Do you remember Uniti Serve ?

Posted by: Bluelake on 05 January 2019

"I had the same problem, hard drive clicking...

It's the older 1 TB model and that's the third time it fails. The first time it refused to eject a CD, 2nd time it refused tu rip CDs and now this, whith the difference that the guarantee is over.

Now I got the message from my seller....it will cost 2'100.- euros to repair and updated it to the 2 TB version....this includes 300.- euros to recover the data and 600.- euros copyright tax for the hard dive….

After reading the so many problems people have with this machine, it makes me feel that the US is just a cheap unreliable pc in disguise….

Good luck with yours...."

 

This was my post from 3 years ago in a now closed discussion. I paid to have the us repaired and updated, thinking that the problems of the original model would be gone.

Now it has started to blink and dosn't work anymore. Powering it off and on doesn't solve the problem, even left it off for one week. As I just hear a noise on start up and then nothing, I guess the hard drive is dead again. Just a couple of months after the warranty of this changed part is over !

So this time it will be goodbye uniti serve and no, I won't buy a uniti core. I'm probably going the innuos route…

Sorry, I know I'm posting this by frustration.

Posted on: 05 January 2019 by garyi

It is frustrating and you should learn from it. In terms of serving data get a nas or a PC, they are constantly upgraded in terms of software, they are configurable by the home user and they are cheap.

DACs is where hifi companies should be concentrating.

Posted on: 05 January 2019 by Bart

3 years for a hard drive isn't all that unreasonable.  But in my opinion moving to a nas (Synology, QNAP) is the best value for money, or better yet if you like it Roon.  Or both (music stored on a nas and Roon run from a NUC).  I dont know what ANY fancy nas box (Innuos) offers above a decent nas running Asset or Minim.  Others hear the value apparently.

Posted on: 05 January 2019 by Adam Zielinski

It may also be stuck in BIOS during the startup process. Irrespective - it’s a dealer’s fix - nothing you can do on your own (unfortunately).

Posted on: 05 January 2019 by Bluelake

Thanks for the replies.

I have a Synology NAS (which my music is backed up to) and yes I will try roon. I will feed my DAC from my laptop through usb and see how it sounds before buying anything new. However I don’t want to have to power up and connect my laptop every time I want to hear music. So I need a device to host roon and stream from the NAS to my DAC. Is this what you call a NUC ?

And I will bring the US to the dealer anyway to get a quote for repairs.

Posted on: 06 January 2019 by nigelb
Adam Zielinski posted:

It may also be stuck in BIOS during the startup process. Irrespective - it’s a dealer’s fix - nothing you can do on your own (unfortunately).

BTW Adam, is the Dead UnitiServe Society still in existence? I believe I am Chairman, or was it Treasurer as I have spent so much on US fixes!

Having said that, after the third visit to Naim a few years ago, thankfully.......no, I am not going to tempt fate.

Anyway I got myself a Synology NAS about 12 months ago, primarily for back-up purposes, but now use it for serving all my music (flac files) and just use the US for ripping, and new rips are updated to the Synology overnight.

This works for me.

Posted on: 06 January 2019 by Adam Zielinski
nigelb posted:
Adam Zielinski posted:

It may also be stuck in BIOS during the startup process. Irrespective - it’s a dealer’s fix - nothing you can do on your own (unfortunately).

BTW Adam, is the Dead UnitiServe Society still in existence? I believe I am Chairman, or was it Treasurer as I have spent so much on US fixes!

Having said that, after the third visit to Naim a few years ago, thankfully.......no, I am not going to tempt fate.

Anyway I got myself a Synology NAS about 12 months ago, primarily for back-up purposes, but now use it for serving all my music (flac files) and just use the US for ripping, and new rips are updated to the Synology overnight.

This works for me.

Dead UnitiServe Society is still very much in existence.
It’s been quiet, but looks like the beast is awake again. And it needs to be slayed...

I think I made you a Chief Scribe, in honour of your literally skills (without sucking up - I do like your effortless command of the written language). Every society needs a Chief Scribe to transcribe its adventures. After all - it is that was written down counts, not what actually happened.

I also use my US as a ripping and serving tool (it’s an SSD version). All ‘precious’ data resides on a dual-bay QNAP NAS (with 2 x 4TB drives). All data is also copied on 3 external drives. 2 of those backups are kept in an anti-magnetic and fire-proof enclosure (one can never have too much paranoia in one’s life ).

If the UnitiServe dies, I will just replace it with the Core.

 

Posted on: 06 January 2019 by nigelb
Adam Zielinski posted:
nigelb posted:
Adam Zielinski posted:

It may also be stuck in BIOS during the startup process. Irrespective - it’s a dealer’s fix - nothing you can do on your own (unfortunately).

BTW Adam, is the Dead UnitiServe Society still in existence? I believe I am Chairman, or was it Treasurer as I have spent so much on US fixes!

Having said that, after the third visit to Naim a few years ago, thankfully.......no, I am not going to tempt fate.

Anyway I got myself a Synology NAS about 12 months ago, primarily for back-up purposes, but now use it for serving all my music (flac files) and just use the US for ripping, and new rips are updated to the Synology overnight.

This works for me.

Dead UnitiServe Society is still very much in existence.
It’s been quiet, but looks like the beast is awake again. And it needs to be slayed...

I think I made you a Chief Scribe, in honour of your literally skills (without sucking up - I do like your effortless command of the written language). Every society needs a Chief Scribe to transcribe its adventures. After all - it is that was written down counts, not what actually happened.

I also use my US as a ripping and serving tool (it’s an SSD version). All ‘precious’ data resides on a dual-bay QNAP NAS (with 2 x 4TB drives). All data is also copied on 3 external drives. 2 of those backups are kept in an anti-magnetic and fire-proof enclosure (one can never have too much paranoia in one’s life ).

If the UnitiServe dies, I will just replace it with the Core.

 

Thanks for your kind words, and I must say for a non-native English speaker, your written word is superb. I will carry on my duties as Chief Scribe with pride.

It seems Naim have learnt a lot from their adventure into the world of computers with the UnitiServe, and, if I believe what my dealer tells me, they have nailed the US issues. I doubt very much they would have launched the Core unless they were confident that the US reliability issues had been fixed. So hopefully neither your, nor my services will be required going forward with the Core.

N

Posted on: 06 January 2019 by Adam Zielinski

To parahrase JRR Tolkien - let’s hope that the Fourth Age trully begins with the Core

Posted on: 07 January 2019 by Bart
Bluelake posted:

 

So I need a device to host roon and stream from the NAS to my DAC. Is this what you call a NUC ?

 

I use the NUC that Roon markets themselves - the Roon ROCK.  Another fine option is the Sonic Transporter from the Small Green Computer Co.  Both are quite similar hardware-wise; small and fanless and plug-and-play easy.  And I have my music stored on a nas.

Posted on: 07 January 2019 by Bluelake

Thanks for the information, I think I understand now how roon works. I downloaded the trial version and was blown awav by the possibilities…but….

In my research I also trialed Audirvana ….although I'm traveling and using just a dragonfly DAC with an average pair of cans, I hear that the sound of Audirvana is better !

And that bothers me as the functionality is nowhere close to that of ronn. I tried the possibilities of the roon dsp with upsampling (only pcm) but the sound is always better in Audirvana even without any upsampling….