Introducing Uniti, our revolutionary new streaming platform.

robert- posted:

Where's the replacement for the Dac v1

Only the uniti range is being updated here. The DAC-v1 remains current. 

Nice designs. Uniti core looks an appealing partner for my dac... does anyone know if this offers asynchronous USB playback direct to dac and controlled by iPhone app? Looks like no fans and silent operation too.

hi everyone,

Todays launch is the culmination of so much effort by so many people at Naim and I’d like to say personally how immensely pleased and proud I am of the entire team at Naim to be able to deliver this as a collective. It also hugely gratifying and humbling to see how many people take such a deep personal interest in us and what we do. It a privilege and a blessing to know that what we do and care so much about, generates such interest, passion and excitement. There’s been some real passion and some tough times to get to today, but I think I can speak for everyone at Naim, when I say we are on a high today

I sincerely hope that those that chose to audition the products get to feel the effort, love and fun that has gone into making these a reality.

Thanks all!

Trevor

I just had a deeper look at the new products. I have to compliment Naim. Great design and a well thought through product offering. Which might pull people into the brand. One would potentially start with the Muso, get interested move to a Unity system and just be happy with that or even go to famous black boxes and finally land on the Olympus......statement, I will be interested to have a good listen at this, while it's not a product which is on my need list now.

They look very nice and id imagine they are great products but there's not a chance of me buying one.

Richard Dane posted:

...

However, for me, it's potentially the Uniti Core that is most interesting.  A proper power supply at last and the swappable HDD along with Naim's (improved?) ripping and serving software and a nice BNC s/pdif out for local DAC connection. Could be something special...

Agree, it's a potentially interesting device and I'm looking forward to see the technical specifications. I personally doubt that many users still need a ripping station and I would have preferred the ripping functionalities to be optional. But let's wait and see.

My only hope is that the new device is not just an improved incarnation of the current US. After so many years and considering the available alternatives, I expect the Core to set new standards in terms of energy consumption, OS openness, connectivity, stability, accessibility and, of course, quality of the BNC s/pdif output.

Allan Milne posted:

 

Phil,

 

I am a blind user and find the UnitiServ NServ IOS app perfectly accessible via voice over.

Can you say the same for the Naim app I will have to use with the Uniti Core?

 

Allan

 

Hi Allan,

To be quite honest I couldn't say right now - the app itself is evolving daily as we continue working on it and this is in the hands of the software developers at the moment.

Phil

Halloween Man posted:

Nice designs. Uniti core looks an appealing partner for my dac... does anyone know if this offers asynchronous USB playback direct to dac and controlled by iPhone app? Looks like no fans and silent operation too.

Hi,

Asynchronous USB out for an external USB DAC is not in the first phase functionality that I've seen.

Phil

Pricing in US?

Phil Harris posted:

Jan-Erik Nordoen posted:

Phil Harris posted:

yeti42 posted:

the second slot on the front lower of the Core, added or dropped?

Not sure what you mean there?

Phil

Naim's website shows what looks like an SD card slot :

... and it's absent in the image from Andrew's site :

There is no SD card slot on the Core - it looks like an old photo was used and didn't get spotted so I've flagged it with the web guys...

Thanks

Phil

You can see where it has been photoshopped out...

G

This really is a massive achievement, so congratulations to everyone at Naim.  Enjoy the celebration

Bob Edwards posted:

Pricing in US?

I would presume that the US distributor will be able to give you the best guidance as to US pricing ... It's not information that I would have I'm afraid.

Phil

Is UK Pricing available?

Well done, Naim!  This is an impressive range of new products.  Soon we will be getting reports on how they sound.

Having recently been exposed to the sound of rips from a UnityServe, I will be taking a close look and listen to the Core.  Also, the potential for Roon support is of great interest, as well as evolution in the Naim app for the Core.

Charlie

It's on Andrew Everard's site. 

nbpf posted

 

My only hope is that the new device is not just an improved incarnation of the current US. After so many years and considering the available alternatives, I expect the Core to set new standards in terms of energy consumption, OS openness, connectivity, stability, accessibility and, of course, quality of the BNC s/pdif output.

I agree with all this but particularly the '...quality of the BNC s/pdif output.' If it is as good or better than the NDX and a 'Statement Dac' (better that a TT) comes along then I'd buy both the Core & Dac in a second.

