NaimUniti

Over the last 35 years, the biggest roadblock non-audiophiles have faced when putting high performance HiFi in their home is always the wires and the clutter. With all those boxes and wires comes a certain fear factor and I can’t say I blame them. I live in a small house, and while I have the luxury of a great office/mancave/studio where racks of gigantic amplifiers and cables the size of Boa Constrictors run free, it’s different in my house. No room for a big system there, and honestly after a long day of writing about HiFi, I just want to listen to music. But, I’ve been spoiled by the goodies in my reference system.

One of the biggest mistakes Mercedes Benz made when they introduced the C-Class 25 years ago, was to scrimp on the overall feel, thinking the “entry level” Benz owner might not catch it. In an effort to make the baby Benz available to a less affluent customer, they took away the essence of what drove a customer to Mercedes in the first place.

Naim has not made this mistake in the NaimUniti, in fact they’ve excelled. As a very happy owner of their 30 thousand dollar CD555 CD player, when I push play on the NaimUniti, I feel right at home; it uses the exact same backlit lime green button that the 555 does. Everything else has the same feel of top line Naim kit – first class all the way, but at a price that is not out of reach. The NaimUniti retails for $3,750.

I actually got my first listen of the NaimUniti when I was visiting TomTom Audio in the UK this summer. Shop owner James had just received one of the first units and had it paired with the Guru QM-10 speakers. This remains the most exciting compact system I’ve ever heard for (well) under $10k. Thanks to James, the Guru’s are on the way, so watch for a review before the year’s end.

Enter the NaimUniti

If you have ever dreamed about one box that does it all, the NaimUniti is it and then some. It does everything, and I mean everything. Naim has packed the heart and soul of their famous NAIT5i and CD5i onto one chassis, no cheesy class-D chip amps here. But they have also managed to make the DAC addressable, so that you can connect (and control) your iPod, plug in a music server, stream internet radio and listen to FM radio (or DAB if you are in Europe). USB memory sticks can be plugged into the front panel and there is a great headphone amplifier to boot.
There’s even a powered output for a Naim Stageline phono preamplifier ($475), if you want to spin some vinyl, which of course I did a little bit later. Those of you that are considering a pair of smaller speakers with a subwoofer (which again suits itself to a stylish system that doesn’t take up a lot of space, have nothing to fear, the Uniti has an output for that as well.

No assembly required

Normally, this is the part in one of our reviews where we take a few paragraphs to discuss product setup. However, the NaimUniti has it all in one box, so you only need to plug it in to the wall and plug the speakers in the back and turn it on! I started with a pair of Naim’s NACA5 speaker cable (which runs about $10/foot from your Naim dealer) and the standard AC cord. You could be wacky and buy their $725 Power-Line power cord for a slight improvement in sound, but that’s the extent of what you can do to tweak the setup of a Uniti.

The only other things required are to connect an FM antenna (I picked up a very nice Terk at Best Buy for $35) and attach the enclosed wireless internet antenna. Once you power up the NaimUniti, it’s a snap to go to the setup menu and log onto your wireless network. Should you have a hardwired network, there’s a spot for that as well. Total time from unbox to press play; five minutes if you are really poking along.

Should you choose to get completely in-depth with the NaimUniti, you can trim the volume on every input, so that when you switch from iPod to FM tuner to CD player, all the levels match and you won’t jump out of your chair when switching sources. Again, kudos to Naim for such a comprehensive manual.

Mega functionality

I highly suggest actually reading the NaimUniti manual, because this little box can do so many different things. For those of you not familiar with Naim’s CD players, the NaimUniti uses a curved drawer that pulls out manually. Their logic is that no motorized parts equals nothing to break ten years from now. Just don’t lose the little magnetic puck that holds the CD in place or you will not be able to play CD’s. Fortunately, should you lose it, they are available from your dealer for about $15.

