Dear Forum members,
Today we announce our most revolutionary streaming platform yet. Inspired by our unfaltering passion for music and enabled by more than 40 years' of tireless innovation, we introduce the new Uniti range. Comprising the Uniti Nova, Uniti Star and Uniti Atom all-in-one players and the Uniti Core hard disk server, Uniti's brand new state-of-the-art technology enables you to experience music like never before. Rip and store entire collections, play or stream music from any source, at the touch of a button, all with the deep, immersive sound only a Naim system delivers.
Our Research and Development team in Salisbury had to fundamentally deconstruct every historic design and technology decision we had ever made to challenge themselves and go further, especially in terms of sound quality. It’s a true ground-up development, all hand-built in Salisbury, with our core principles at its heart. We looked at every single aspect of the product proposition, the electronic architecture, the mechanical enclosure, the user experience and the approach to manufacture and assembly.
The result? A clear step change in every single aspect of the products, a true achievement of excellence. We hope you enjoy this exciting new product range and look forward to hearing what you think.
Discover Uniti: https://www.naimaudio.com/uniti
Best wishes
Naim
[Edited: 13.01.2017]
The new Uniti range is our biggest release in over fifteen years and we are really proud of all the work that has gone into crafting this revolutionary new product range. Due to the technical complexity of Uniti we have faced more challenges than we initially anticipated and we still have some features to refine to ensure the products that reach you are of the highest possible quality.
We are currently processing certifications for AirPlay, GoogleCast, TIDAL, Bluetooth (aptX HD), WiFi, HDMI and Spotify Connect and beta testing our latest software; the team is working extremely hard to ensure that the products stand up to the level of quality you have come to expect from Naim.
As such we have made the difficult decision to delay shipping Uniti Atom until May with Uniti Star and Uniti Nova following in June.
We have been reviewing all customer feedback from the Uniti Core servers shipped in 2016, and made the decision to stop shipping after Christmas, to ensure we have fixed any software issues before shipping en masse. We are expecting a firmware update next week, and an over-the-air update will be available via the app for those who have already received their Uniti Core servers. Shipping will re-commence next week as soon as the firmware is available and tested.
We know the delay is frustrating and sincerely apologise for it. Thank you for your continued support and patience while we put the finishing touches on your Uniti.
Posted on: 01 January 2017 by Crabby
Kindly request a confirmation. I can't afford the star or the core right now. I am going to start by the atom
I don't want a nas. Until I can get a core (still under debate depending on your answer to below), is simply ripping cds (via computer dppoweramp or with external USB drive) and using a USB stick or a portable hard drive ok? Would I miss any functionality with new naim app?
Most of my listening will be via tidal/Spotify, potentially CD player (probably new oppo 203 as transport). I need the USB stick or HDR for my own cd collection (1000 cd) and future hi-res (I plan to invest hi res for my top 50 albums max. Will work our later from where)
another question is spotify vs tidal? Any preference as can't afford both most probably. Not sure I want Apple Music.
thanks in advance and happy new year
Posted on: 01 January 2017 by DUPREE
You have a lot of different options. You can certainly rip files via DBPowerAmp on your computer and that works great and gives very good results. Those files you can get to the Atom by either putting them on a USB Stick or other USB connected storage. Another option would be to use your computer as a UPnP server over the network. There are a number of Open Source free UPnP software for Windows, Mac and Linux including Universal Media Server and others. Provided you have the storage on your computer this should work just as effectively as a NAS. Lastly, you could run the digital input from your computer to the Atom, I don’t think this is the best or most convenient route, but it is available.
> On Jan 1, 2017, at 11:13 AM, Naim Audio Forums <
alerts@hoop.la> wrote:
>
Posted on: 01 January 2017 by Crabby
I would suggest looking at MinimServer's website. They have a free UPnP server you can run on your computer that is very widely used amongst audiophiles. It is simple and excellent and the price is right!
But that is simply using the computer as a NAS, not reaping the benefits a product like Core has to offer.
But that's exactly the million dollar question: what does core really gives me for the extra cash? Even if I had the money, i will have hesitation.
