Unitiserve question

A Unitiserve will recognise and play music stored on external devices, or the music files can be imported to it's internal hard drive as long as it has the latest 2TB hard drive. Older models are upgradeable at a price. It has no DAC though, you would need a separate DAC or streamer to connect to your preamp.

The UnitiServ (Us) is a bit of a weird product in that it is a CD ripper, music store, server and  local renderer, all in one box.

I love mine and have had it for a number of years now.

It does not have a DAC so you will need either an external DAC (I use DAC V1), streamer  or N272 streamer/pre.

You can connect the US directly to the DAC and hence to the pre/power, which is the way I use it, so everything is on your HiFi rack.

It can access music stored on external sources.

For robustness you will need a NAS (I use a little Synology one) to backup the US HD - this is done automatically and I have mine doing this at 3am on an incremental basis.

You use the NServ app to control the US - I use this on IOS, don't know if there is an android version.

My only concern might be the age of the s/h unit - the US is fundamentally just a PC inside and 8 years is getting a bit long in the tooth for this. I would ensure that the US has the latest software installed (1.7b is the latest I think?) and the latest versions have 2Tb disks also (upgrade available). If buying privately, rather than through a dealer, then caveat emptor

Hope this helps,

Allan.

Here's the item http://www.trademe.co.nz/Brows...g.aspx?id=1197532621 I hope no one see's from NZ as it is an auction.

I don't have a DAC but I did buy one of these to try with my Densen Beat+ but I couldn't hear any difference perhaps not good enough http://www.soundessentials.co.nz/product/595496

Mike Gundry posted:

Here's the item http://www.trademe.co.nz/Brows...g.aspx?id=1197532621 I hope no one see's from NZ as it is an auction.

I don't have a DAC but I did buy one of these to try with my Densen Beat+ but I couldn't hear any difference perhaps not good enough http://www.soundessentials.co.nz/product/595496

Hi Mike, the US is a great unit, convenient and sounds terrific. However, be aware of the hard drive like all hard drives, there is a risk of failure. Ensure you make regular back ups of any new CD's you may rip. We are very lucky in NZ as the Naim distributor in Wellington is able to service much of the equipment himself with a very quick turnaround. I've had my U/S for 3 years and apart from one failed HDD and one stuck CD it has proven to be a solid little performer. Sadly NZ's internet service is sadly lacking and can be frustrating to obtain WIFI on occasions, which of course the Unitiserve requires.

Good luck Mike.

MarkJH posted:

Sadly NZ's internet service is sadly lacking and can be frustrating to obtain WIFI on occasions, which of course the Unitiserve requires.

 

Actually the Unitiserve doesn't use wifi.  It does however need an Internet connection, which comes via an Ethernet cable back to the router, if you are going to do any CD ripping as it gets the metadata from online databases.  There is a very limited internal database (Freedb) , but it's not really something you can rely on.

best

David

So how does one control track selection etc without a Wifi connection? I'd love to know....

Mark

What David means is that you cannot connect the Serve to the network by wifi, as it must use an Ethernet cable. Of course, you control it with the app, which connects to the network wirelessly. 

You can use an app on your smartphone which is connected by wifi back to your router, but your Unitiserve is connected to the router by Ethernet cable. It is the same network so works fine.

if you are using the US into a DAC you use the n-stream app which is available for IOS or Mac or you can also use the Windows Desktop client on a PC. If you are using the US into a Naim streamer then you use the Naim app for IOS or Android instead.

best

David

MarkJH posted:

Mike Gundry posted:

Here's the item http://www.trademe.co.nz/Brows...g.aspx?id=1197532621 I hope no one see's from NZ as it is an auction.

I don't have a DAC but I did buy one of these to try with my Densen Beat+ but I couldn't hear any difference perhaps not good enough http://www.soundessentials.co.nz/product/595496

Hi Mike, the US is a great unit, convenient and sounds terrific. However, be aware of the hard drive like all hard drives, there is a risk of failure. Ensure you make regular back ups of any new CD's you may rip. We are very lucky in NZ as the Naim distributor in Wellington is able to service much of the equipment himself with a very quick turnaround. I've had my U/S for 3 years and apart from one failed HDD and one stuck CD it has proven to be a solid little performer. Sadly NZ's internet service is sadly lacking and can be frustrating to obtain WIFI on occasions, which of course the Unitiserve requires.

Good luck Mike.

I am based in NZ and have no issues at all.  Surely if there is a problem with WiFI this is an issue with your local WiFi network and has little to do with NZ's internet service?

Mike Gundry posted:

Here's the item http://www.trademe.co.nz/Brows...g.aspx?id=1197532621 I hope no one see's from NZ as it is an auction.

I don't have a DAC but I did buy one of these to try with my Densen Beat+ but I couldn't hear any difference perhaps not good enough http://www.soundessentials.co.nz/product/595496

Hi Mike

Yes I saw this auction.  This is a UnitiServe SSD, so will need an external NAS or similar to store your music on. When the seller first listed it he was asking a lot more (I think around $2.5K).  It's worth pointing out that, while the RRP he mentions for a current UnitiServe is correct, I have seen the price list for the new Uniti products and IIRC the new UnitiCore without an internal hard drive is considerably less (around the $3k mark).  So that is something to bear in mind.

Too expensive and very old. I think the SSD option is added at a later date, and you need a nas. There are a few other server options i would look at, if you need a server, e.g. Bluesound volt.

I think everything has been covered but I would add just one comment.

I have been the owner of a UnitiServe (HDD version) for several years and I have generally been pleased with it. Although it is simple to use and has a superb ripping engine, it has broken down on me twice and had to be returned to HQ for repair. If you do a search on here you will find plenty of other US owners who have had similar problems. Although the Naim back up service is superb, many will agree with me that the US is not the most reliable Naim black box.

For this reason I would not consider buying an eight year old US, after all it is essentially a computer and we all know they have a finite life, or do at least start to become problematic. The US is a great piece of kit though and if it were me I would wait for it's replacement, the Uniti Core to be released. It is likely to be more robust as Naim would not release a replacement that is as flakey as the US.

Update I decided against the 2nd hand Unitiserve that I was contemplating on getting.
I instead bought this Antipodes Audio Gen1 DV2 4TB Music Server which is a 2013 model which should suit my needs t is made here in New Zealand and has got good backup here.
I also bought the NAD D 1050 USB DAC which also fitted my budget so just playing with the new set up its just a question of load a CD and it rips automatically and tags the album via Ethernet connection.
Sounds pretty good so far! The guy left all his music on the player as there seems more than enough storage with 4TB hdd!