In addition to the CD player, its DAC can be used with USB, RCA SPDIF and TOSLINK connections. I tried them all and while I prefer SPDIF or USB, the TOSLINK worked well when fed files from my MacBook Pro. The bottom line is that you can use any digital format with the Uniti and the USB Type A socket on the front panel is a huge plus. I’ve always thought USB sticks would be a great way to drag a handful of music over to a friend’s house and this is awesome. Just plug your USB drive in, click through the menu and go.

Though I spent a little bit of time geeking out with all the different inputs, just to see if there was anything the NaimUniti couldn’t do, I spent most of my time just kicking back and enjoying music. Once you program a few of your favorite FM and internet radio stations and connect to your iTunes network, the rest is gravy.
There are only two things the NaimUniti can’t do right now. It can’t warm up a burrito and it can’t play high-resolution digital files yet, though ASL Group’s David Dever informed me that there is a forthcoming software update that will be available soon from your Naim dealer. Then the NaimUniti will be fully capable of accessing and playing 24/96 files.

Connect to your Mac!

If you are using iTunes on your Mac computer, you will need the EyeConnect UPnP plug-in from Elgato Software. (www.elgato.com) The recent versions for G5 and Intel based computers have a 30 day download, but if you are only using it as a UPnP server connection, the audio functionality works forever, so don’t pay $50 for the full version.

Once installed, your iTunes library becomes another music source for the NaimUniti and you can play music from your networked computers just as you would with a Squeezebox, Sonos or other music server. Should you have a Naim HDX on your network, the NaimUniti will control that as well.

The sound

While the NaimUniti will most likely be paired up with a more reasonably priced pair of speakers like Naim’s own n-SATs (they also make a matching powered sub, the n-SUB) or perhaps a pair of your favorite British monitors, I went all out for this review.

Focal’s new Scala Utopias arrived the same day as the Uniti, so I paired it up with these $30k floorstanders and the result was brilliant; thanks to their 93db sensitivity, the Uniti drove them to deafening levels without breaking a sweat. It wasn’t as grain free as the $60k worth of Burmester gear sitting in the studio, but it carried itself extremely well, and by using such a revealing pair of speakers, showed just how much Naim DNA was inside the box.

Bass was very deep, tight and controlled and there was more than enough palpability in the mid and upper range as well. Anyone pairing these with speakers in the 2-5 thousand dollar range will be floored at the overall system quality they can achieve. A good part of this performance and synergy comes from the fact that you don’t have to agonize over power cords and interconnects and as a result, can’t muck up the sound. Pretty clever, I say.

It’s safe to say the NaimUniti possesses a substantial helping of the “Naim Sound”, fast and detailed without being harsh. No matter what kind of music you enjoy, you will enjoy it with the NaimUniti. I was very impressed when playing symphonic recordings on the Scalas, how much width and depth I was able to achieve with the Uniti, even in my small living room. Bax’s second symphony never sounded better.
Moving the NaimUniti out to the studio and matching it up with the Harbeth Monitor 40.1’s was another excellent pairing. Though less efficient than the Scalas, there was an overall musicality with the Naim/Harbeth combination that was hard to ignore. I used to run a pair of Compact 7’s with my CD5i / NAIT5i combination with excellent results. As we’ve been in the middle of a lot of speaker reviews this summer, I got the chance to use the NaimUniti with about 30 different pairs of speakers and nothing presented a problem. The NaimUniti should be compatible with almost anything, except maybe a pair of Magnepans that are very power hungry.

Easy Analog

The Naim Stageline is an external phono preamplifier that is self-powered by the NaimUniti and will only set you back another $475. It comes in four versions, MM or three different gain/loading combinations that are pre configured. Your Naim dealer will help you find the proper combination for your turntable. Of course you can add a FlatCap XS for even better performance, but now things are getting complicated again…

The NaimUniti
MSRP: $3,795 (US)
Manufacturers Information:
US Importer
ASL Group
www.audiophilesystems.com
Naim Audio Ltd.

Source: TONEAudio