Once i ripped my cds, bought my new cd transport, completed my tidal or Spotify subscription and bought a couple of hundred hi res album. I don't have more than 1000 cds and not planning more...
really interested to hear main advantage and keeping an open mind. Just don't see it right now
Posted on: 01 January 2017 by Innocent Bystander
I would suggest looking at MinimServer's website. They have a free UPnP server you can run on your computer that is very widely used amongst audiophiles. It is simple and excellent and the price is right!
But that is simply using the computer as a NAS, not reaping the benefits a product like Core has to offer.
But that's exactly the million dollar question: what does core really gives me for the extra cash? Even if I had the money, i will have hesitation.
Once i ripped my cds, bought my new cd transport, completed my tidal or Spotify subscription and bought a couple of hundred hi res album. I don't have more than 1000 cds and not planning more...
really interested to hear main advantage and keeping an open mind. Just don't see it right now
Well, to me (and others will have additional thoughts), keeping the music in the same place as the renderer, and not having to stream across a network, is a distinct advantage, removing the variables imposed by the network (frequently the subject of calls for help on these forums), and making questions as to the quality/cost of network cabling completely irrelevant. This is only if the renderer is good enough - say at least as good as that in NDX, or that in Melco, or Innuos Zenith, or in my case for future replacement consideration, Audirvana running on an optimised and RF isolated dedicated headless Mac Mini.
For reference, I have about 1200 albums of various resolutions all in .flac format, with no CD player, and no interest in online streaming, and I doubt my collection will exceed the 1TB ssd it is on in the MM, though there is more ssd capacity In there if I should need it. And I found Audirvana as optimised and set up in my system gave better sound quality than rendered output from an ND5XS reading same files/source across my own simple and trouble-free network.
Posted on: 01 January 2017 by Crabby
I would suggest looking at MinimServer's website. They have a free UPnP server you can run on your computer that is very widely used amongst audiophiles. It is simple and excellent and the price is right!
But that is simply using the computer as a NAS, not reaping the benefits a product like Core has to offer.
But that's exactly the million dollar question: what does core really gives me for the extra cash? Even if I had the money, i will have hesitation.
Once i ripped my cds, bought my new cd transport, completed my tidal or Spotify subscription and bought a couple of hundred hi res album. I don't have more than 1000 cds and not planning more...
really interested to hear main advantage and keeping an open mind. Just don't see it right now
Well, to me (and others will have additional thoughts), keeping the music in the same place as the renderer, and not having to stream across a network, is a distinct advantage, removing the variables imposed by the network (frequently the subject of calls for help on these forums), and making questions as to the quality/cost of network cabling completely irrelevant. This is only if the renderer is good enough - say at least as good as that in NDX, or that in Melco, or Innuos Zenith, or in my case for future replacement consideration, Audirvana running on an optimised and RF isolated dedicated headless Mac Mini.
For reference, I have about 1200 albums of various resolutions all in .flac format, with no CD player, and no interest in online streaming, and I doubt my collection will exceed the 1TB ssd it is on in the MM, though there is more ssd capacity In there if I should need it. And I found Audirvana as optimised and set up in my system gave better sound quality than rendered output from an ND5XS reading same files/source across my own simple and trouble-free network.
Thank you for taking the time to reply. I agree that not having to stream across a network is an advantage.
I will use streaming from tidal and Spotify just to discover new music.
audirvana seems to be one of the best software out there. I will look into it.
I need to do more live testing and compare core to simply using a USB stick or HDD.
Thanks again
Posted on: 01 January 2017 by alan33
Hi Crabby -
There are quite a few local storage options with the new Uniti players, including large(ish) external USB drives and SD cards (Star and Nova only, iirc). The Star can play CDs directly from its built in drive; I don't know, but wouldn't be surprised, if the Atom and Nova can play from an external drive. For ripping, it seems (from reviews and info on other threads here) that you can attach an external CD-ROM drive on one USB port and rip to an external hard drive on the other (or obviously use the built-in drive on the Star). I don't know if it is possible to rip to an SD card, but again would not be surprised as a mounted drive is a mounted drive... My recollection is that Phil Harris mentioned that the ripping software was a customized version of EAC. The locally stored music files can also be streamed to other Naim products on your home network at CD resolution. I have no info on comparative sound quality versus other options you might consider, but from the perspective of functionality alone, the Atom offers all the services you seem to be looking for - even without adding a PC or a NAS or a Core. Seems like a really nice way to get started.
Regards alan
