Introducing Uniti, our revolutionary new streaming platform.

There is also quite a good summary table of tech specs and differences between each of the new Uniti devices on the HiFi Lounge blog.

Richard Dane posted:

fred40 posted:

Phil Harris posted:

fred40 posted:

Phil Harris posted:

Mark R posted:

Could Core get the streaming platform? That would be ideal

Core is ripping and serving only...

Phil

Would be a good thing though to implement a streamer.

We have - that's the Atom, Star and Nova ... or are you meaning a standalone source component like an ND5XS / NDX / NDS? Remember this is all Uniti series products...

Phil

I,m not yet familiar with the new product range but it seems to me it would be a good thing to implement a streamer in a moderate pricerange into the uniti core. Enables people who ar afraid of working with ripping software by means of the computer to easily rip , play and serve their musicfiles. Well. Just my two eurocents.

Fred, by yhe look of it the uniti Core does rip, play and serve. It just won't stream from another server, possibly because its not a streamer but a server...

Thats why I like to see a streamer inside. A total box solution for an affordable price

David Hendon posted:

fred40 posted:

Phil Harris posted:

fred40 posted:

Phil Harris posted:

Mark R posted:

Could Core get the streaming platform? That would be ideal

Core is ripping and serving only...

Phil

Would be a good thing though to implement a streamer.

We have - that's the Atom, Star and Nova ... or are you meaning a standalone source component like an ND5XS / NDX / NDS? Remember this is all Uniti series products...

Phil

I,m not yet familiar with the new product range but it seems to me it would be a good thing to implement a streamer in a moderate pricerange into the uniti core. Enables people who ar afraid of working with ripping software by means of the computer to easily rip , play and serve their musicfiles. Well. Just my two eurocents.

The Uniti Core does have a digital output that you can connect to a DAC or a digital input on a preamp, so why would you want a streamer in the same box?

best

David

Maybe to avoid a standalone streamer?

Eloise posted:

Can anyone confirm if the Uniti Core operates as a standard UPnP server for non-Naim devices?

I can't see why it would be a problem - my Unitiserve can be seen by non-Naim devices, and my Sony ZX2 can play from it, so I doubt the Core would have lost this capability. UPnP would seen like a bit of a misnomer it you couldn't do this. 

Do you know which OS runs on the Core and whether the device can be setup to start minimserver, mpd, upmpdcli and BubbleUPnP Server at startup? Thanks, nbpf

nbpf posted:

jon honeyball posted:

nbpf posted:

jon honeyball posted:

nbpf posted:

jon honeyball posted:

"These functionalities can be easily implemented at zero cost with open source software, see mRendu and Bryston BDP-Pi, for example"

There is no such thing as zero cost for a manufacturer. If naim is to do something, it has to test, validate, dealer support, warranty the platform.  That is an entirely different world to you shoving something on that you downloaded this morning. 

Right, I should have written "minimal" costs or "moderate" costs or perhaps just "low" costs! Thanks, nbpf

Depends on your definition of "minimal" and "moderate", of course. Plucking a figure out of the air, does tens of thousands of pounds sound "moderate" to you?

It sounds moderate to me but my impressions really do not matter. The point that I was trying to make is that, as devices like the Sonore mRendu and the Bryston BDP-Pi suggest, companies can effectively exploit open source software to build decent, flexible servers and players. Softwarewise, Naim does not actually need to reinvent anything new (let apart invest years or R&D) to catch up with these examples. They only have to embrace open standards, exploit their expertise in building outstanding hardware and avoid the mistakes made with the UnitiServe.

I cannot take a company seriously when of the three named people on their website, one has a comcast.net address, one has a gmail.com address and the other has none. Does Sonore run out of a bedroom?

I do not know, I do not have any affiliation with Sonore. But you do not actually need to take Sonore (or, in fact, any other company) seriously to follow the argument that I have been trying to make: namely that Naim, in much the same way as other companies, could exploit existing open source software to build flexible servers. They could also develop their own software platform, of course. But that would likely imply higher R&D costs. These would only be justified if the final software was significantly better than the existing open source one. This was not the case for the US software, in my view. I am therefore curious to see which OS and software the new Core is based upon and I hope that detailed technical information will soon be available.

