 89db.And the Atom have 40w in 8ohm.

So,on paper it looks fine,but I don't know in reality,....maybe someone here knows if this two, Atom-Allae can work together.

/Peder ???? 

Rich 1 posted:

I've got 20 24s which I tried with Nova and was very disappointed. Yet they worked tolerably well with bottom of the range Naim separates. To be honest, as others have said, you need a far better pre/power combination.

Rich 

I’m running a Nova into Twenty5.23s, I think the Nova does a great job of controlling them and music sounds great. Worth checking for yourself, different people (and rooms/music) have very different experiences. 

Hi Eoink, I found with the 24's and 26's (didn't try 23's) Nova combination had me sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for the sound to go over the top, it didn't though, overall possibly to fatiguing for my taste. I went for the 24's in the end along with a 272/250DR. I really wanted to like the Nova. We all hear music differently and what suits one will not suit another. When spending this much you really need a good demo and home trial from a knowledgeable dealer. 

I got to hear an Atom today with 20.21. Very impressive from such a small package. My first time hearing PMC and the new Uniti products. Very nice. I then got to gear 25.23 with a SN, which I bought. SN that is. Also very good. Very impressed with PMC. So much so that I want 20.21 for the SN and want to hear side by side 25.23 and my Dynaudio C20. I then got to hear 252/Supercap DR/300 DR fed by Melco N1 I think was the model. I now want a 300 DR. Lol. Very very nice. It was great. Better than my 272/XPS DR/150 DR? Yes but I have no desire to trade in my stack for that stack. C20 for 25.23? Maybe or I may just get 20.21/25.21 for the SN and have both. There was a Star there as well but I didn't ask to have it hooked up. I was enjoying the 252 stack. 

Can you detail a bit the differences between 25.23 vs C20?