Naim Atom or Nova with PMC Twenty 23

Posted by: Xer on 09 July 2018

Hello all, this is my first post in Naim forum. I am not a Naim user yet, but considering to.

I am interested in the Naim all-in-one music system, namely Naim Atom or Nova. I am wondering if it pairs up well with my existing speaker, PMC 20.23.

I bought this pair of speaker early this year and my current speaker is NAD C368 (class D DAC amplifier). I use mac mini 2012 as source, to use toslink to submit digital signal to my NAD C368). Although it gives a very clear sound, it lacks of power (regardless its 80w per channel), its bass is weak and I don't get a "sweet" taste that I got in my previous combo.

The Naim dealer in Hong Kong don't sell PMC, and I have no chance to test Atom/Nova in combination with PMC 20.23. They also won't lend that out to me even I can put down full amount deposit. Hence I would like to ask the advice here.

Also will Atom be sufficient to drive PMC 20.23? Nova is expensive I am hesitating now.

Thank you very much.

Cheers,

Xer

Posted on: 19 July 2018 by Xer

Hkmac posted:
I think the former in this case. It seems we don’t have the same secondhand market in this region like they do in the UK , yet..
Fortunately for me in the end I lent my old system to a friend to test it out and he loved it and bought the entire system albeit for a good price. Other previous offers I got from the secondhand market in HK we’re about 60-70% of the cost even under warranty.

The second hand market in Hong Kong isn't big enough, and as a result, there is not enough liquidity for people to shop. Moreover, maybe just I am not aware of, Hong Kong doesn't have a reputable 2nd hand dealer which help to reduce the fraud. this is a typical information asymmetry issue. This further drive down the price of 2nd hand market.

Posted on: 05 August 2018 by Xer

I finally buy Naim Nova, very expensive but hope that I won't regret.

It matches PMC Twenty 23 perfectly. It got a very clear and separate sound. Also it has much better control in base and now the music come out much better.

I pair it with 2 sets of speaker cable - Chord clearway and Naim A5 (3m long each).

The Chord give better high tone, clearer, and more vibrant. The Naim A5 has better base, but the high tone is merge together.

I am slightly disappointed with Naim A5, or if I set it up wrongly?

Posted on: 06 August 2018 by Mike Sullivan

Well done on the Nova, a lovely piece of audio indeed, time to enjoy the music. I have the Naim cable with the Nova and the Chord on my UnitiCute2/NAP100 and they both seen fine.

Posted on: 06 August 2018 by feeling_zen

More than one person on the forum found the NACA5 cable not the best match for Twenty.23s. Certainly, I did not use it when I had my Twenty.23s, and I still don't use it on my current Twenty5.23s.

It's not always about how good a cable is either. The A5 is a superb cable. But the cable has to be the right one for the speaker/amp combo. My dealer always supplied Atlas Hyper 2.0 cable for user with Naim and PMC speakers. It happens to cost less than A5 but that has nothing to do with it. Others have used a variety of other cables with success.

Posted on: 06 August 2018 by Xer

feeling_zen posted:
More than one person on the forum found the NACA5 cable not the best match for Twenty.23s. Certainly, I did not use it when I had my Twenty.23s, and I still don't use it on my current Twenty5.23s.
It's not always about how good a cable is either. The A5 is a superb cable. But the cable has to be the right one for the speaker/amp combo. My dealer always supplied Atlas Hyper 2.0 cable for user with Naim and PMC speakers. It happens to cost less than A5 but that has nothing to do with it. Others have used a variety of other cables with success.

I should have searched this forum before I buy the A5 cable.............