Naim Atom or Yamaha R-N1000

[Dinko]

Looks like no one chose Naim

 

[Overseas]

In my market, Naim is double the price.

 

[radix]

Looks like no one chose Naim

I had a naim muso speaker. It was for the dining room, so the appearance was very important. It sounded good, and the wireless playback was good. But the user interface was too complicated, unlabeled, and minimal for my partner. She did not want to use an app to listen to music. So I switched to vintage Mcintosh gear and the re-issue L 100s. It’s a lot bigger but it sounds fantastic and still has a nice vibe for the living room. And I snuck in a ddrc24.

 

[DSJR]

Looks like no one chose Naim

Purchasers of *new* Naim don't usually gravitate to forums, especially one like this.. Used Naim buyers or owners go to Hifi Wigwam or Pink Fish these days I think...

 

[Glint]

I don't imagine, I measure. And we aren't talking about comparisons to valve gear. Yamaha amplifiers had no less THD than other gear of the time. When other competing Japanese designs were ruler flat in comparison, Yamaha were not. Some people liked their sound. And they have always been a high dynamic power design with softer supplies than other Japanese manufacturers. That meant inadequate heatsinking and frequent overheating events. And running out of power in the lowest octaves. Very audible.

Kind of like their modern stuff (which I like for mums and dads playing normal level stuff). You know their diagnostics virtually spy on their owners? If you take your amp/receiver in for service, we can tell how many on/off cycles it has had, how many days, hours and minutes it has operated, how loud you had the volume, how many protection events etc.

It's getting out of hand. Soon, they will deny warranty service if you weren't listening to "approved" genres of music... LOL.

I heard about cars doing that and selling the data to insurers who increase your premiums, arbitrarily and without your knowing consent. It's nice to know hifi gear is learning how to rat on its owners too

As for the OP, with the rate at NAIM increase their prices YoY, perhaps get the uniti and sell it as a retirement fund (or if 40w is enough).

 

[Glint]

Purchasers of *new* Naim don't usually gravitate to forums, especially one like this.. Used Naim buyers or owners go to Hifi Wigwam or Pink Fish these days I think...

They are too busy being incredibly well off

 

[thewas]

Not an urban legend.

Yamaha amplifiers from the earliest "natural sound" ranges right through until the early nineties were somewhat lean and bright sounding. Frequency response plots on numerous examples over the decades have shown the same, as have many plots I've run of many vintage Yamahas.

They have a rolled off bottom end in many cases which is why they sounded like they did.

Could you please post few examples of such measurements as everything I had seen in the past was flat in the audible region?

 

[MAB]

Not an urban legend.

Yamaha amplifiers from the earliest "natural sound" ranges right through until the early nineties were somewhat lean and bright sounding. Frequency response plots on numerous examples over the decades have shown the same, as have many plots I've run of many vintage Yamahas.

They have a rolled off bottom end in many cases which is why they sounded like they did.

Really?

Not rolled off at all.

I have several Yamaha from the good old days, none are bass shy.
I have heard this sweeping generalization before.
Can you provide some data?

 

[Mnyb]

Well NAIM does not always inspire confidence, since thier origin with foot tapping PRAT and unstable amps and weird din cables
Are they still a cottage brand with to many irrational inroads to thier design decisions, I think thye originated the external power supply craze for example ?

While Yamaha was a stable and reliable vendor of typical hifi mass market products for decades and had good reputation. I have no idea what modern Yamaha represents.

Hifi is not what it once was .

So I would exclude the NAIM and I’m not in a position to have strong opinions about the Yamaha even if looks ok by the numbers .

The review speaks of rather unremarkable performance for this money.

Naim Uniti Atom Review (Streamer & Amp)

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Naim Uniti Atom streamer, DAC and integrated amplifier. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $3,799. The overall industry design is attractive and has a high-end look to it. Alas, every part of the unit has an ultra sharp edge from...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Consider an WiiM AMP ?

 

[radix]

Consider an WiiM AMP

I still don't think we know what services and features and power the OP needs. That said, if 60 wpc is OK for their room and they don't want room correction, then it's a solid choice. I have 2 Wiim streamers and really like their performance as streamers.

 

[Dinko]

The room in which I would use Focal, Naim or Yamaha is 35 square meters in size

 

[radix]

The room in which I would use Focal, Naim or Yamaha is 35 square meters in size

So 5x7 and you are maybe 3m from speakers? Or more?

I think 40 wpc of the naim would be low unless you keep the volume pretty quiet.

I would personally want 200-300 wpc with those speakers at 3m to handle peaks.

You should really figure out how loud you want to be at that listening distance. If you have no way of testing that at home, go to a hi-fi store and listen to stuff in the listening room room with an SPL meter on your phone. That should at least get you an estimate of how Loud you want it.

 

[Dinko]

Unfortunately, I can't test because the apartment is currently empty (under renovation), but I could go to the hi-fi store. I am about 3.5 meters away from the speakers.

 

[radix]

Unfortunately, I can't test because the apartment is currently empty (under renovation), but I could go to the hi-fi store. I am about 3.5 meters away from the speakers.

You could even test in your car if you have one. As it is an apartment, I bet you don’t go really loud like I do. So an amp more in the Yamaha range would probably be OK. But it would be better to have some numbers rather than guess.

Playback at conversation or moderate levels requires very few watts. But it climbs really fast when you want to get up to loud environment or even a party or dance level.

 

[Willem]

And dynamic peaks also require a lot of power. I would suggest that 2x100 watt is the low end, unless high passed and combined with subwoofers for the heavy lifting.

 

[ivayvr]

@Dinko Welcome to ASR


I think i would pick the Yamaha, it has far more functionality and connections. Yamaha also has a more beefy power amp section, so you are basically free to use any speaker you want. 40W@8 sounds a bit limiting if you have a really low sensitivity speaker. Wich your Focals aren't, but you get what i want to say.

BTW, i think NAIMs site has a badly photoshopped picture of a Chora 806 besides their device. The sizes don't match ;-)

It's like the pictures of running pads on Amazon with tiny men and women on them. ;-)

The walking pad is 1.2m long. That makes the girl 1.2m high ;-)

The NAIMs screen is nice and all, but consider that the screen might be 2 or 3 meters away, to me it would be a useless most of the time.


Yamaha has a treble knob for fast adjustment.
Better yet, if you prefer to listen to music at night sometimes, without waking anyone, but you still want a rich sound: they offer a variable loudness. It's a great feature if you like your sound to be rich and warm at the daytime too.


I don't think so, i wouldn't say a 1dB drop at 15Hz or so leads to something sounding lean. I believe they sounded lean because they had, as competent transistor designs, less distortion than their valve peers. Also they came in a very bright silver color sometimes, and silver means it sounds less warm, as we all know.
Anyway, i don't think it applies to this design. Measurements of the R-N803D (the predecessor) shows a neutral response, the specs on Yamahas website and the pictures of the guts indicate the analog parts to be the same.

All that said, maybe the NAIM has a software feature that is worth looking at it still? And what would you have to pay, maybe that should be considered as well.

As far as I am concerned, the girl is totally fine. Just another fellow human being...
No excuses for the Amazon though!