New owner of a Unity Core

Posted by: Thorsten_L on 16 April 2018

Hi @all!

I received my new Unity Core this Saturday and gave away my HDX (2 TB) in payment.
I had my HDX connected to the NAIM DAC. The dealer told me that I will be blown away by how awesome the Core will sound through the NAIM DAC.

And yes. The Core sounds absolutely fabulous...right out of the box. Incredible presentation of the music...it is as if I can "look" into the music. Stunning.

I fitted the Core with a Seagate Iron Wolf 8 TB harddisk and started to migrate my music onto it. Everything perfect so far, several hundred GBs in... :-D

Since the Core is right in our living room, it is not very comfortable to hear the constant "work" of the Seagate within the Core.

I then found out this advice within the nice NAIM support "tool" for the Core:

"Deep Sleep — To put the Uniti Core in to Deep Sleep Mode, press and hold the Power button for 3 seconds."

This is for us the perfect solution, since our prefered audio replay is vinyl and we stream music maybe once a day...or even not everyday...

So, my question would be if it is "harmful" for either the Core or the harddisk to wake them up maybe once a day (or even every other day) and put them into Deep Sleep mode again for some time (maybe 1-2-3 days). Will this Deep Sleep mode cause any damage if performed like I mentioned above?

Since NAIM gives the Deep Sleep option, I think it should be ok to use the Core like we would prefer.

Any ideas?

Congratulations, NAIM, again. The Core really sounds wonderful (through the NAIM DAC).

Posted on: 16 April 2018 by David Hendon

He told me it was a bigger improvement that a XPS DR for my 272 would be. But even so, there is an XPS DR here, not the SL lead for less than half the money.

best

David

Posted on: 16 April 2018 by Pcd

My Core has a 2TB Seagate Pipeline drive totally silent in use might get a slight noise when ripping.

System left powered up 24/7.

Posted on: 16 April 2018 by No quarter

Thorsten_L posted:
Thank you.
So, the external USB drive is appearing quite quickly in the app, ready to be played?

Yes the external USB drive is always powered by the Core,and everything on it is indexed together with what is on the internal SSD,so I have instant access to ALL my music.I also tried playing the same CD ripped to the SSD,compared to the CD ripped to the external drive,and I could not hear a difference,so it all integrates together and sounds the same as if it were all on the SSD ...IMO.

Posted on: 17 April 2018 by Thorsten_L

No quarter posted:
Thorsten_L posted:
Thank you.
So, the external USB drive is appearing quite quickly in the app, ready to be played?
Yes the external USB drive is always powered by the Core

Sorry if I may seem dumb, but are those external harddrives "able" to be powered on permanently without a separate power supply?

Posted on: 17 April 2018 by David Hendon

He means they are powered on via the USB socket when the Core is on and not in deep sleep.

Anyway when you wake the Core, the USB will be powered on and you will be able to access music via the Naim app without any undue delay (no reindexing required or anything like that).

best

David

Posted on: 17 April 2018 by Thorsten_L

David Hendon posted:
He means they are powered on via the USB socket when the Core is on and not in deep sleep.
Anyway when you wake the Core, the USB will be powered on and you will be able to access music via the Naim app without any undue delay (no reindexing required or anything like that).
best
David

Thank you, David.

But I thought that he has the Core powered on 24/7 (no deep sleep). That would mean the external USB drive would also be on 24/7. Are they built for that?

Sorry.

Posted on: 17 April 2018 by aht

Thorsten_L posted:

I honestly never understood WHY the HDX is so expensive...I bought mine used and in exchange for a ND5XS.

Well, the HDX has functions not found on the Core. There is the display screen with touch capability, and the analogue output section. In my experience, the digital output on the HDX is excellent, not so much the analogue, so like you I use my HDX with an external nDAC. HiFi Critic had some reservations about SQ of the Core, but I too will eventually move on from my HDX.

Posted on: 17 April 2018 by David Hendon

Thorsten_L posted:
David Hendon posted:
He means they are powered on via the USB socket when the Core is on and not in deep sleep.
Anyway when you wake the Core, the USB will be powered on and you will be able to access music via the Naim app without any undue delay (no reindexing required or anything like that).
best
David
Thank you, David.
But I thought that he has the Core powered on 24/7 (no deep sleep). That would mean the external USB drive would also be on 24/7. Are they built for that?
Sorry.

I think with a USB HD, although it would be powered constantly it wouldn't spin constantly. To have the internal disc spin all the time is a Naim design decision.

best

David