Unitiqute vs Unitiqute 2

You have allready hear both of them?

Seems like he means to refer to Uniti and Unti2, not the Qute.

This could be

Guys, the Qute2 was being shipped for some time before it was officially announced. I picked mine up from Naim on 7th April. Paul Stephenson told me this was done to avoid customers having just bought  a 1, and it suddenly being superceeded. Whilst I haven't done a direct comparison, iI could not be happier, it epitomises the term "value for money". A truly fantastic little box, that has got me asking myself, if I really need more than what it offers. Fairly safe buy as well, that should you want to move it on, will not loose a lot of money. Tonight I disconnected it from the NAP100, and I think I prefer it on its own, seems more musical.

I wish you luck, should you get one.

I doubt the Qute2 is even available yet in the U.S. New products take longer to get here.

Any comments on the "sonic" differences (beyond the technical improvements)?

Unitiqute2 can be upgraded to have DAB+ when the new firmware is released. Depends what country you are in whether that matters. in Australia it does because DAB+ is the only format. 

Hi all, I have been a UnitiQute owner for two years, and have been very satisfied with it other than 2 complaints - the RS232 port and the streamer board. The RS232 port on the UQ1 is cumbersome for firmware updates and can result in faults if there is an error during update. My UQ1 had undergone two streamer board replacements during this time due to faults that could not be resolved.

The second time this happened, I resolved to get a UQ2 while the UQ1 was sent to the dealer for troubleshooting. I have had the UQ2 for about 3weeks now and the UQ1 has also been repaired.

Initial impressions of the UQ2 - it looks and sounds well...just like a UQ. Externally, both units look identical. The major difference is the mini USB port in place of the RS232. The display and illuminated logo look a tad bit brighter and slightly deeper green on the UQ2 than the UQ1. The rear nameplate on my UQ2 reads "UnitiQute" same as the UQ1.

I did a comparison of UQ1 & UQ2 on my system using the same setup and streaming from my NAS. Both sound very similar if not perfectly identical. The only difference it would seem is the UQ2 sounds a bit more refined (at least to my ears or maybe I am biased towards the new toy!). This could be due to the Burr-Brown DAC on the UQ2 (was it Wolfson DAC on the UQ1?). But honestly it was not a quantum leap. If I could quantify and put a number to it, I would say less than 5% difference. This is not a bad thing as the UQ1 does already sound great.

In short, to those considering a new purchase getting a UQ2 is a no-brainer. If you are really tight on budget and do not need 32bit/192kHz capability then a used UQ1 at a good price would make sense.

BTW I did home audition a Unitilite as well before deciding on the UQ2. Personally, I was not too impressed with the UL. Not that it sounded bad...far from it. I just preferred the warmer more balanced sound of the UQ. I think it is one of the best products in the Naim stable.

^Nice to know- thanks.

I would say 5% increase in fidelity is a big number (=great)! It is interesting that your name plate does not say unitiQute2 - what is the explanation?

I was handed my UnitiQute2 by Paul Stephenson before Naim had officially launched it. He told me that the Qute2 had been in production for a while before being launched to avoid people having the old unit, if purchased shortly before launch of Qute2. There were a number that were made (including mine) without being labelled Uniti-Qute2. 

Regards

Justin

No explanation given by Naim when I checked with them, but they did confirm my unit is a Qute2.