Ongoing issues with Uniti Atom

Posted by: dfeldman on 09 January 2019

I bought a Uniti Atom about a year ago. When it’s working I love it, but it’s been plagued by an ongoing series of sporadic issues:

  1. Input button on the remote stops working sometimes, and I have to restart the Atom or fiddle with the buttons on the front to get it working again.
  2. Volume changes from the Spotify app on my devices cause the volume to jump sometimes. In one case it jumped from 30ish to 80ish and scared the hell out of me.
  3. Sometimes it takes several tries to get Spotify Connect to connect. Same with AirPlay or Chromecast.
  4. One or both speakers cut out and I have to restart the Atom. (Hasn’t happened recently though.)

This is all immensely frustrating for me: I bought the Atom as an upgrade from far less expensive surround receivers from Marantz and NAD, and the primary reasons were longevity and reliability. With longevity it’s too soon to tell, but it’s been far less reliable than the others in its first year.

I’ve already contacted Naim support several times, and the response in aggregate has been, “Hmm, that’s not supposed to happen; can you collect some more data?” which doesn’t help much with intermittent issues. I took it into my local HiFi shop; they sent it back to Naim, who ran some tests and said everything’s fine; within a week, the input button was having issues again.

I guess my first question is, do others have this experience with their Atoms? Any recommendations?

 

Posted on: 09 January 2019 by Alley Cat

Hmm, that does sound frustrating.

1 - sounds almost like a problem with the remote - how often does it happen, if frequently can you borrow your dealer's remote to see if that still causes issues while they try yours?

2 - Other apps setting high volume is a nuisance with many things - for example my Qobuz app often connects to my Nova when I don't want it to and as you say volume can be quite high (perhaps just the material being played differs from before, but jarring).  Don't use Spotify, but guest users have caused tracks to play on people's devices out of the blue in the past, not sure if there are any settings to mitigate auto connectivity in Spotify app?  I think a software change would be needed say to limit volume to a certain level on change of input/source - should be feasible though as a feature request.  Alternatively in the Naim app in Settings why not change the maximum volume to 50% or less (default is 85%) - we are told this will not affect sound quality - you may find general listening required you to turn the volume up, even to 100%, but sudden changes from Spotify may be contained even if the Nova gets pushed to 100% on the display.

3 - Anecdotally I think people have less connection issues with iOS vs Android devices.  It would be fair to say that connectivity issues are often due to the home network however good we think ours is, but I have to say I don't often have problems connecting.

4 - Annoying - do check your speaker cables - I once had an Av amp which kept cutting out - discovered a loose connection shorting on my centre speaker cable - probably won't be this but worth checking all the same.

 

Good luck.

 

Posted on: 09 January 2019 by SimonPeterArnold

I have the same issue with the input button, it's bloody infuriating. Its not the remote either as the app wont change it either nor will selecting the input on front panel by remote. Only a power cycle will bring it back. Shoddy firmware if you ask me. Spotify volume is a little temperamental with volume. Not sure if this is the app or Naims implementation.