Anyone waiting for their UNITI?

Happy Easter Meerkat,

I received my UnitiServe SSD last Monday after waiting about a week for delivery, sounds like you may have just been unlucky.........

And... what do you think? 

Hi, I am waiting for NaimUniti nearly 2 weeks now. I was told that Naim has (as every year) more orders than usual because everyone is ordering to beat the price increase. I do not mind waiting and hope that the quality will not be compromised. I have sold my existing amplifier and cannot listen to my music or radio which is strange as I hate silence.....Hopefully I will get my NaimUniti just after Easter.

Fingers crossed, that the lads and lasses in Salisbury will have our gear ready next week. My NAS is so lonely without the Unitiserve

Fingers crossed, that the lads and lasses in Salisbury will have our gear ready next week. My NAS is so lonely without the Unitiserve

Happy Easter Prubast...bet you're a happy bunny!! Are you pleased with it?

Meerkat - I'm as happy as a happy Easter bunny called Larry! - Hope you dont have to wait much longer for the US

Was not planning on posting a review but as you asked so nicely...... 

Probably worth saying up front that  I previously ran my Uniti alongside a NAS and had no major issues with playback. However, there were some problems that began to grate after a while:

1. I noticed a significant difference in sound quality when comparing CDs ripped to WAV files on my PC  vs. the CD original

2. Issues with missing metadata & track ordering on certain albums that whilst not killer gradually began to drive me up the wall.....

As a result, I wanted a one box solution for high quality CD ripping and streaming to my Uniti that would provide me with great sound quality, none of the irritating issues with missing / incorrect metadata and with minimal faffage 

Making Your Mind Up

First up opting for the US was not a straightforward decision - As a user of this forum I noticed a lot of comments suggesting alternatives such as Rip Nas / Vortexbox / Mac Mini etc - While these may be great solutions, as a newbie to this digital lark I was slightly overawed with the sheer amount of options to test and just a little apprehensive with juggling different pieces of hardware and software. (Especially after the sound quality & metadata issue with my previous PC & NAS solution) 

Although the US was more expensive than competitors (considerably more expensive in many cases) after a demo at my dealers I had no doubts about its build, sound quality, and ease of use. The clincher was when I discovered that the US is also StreamNet enabled meaning it could also function as part of NaimNet system (Fitting in to plans for my next house....) My mind was made up!

To SSD or not to SSD?

After all the decisions about what ripping and streaming road to go down I was slightly put out to discover that there were 2 different options of US to choose from! - I opted for the SSD version as I wanted silent operation (the US was to reside in my lounge) and I preferred the recovery options with an external NAS as opposed to the Internal 1TB HDD in the other version of the US. 

Set up was pretty simple - really just a matter of opening the box, plugging the US into the router and switching on the power. Using NAIM Desktop cliet to select my NAS as the music store (where ripped cd data would reside) was straightforward - Within 15mins I was ripping my first CD. The US is a hungry little blighter and I have now managed to feed her around 150 albums - Glad to say I now have no problems on the metadata front c95% of my CDs have been found on the databases without problems (Also the tagging is much more granular than before with details for composers/ musicians / producers etc all now appearing via the NServe app / No issues with album artwork either) - Where a couple of my more obscure titles have not been found it is a simple task using the DTC to edit the info manually and download the album art (albumart.org is a good refernce point).    

Most importantly the sound  is fantastic -  when streaming to my Uniti for the first time I was immediately struck by how the sound was now far cleaner and open vs. my former set up (Not sure whether this is due to the improvements in ripping or streaming). In short, rather than being inferior to CD playback it is now more than a match. (Goodbye CDs!)

There are however a couple of areas where Naim can certainly improve - NServe & NStream Apps! (NAIM - Please check out the suggestions thread and take these comments on Board)

Happy Easter Everyone

What NAS are you using with your US?  And was it difficult to set-up?

Hi Obsessed 1

I bought a Qnap TS-112, which is a single drive unit. I got that one because it is very Mac friendly. I have only had is since Thursday. So far, so good. Prior to that, I had a WD 'My Book Live'. It just did not work! Wouldn't update the software, would just 'hang', would not sleep!! So after three days of hard slog, I sent it back. I have an iMac, so I needed a NAS that was Mac friendly. If I had a windows based machine, perhaps the 'My Book Live' may have worked better, I don't know. I'm sure some Windows users are happy with them. Steve Hopkins from Naim told me to stay clear of them!  Be warned though, if you buy just the NAS enclosure, which 95% are. Make sure that the HDD you buy is on the manufacturers compatibility list.

Cheers

David

PS... Set up was so easy, child's play! And I'm not an IT buff.

Thanks Prubast

Excellent review! 

David 

Hi Prubast

Just downloaded and read the user manual for the US SSD. Can you tell me? Once you have selected the NAS as the music store, does it give you the choice of what folder the ripped CD's go in on the NAS? As I have about six different folders on my NAS. Five of them are pre installed by Qnap and can't be deleted.

David

Hey Dave,

From memory the US created a new folder called NaimSeverStore, so I don't think having extra folders on the NAS should be an issue.

One word of caution though - Once set up, I understand that it is best not to mess with any of the files in the store (e.g. Delete / Add) if not using the Naim DTC or Web Interface. 

Thanks for telling me that.

Thanks

David

You create a Music Store by promoting an existing Network Share, which in turn must be empty before this is done. I do this from the Browser interface.

You can have multiple music stores the Unitiserve rips to the one with the highest priority, which you can vary within DTC or the Web Browser.

Gerry