Firmware 4.1 and old streamer devices and hardware upgrade

Posted by: gert on 16 December 2014

Hello,

as I own an uniti 1 I had to upgrade it to be able to install the new firmware 4.1. Now I wonder

a) if spotify support is the only new feature in the firmware? Or are there other features, bugfixes or improvements, too?

b) will future updates (that might include new features, bugfixes or improvements) be published for uniti 1 again or is this the end of update support for this device?

c) What are the advantages of the hardware upgrade (and how much € is it?).

Spotify Support
not only 96/24 but also 192/24 support (I have problems in hearing a difference between 96/24 and 44.1/24, so I think this is not very interesting for me).
Are there other advantages? I e.g. can hear a difference in playing the same track as flac or wav. I guess this is because the hardware has to do more work in decompressing the flac file? Does the hardware upgrade sound more relaxed or somehow better with 44.1/24 files?

Posted on: 16 December 2014 by hungryhalibut

Internet radio works better, upnp discovery is better and it's all a bit more solid and reliable. I have to say that I can easily hear the improvement of 96/24 over 44/16, but the improvement for going from 96 to 192 is a lot harder to detect. I'd find out how much the upgrade board would cost in order to inform your decision.

Posted on: 16 December 2014 by gert

The information I found in the web say that the upgrade will be about 500€.

But I am not sure if I understand the naim news correct. Is 4.1 installable on uniti 1 or not?

Posted on: 16 December 2014 by hungryhalibut

The news article says that everyone can benefit, but only the 192k versions will get the Spotify connect. I agree with you - it could be clearer. I'd try doing the upgrade - if your Uniti is incompatible the streamer updater should prevent you from doing the upgrade.

Posted on: 18 December 2014 by Phil Harris

Hi,

We did try to be very clear on the wording for the Updater however the 4.1 Update is applicable to *ALL* of our streaming devices that currently have 3.00.00 software or later on them.

Earlier units still running v1 or v2 software would need to be updated by us or by the distributor (outside the UK) to latest software.

4.1 does not support the use of the n-Link connector and 24/96 units cannot provide Spotify Connect functionality/

Cheers

Phil

Posted on: 18 December 2014 by Steve w

Phil...can you please explain why the early Uniti cannot utilise Spotify?

Posted on: 18 December 2014 by trickydickie

I believe that the older streamer boards don't have enough memory to accommodate the extra functionality.

It would be nice if Naim could do some kind of promotion to encourage the upgrade of the board. Long term it makes sense to get more people on a common standard and then they could park the old board as legacy, and freeze updates which would make supporting and developing the product easier moving forward.

The other thing that would be helpful is if Naim could publish a roadmap of any other services (if any) that are planned to be added, this could add some traction to board upgrades.

Richard

Posted on: 18 December 2014 by Phil Harris

Originally Posted by Steve w:

Phil...can you please explain why the early Uniti cannot utilise Spotify?

Yes ... the original 24/96 digital boards are not able to support the Spotify Connect code.

Phil

Posted on: 18 December 2014 by Nick Lees

I think the road map idea is very good in theory. I can see the upside - in a growing market not being able to offer as many sources as possible could be a problem.

But the downside could be source volatility (e.g. planning to have Qobuz capability by February for them to go out of business in January) and the road map being a hostage to fortune....for no matter how many hedges Naim put around the delivery schedule it would always be used as a stick against them if they failed, for whatever reason, to deliver (but I only bought the Statement streamer because you promised I'd have Qobuz by February!).