Again you are confusing free software with free delivery. It doesn't work like that. 

Will the Uniti players perform gapless playback through USB?

I agree with Jon. Free software just means there's no license fee  to pay.  All the costs of implementation, integration, support and so on still exist. Open source is great for many applications, but there's still a cost. 

Evening all 

I have a unitiqute2 and this range made me stop and see how it will integrate with current set. 

Lots of discussions about the core. Some of you started dreaming about the inclusion of a streamer. The graal of all in one server I guess

However, i noticed that the star could be that graal as you can stream and also reap. No idea how big is the internal storage but imagine if we can simply use a good hardrive. 

I am not an expert but surely the star is the true all in one if it does all that. Some sort of SU with a CD player and ripper? Did I miss something as nobody excited by that ? 

The Star seems a simultaneous replacement for both the HDX and the Uniti 2. In that respect it seems relatively pretty good value.

I believe the Star doesn't have storage - it can rip and stream but not store music. So not a replacement for the HDX. 

Solid Air posted:

I believe the Star doesn't have storage - it can rip and stream but not store music. So not a replacement for the HDX. 

I think I read somewhere that the Uniti Star can save rips to an external drive, but it's not a server, so can't serve different streams to multiple streamers like the HDX, Unitiserve or Uniti Core can.

David Hendon posted:

Solid Air posted:

I believe the Star doesn't have storage - it can rip and stream but not store music. So not a replacement for the HDX. 

I think I read somewhere that the Uniti Star can save rips to an external drive, but it's not a server, so can't serve different streams to multiple streamers like the HDX, Unitiserve or Uniti Core can.

You are right most probably but surely, If i can play and rip plus save to a hard drive, i have a good one box solution if I don't worry about sending to another room.

secondly, the uniti were supposed to be talking to each other aka multiroom capability. 

Are you sure this is not possible here too? 

Is the atom more powerful than the uq2.

Also, will the dial on the muso be installed on the right side to match the uniti range.

The UQ spec is 30 watts into 8 ohms and 45 watts into 4 ohms. The 'mighty' atom is quoted at 40 watts (.presumably into 8 ohms). So, all things being equal, the atom should be more powerful than the UQ.

Crabby posted:

David Hendon posted:

Solid Air posted:

I believe the Star doesn't have storage - it can rip and stream but not store music. So not a replacement for the HDX. 

I think I read somewhere that the Uniti Star can save rips to an external drive, but it's not a server, so can't serve different streams to multiple streamers like the HDX, Unitiserve or Uniti Core can.

You are right most probably but surely, If i can play and rip plus save to a hard drive, i have a good one box solution if I don't worry about sending to another room.

secondly, the uniti were supposed to be talking to each other aka multiroom capability. 

Are you sure this is not possible here too? 

The multiroom is 320kbps whereas one of the servers can serve multiple streamers with full fat lossless music and they can be different streams to each streamer. If you don't want more than one streamer, you might be able to do it all with a Uniti Star, but if it were me I would want to check how the new Naim app, which none of us has seen yet, handles and displays the files on the external hard disc.

Anyway all of these things will become clear in due course!

best

David

Solid Air posted:

I agree with Jon. Free software just means there's no license fee  to pay.  All the costs of implementation, integration, support and so on still exist. Open source is great for many applications, but there's still a cost. 

Sure there are integration and support costs. Depending on the particular case, these might be even higher than those caused by proprietary software. But in the case of music server software, we have specific open source tools which have been succesfully integrated to deliver functionalities that the US was not able to deliver and that, at this point, we do not know whether the Core is or will be able to deliver. As I mentioned, Naim might have good reasons not to adopt such tools. But at the end of the day they'll have to deliver and it would be very disappointing if the Core would turns out not to be able to provide interesting internet streaming services to attached DACs or to run popular tools like minimserver.