We really need a vanguard DAC naim.

G

Looking good, and certainly with more 'mass market' styling - so given that I have all my CDs ripped (years ago now & physical copies packed away in storage), only now buy download (preferably HiRes) or occasional Vinyl versions, have Networked Storage (RAID1 8TB with RAID1 6TB & 2TB backups) is there an option on a Core product for just serving from a Networked library to a Naim player? i.e. no Storage and no CD drive, or should I stick with Asset R5 UPnP engine running on a dedicated RPi with linear PSU - given this now has support for DSD (dsf/dff), and dynamic transcoding of all PCM formats to WAV.

In terms of the support for MQA, would be possible for the Core unit to unpack the MQA encrypted files and serve as WAV PCM in their highest format? Some sort of transcoding Endpoint.

I have one MQA Album so far and it presents itself as 24/48 but Roon (as I use this as a Library Management tool on a PC - confirming metadata, plus it links down the actual file location on the network storage) tells me it is MQA 24/96 but I can't play it as this. So as I understand the process, the additional information from the higher sample rate is 'folded' into the file without affecting its physical size on disk or when streamed (internal network or public internet), and that only a MQA capable decoding engine can unfold or unpack this. So, if an Endpoint device was able to perform the unpacking either to FLAC or transcode to WAV, as the track was being played, you have the best of both worlds - the reduced storage/bandwidth requirement with HiRes music, and reuse of existing downstream Network players/Streamer equipment,

So, if an Endpoint device was able to perform the unpacking outputing FLAC or transcode to WAV as the track was being played, you have the best of both worlds - the reduced storage/bandwidth requirement with HiRes music, and reuse of existing downstream Network players/Streamer equipment, All you need then, is a MQA encoder to run over the HiRes files to pack the higher sample rate information into the file format and reclaim storage space. 

Looks impressive but I'll still probably upgrade my SU to a 272/250.

It's also impressive that Phil has taken the time to engage with us here.

Well, I was almost right in the guessing game thread.  Next year Naim will complete my guess with more products of this style to replace XS

Congrats to Naim. A great looking new range that looks perfectly placed for non main systems and to give a very easy and visually linked upgrade path for Muso buyers.  Looks like a good strategy.

I hope they're on dem at Indulgence next week.

ChrisByrd posted:

This really is a massive achievement, so congratulations to everyone at Naim.  Enjoy the celebration

It's a bit hectic here for us to celebrate yet and there's a lot of work still in progress but personally I'm incredibly impressed with what the R&D and industrial design guys have turned out.

The build quality (IMHO) certainly seems up there with the best that we've done and definitely has a "hewn from solid" feel to it that you so easily get used to when you work with the kit every day but you suddenly notice not being there when you unbox anything else.

I loved Trevors posting above and it's been great to see him looking so proud today at the official birth of Naims newest - my congratulations to him for heading up this project, respect to the marketing team for all the incredibly hard work and late nights that they've put in to manage all this so well and my deepest admiration to the absolutely amazing group of guys who work here to come up with these bits of kit.

Phil

DUPREE posted:

Is UK Pricing available?

It's on most of the news sites that carried the launch this morning, this is but one of them...

http://www.whathifi.com/news/n...-one-streaming-range

Phil

Richard Dane posted:

I'd be happy to avoid digital audio over USB if at all possible.  USB audio is really just a necessary evil forced upon us who dabble in computer audio.  A properly designed and applied s/pdif connection is much nicer.

 

You need to hear the Sonore microRendu and you'll be humming a different tune. USB can be done very very well, its just that Naim don't want to. Fair enough. 

PeterJ posted:

It's also impressive that Phil has taken the time to engage with us here.

Ah well that's because all of us users have been too busy on the forum to have any problems with our existing systems that might have caused us to ring Naim support for Phil's help!

Phil Harris posted:

Bob Edwards posted:

Pricing in US?

I would presume that the US distributor will be able to give you the best guidance as to US pricing ... It's not information that I would have I'm afraid.

Phil

Phil -

Thanks - I'll touch base with them at RMAF.

I'll echo the many compliments - they look superb and very well thought out.  I look forward to hearing them!

Buggeration. The very least Naim could have done for my upgrade ambitions was release something that would have led to a collapse in used NAC282 prices  ;-)

Maybe next time.

C.