Audio Aero Prima MKII v/s Unison Research Unico

I owned both the Audio Aero Prima MKI amp and the Unison Unico. The Audio Aero is dynamic, detailed with a good soundstage. I assume the MK II would be even better.

The Unico on the other hand was the worst sounding amp I heard to date - veiled, lifeless and boring. Of course, I did try tube rolling and if you like it even more boring and lifeless I guess you try some different tubes.

Not much of a questions in my opinion. The same is also true for their CD players. The Prima CDP is much better than the Unico, although the Unico CDP was not quite as boring as the amp.

Just to give a little more background on my negative experience with the Unison Unico:

Source:
Unison Unico CDP
Rega Planet
Michell Tecnodec TT, Trichord Dino phono

Amp
Unison Unico
(also Linn Wakonda/LK140, Jolida 302b, Audio Aero Prima)

Speakers
Spendor S3/5
Mission 751

It is certainly not like I tried only a few components over the 2-3 months that I owned the Unico. In fact, I wanted to like the amp (nice finish and a remote), but could not get it to sound good using any of the above combinations. I tried a couple of different tubes (the Jan it came with, Mullard, and RCA Cleartop and some others I can't remember). Neither of these helped to improve things much. Also, the previous owner of the Unico had the same Spendors and similar experiences. It is possible that with the right speakers the Unison Unico amp and CDP might be better.

Also, I did here the Unico combo in their showroom at HE in NYC. I don't remember which speakers they did use, but I was not overwhelmed with the sound at HE either. Finally I did see other comments that described the Unico as veiled and lifeless, so it does not seem to be a singular experience.

In any case, I would always try to listen to a component in ones own system. As Arni mentioned, system syergy does play some role.

Good luck!