David Hendon posted:

Solid Air posted:

I believe the Star doesn't have storage - it can rip and stream but not store music. So not a replacement for the HDX. 

I think I read somewhere that the Uniti Star can save rips to an external drive, but it's not a server, so can't serve different streams to multiple streamers like the HDX, Unitiserve or Uniti Core can.

According to the website you can "also serve any music stored on your Uniti Atom (presumably or the Star or the Nova) to other Uniti all-in-one players or Naim streamers at full CD quality."

Could be interesting to see what the performance is like using a 256 or 512GB SD card (or USB stick) into one of the Uniti players.

nbpf posted:

Solid Air posted:

I agree with Jon. Free software just means there's no license fee  to pay.  All the costs of implementation, integration, support and so on still exist. Open source is great for many applications, but there's still a cost. 

Sure there are integration and support costs. Depending on the particular case, these might be even higher than those caused by proprietary software. But in the case of music server software, we have specific open source tools which have been succesfully integrated to deliver functionalities that the US was not able to deliver and that, at this point, we do not know whether the Core is or will be able to deliver. As I mentioned, Naim might have good reasons not to adopt such tools. But at the end of the day they'll have to deliver and it would be very disappointing if the Core would turns out not to be able to provide interesting internet streaming services to attached DACs or to run popular tools like minimserver.

Remember that when the US (or at least the HDX) was developed much of this open source software didn't exist or was very much embryonic. 

Companies such as Naim also have to be careful as some of the open source software we may be talking about may break trademarks or even patients which is fine for tiny companies such as Sonore, but should Naim use (as an example) open source implementations of AirPlay are likely to attract the attention of relevant companies (in this example Apple) for breach of trademarks and possibly patient infringements.

Having said all that, if Naim use open source components (and if they use Linux as a basis of the Uniti and Uniti Core units then they will be using open source) I do hope they are responsible and follow all Open Source requirements displaying licences clearly and offering access to the source code.

Eloise posted:

According to the website you can "also serve any music stored on your Uniti Atom (presumably or the Star or the Nova) to other Uniti all-in-one players or Naim streamers at full CD quality."

Could be interesting to see what the performance is like using a 256 or 512GB SD card (or USB stick) into one of the Uniti players.

https://forums.naimaudio.com/to...ireless-music-server

Saw and heard the Atom at RMAF.  Short version: Looks and sounds terrific. 

Jan-Erik Nordoen posted:

Eloise posted:

According to the website you can "also serve any music stored on your Uniti Atom (presumably or the Star or the Nova) to other Uniti all-in-one players or Naim streamers at full CD quality."

Could be interesting to see what the performance is like using a 256 or 512GB SD card (or USB stick) into one of the Uniti players.

https://forums.naimaudio.com/to...ireless-music-server

That's talking about the existing Multiroom mode.  My reading of the new Uniti information is the Uniti Atom would work as a UPnP server for another device ... but that's just my reading of it.  If so, then a Uniti Star with USB storage and a MuSo or MuSo Qb would be a great solution for a couple of people I know.

Hi Eloise,

I think we're saying the same thing. Basil & Co's post shows that a streamer can be used as a server (and not limited to MP3) to one or several clients. This is what now seems to be official with the Uniti Star. Once device that does it all: rip, stream and serve.

Jan

Jan-Erik Nordoen posted:

Hi Eloise,

I think we're saying the same thing. Basil & Co's post shows that a streamer can be used as a server (and not limited to MP3) to one or several clients. This is what now seems to be official with the Uniti Star. Once device that does it all: rip, stream and serve.

Jan

Apparently you can also attach a USB CD drive and USB HDD to the Nova to accomplish the same thing. The Atom, Star and Nova are limited to serving 20,000 tracks, whereas the Core will manage 100,000. Depends how much music you wish to store I guess.

For me, the sweet spot is sounding like the Nova - with the option to get into ripping your music to HDD without having to get the Core just yet, but then being able to upgrade to the Core as required. Clearly the Core will make the whole ripping process far less stressful, but at a significant price.