Uniti Serve

I think the Unitiserve is a great product. It probably saved me at least 10 minutes x 2000 when ripping my cds. At that rate it was a bargain.

One vociferous swallow does not a summer make. I'm also a strong Naim supporter and I still stand by the UnitiServe. I was steering a friend towards one, but the Naim dealer firmly pushed the other way.

I'm on my second US. The first one was problematic, while the second one has been rock solid, despite having endured the indignities of several iterations of a prototype linear power supply. I've tried other ripping, storage and serving solutions, but the US always comes out ahead in sound quality. When I bought the nDAC years ago, it was only when I connected up the US (via a DC1) that my digital source finally felt like a whole and not some parts trying to work together. I note also that the Naim Statement tour uses the US as a source (well in Montreal anyway), so that must be saying something for its sound quality.

Also, if I calculate the hours that I've saved in not having to edit metadata, I think that the Serve has justified its not inconsiderable price. I also like its aggregation function and the fact that I could run it without a network, using just a monitor and a mouse, when I had to.

Jan

Well, I won't mix it too much as I guess you pays your money and you makes your choices. I think the big question is where do the credible boundaries of HiFi lie? I am playing my music through a mixture of Tidal, Spotify and a Synology DS212j. The dbpoweramp ripped good quality CDs are possibly the best sounding. If I had ripped them to a US I doubt they would be any better. 

Having experienced the failure of a NAS I know no solution is perfect, but if I had the choice and money I would invest in a mirrored SSD NAS provided by, say, Synology well before anything Naim could produce as that is where Synology's  expertise begins and ends. If one of the SSDs fails, the mirroring should recover it and if the Controller fails there's a chance that the SSDs themselves still have coherent data. 

I suspect that Naim will lose interest in fighting a losing battle against NAS based music, at least I hope they do, as they neither have the technical or financial resources to compete in that game. Naim, in my humble opinion, should stick to receiving, shaping and outputting music, at which it excels, says Andarkian sitting in an empty room,  which is being redecorated, musing on how the Muso sounds so different bouncing off newly plastered walls and wooden floors. 

I guess it's possibly just me who takes exception to being referred to as "one of the herd" blindly accepting anything Naim says.

I'm intelligent and sufficiently well informed to know that I have choices and if I felt I was being ripped off by some overpriced item, I wouldn't buy it. Everyone has their own limits of a pricing per product, a price that feels acceptable and, for me, I couldn't bring myself to part for 100K for an amplifier or 10K for a turntable or whatever.

You think it's not worth it. Don't buy it. But please don't criticise me (or others) for choosing to buy.

blythe posted:

 

You think it's not worth it. Don't buy it. 

Im with you on that Blythe.

I think it has been worth it, it still is worth it, and Im happy with it too.

And as I said in my earlier post in this thread:-

Some like it and value it, others don't, I guess that's the beauty of choice!

totemphile posted:

blythe posted:

totemphile posted:

blythe posted:

The unitiserve is also very well made and is likely to last a fair time...

Really? How come there were so many frustrated customers whose US or HDX had failures and had to go back to base? Search the forum. For a product of this price, it should be bullet proof. It isn't. Why? Because it is just a computer in a nice looking black Naim box. 

Yes really.
How many Naim owners do you think are actually are active on the forum? Probably about 1% of total Naim owners at a guess. I have an HDX, which has been a joy to use and on the whole, totally reliable.
I'm not "scared of" using a computer to rip using "free software" but I didn't want a dedicated computer with a screen or a laptop sitting with my hi-fi for months whilst I ripped all of my CD's. I wanted a fully integrated, one box solution with the minimum of fuss, knowing that it would sound great and simply work. My one-box can even be set (easily) to back-up to a NAS.
The in-built DAC is great, the HDX streams to my other devices, it sounds even better with my connected XPS2 power supply - I don't think I could use that with a laptop - or are you going to tell me it can?
Many of us don't want to have to set up a computer, download software to rip, tag, configure, then decide on a suitable external dac or how best to connect the devices to the pre-amp etc. The HDX and the Unitiserve just work. Some people have had problems, many haven't. Any computer can fail.
"Just a computer in a nice looking black Naim box" is a bit like saying that a Hyundai Coupe is as good as a Ferrari.
It ain't. 

Fair enough, you pays your money and you takes your choice. I stand by my view though. It's a rip off exploiting the insecurities of many. And the Naim dealers will come up with all kinds of stories as to why the Naim rippers are better. And the blind herd will follow. And no, a Naim ripper is no Ferrari, more like pipe and slippers for the retired.

As to their reliability, it is irrelevant how many US or HDX are out there. Judging by the number of problems reported by owners on this forum since their launch, it does not make for a good percentage when compared to all owners here on the forum. One might be tempted to extrapolate that ratio out to all machines produced. If the ratio is the same, it does not convey great confidence in parting with that type of money. Maybe there is something in there, i.e. the high prices reflecting the comparatively high overheads with these products. I have no evidence for this, just a thought that came to mind while writing this.

No offence, just my two cents.

Best

tp

I owned a US, I really like what it did, I didn't like that it kept breaking, in the end I gave it up and showed it the door. I can't remember if it was three or four power supplies I got through but enough was enough. A cheap power supply on a 2K product, really not good enough.

Jan-Erik Nordoen posted:

One vociferous swallow does not a summer make.

...but too many swallows make a fall! 

I also have a US and I like it a lot, but it has had 2 hd failures in 4 yrs.....

First time the data could not be saved and I had to rerip over 500 cds. Luckily the second time, the dealer was able to transfer my music to a new hd in the US. I also used that opportunity to upgrade to the 2TB US. 

Now I have a 215j mirrored backup and thats good!

I would be interested to know if Naim have improved the design of the US..?

I have had my US for 4 years too and the HD failed once. Was changed, upgraded and a new PSU given all for nowt by Naim.