Mbroadus, we sell and display all three Naim Uniti products, the Atom, the Star and the Nova, unless you really need the built in CD player, we would recommend the Nova over the Star. The Nova offers a more dense sound over the Star,and is just magical with many speakers, the Elac Adante/Nova package is very good, the Nova on a pair of Legacy Signatures is an amazing package and one of our favorites for the money. Both the Elac and Legacy packages are more of the bang for your buck pairings. The Nova and the Persona 3F totally killer, as well as the Focal’s the pairing with the Olympia’s should be very good, you should use a cleaner more neutral cable line if the loudspeakers that you have are on the warmer side. The Nova comes a bit closer to the legendary Naim NAC 272/250dr pair that is just super involving. Wireworld is great with the Naim, we use a specially designed impedance matching adapter made by Wirewold to make sure the Nova sees a happy load, the Naim speaker cables are ok at best. As per turntable one of the most exciting tables you can look at is the new incomming Rega P8 the new P8 is based on the $45k Rega Project Niad, a limited edition test bed for Roy Gandy’s design concepts, the word on the street in the UK is the new P8 is just amazing sounding. Hope that helps we are big Naim fans with many of their products on display including the high end NAC 282/300DR/NDX 2 package. All Naim Uniti amplifiers are class A/B the only digital amplifier that Naim has ever used is in the Muso self amplified loudspeakers. The Uniti line was based on the original Naim Nait which is not a digital amp, nor does any Naim product sound like digital . The Naim gear has a unique rythemic sound,PRAT Naim does that so well that very few companies can seem to emmulate. Long story shor the Nova is awesome, and you can enjoy Naim sound via one totally integrated app and then add a $899 Naim Muso for your Kitchen or a Bedroom for whole house sound. You can stream via Airplay, Apt x, Chromecaset which means your entire family can love to listen to the Naim as well. Dave and Troy Audio Doctor NJ |
@audiotroy - Thank you very much for the reply. Regarding speakers, I bought a pair of the Focal Aria 906 a couple weeks ago along with Wireworld Oasis 8 10ft speaker cables at a local dealer. He also introduced me to the Uniti Atom. My current situation is that I have a pretty decent home theater system (Anthem, Golden Ear, SVS & Oppo) and have neglected 2 channel. Now that I’m listening to more 2 channel via FLAC and Apple Music/Tidal, my on wall Golden Ear speakers and Anthem AVR are not conducive to my needs. Because my Golden Ear SuperSat 50 speakers sounded terrible with 2 channel music, I bought a pair of Focal Aria 906 bookshelves a couple weeks ago but have to use Zone 2 outputs on the Anthem MRX-720 to play music and there’s no bass management. When I was at my local dealer to buy the Focal speakers, I heard the Uniti Atom with Focals and it sounded amazing. With my current setup, I would need to add an integrated amp and run 2 channel through it. If I bought the one of Uniti boxes, I could have a separate 2 channel setup that could be moved anywhere and/or add the mu-so QB cubes around the house. I chose the Star because I read how much better it sounds than the Atom and has the ability to add a sub and turntable but I do not need the cd ripper since I have everything on FLAC. The nova would be ideal but do not want to pay $7K. One other thing, are you guys able to get the Naim 5 pin DIN to RCA cable (pic below)? I believe it’s used to attach a turntable to free the rca for a sub or other input. I plan on adding a Clearaudio Concept or MoFi Ultadeck turntable and upgrade my speakers to Dynaudio Super 40s or Concept 20s. Also looking at the Linn Selekt DSM with integrated amp - https://www.linn.co.uk/sources/network-music-players/selekt#selekt-dsm-with-integrated-power-amp |
I have an Atom with Phono via Basis 1400, REGA OEM 300 arm w BSSIS silver wire, Lyra Delos, HRS base. into a NOVA II phono pre. I use Kinber speaker wire out of the class A/B NAIM into Vandersteen Treo CT.......sounds great ! while the Treo is designed to be an easy load, the NAIM is fairly gutsy amp. Best $3 K because my wife loves using it to stream Tidal and access our 3 K ripped Cd collection on the NAS. the amp is A/B but the front end / volume control has some digital elements - NAIM has been and continues to be a bit cagey about this on the forum and FB page. me ? I think it sounds great for a mostly all in one box... |
Tomic all Uniti products are class A/B when they talk about the Uniti series being based on the Naim Nait it is very clear they are based on traditional Naim circuitry only non class A/B design is the Naim Muso products which are Class D as they have to shoehorn mutlitple amplifiers into a box with a loudspeaker. The volume control is pure analog with an optical encoder as the only digital part of the preamp, many people use optical encoders with all analog circuitry. If you are looking for a product with a built in phono stage to save money and complexity, and that is also very good sounding and adds in roon correction you may also want to add the Micromega M100 and M150 on your list. The Micromega is better than the Nova in certain areas and has more overall power, the room correction is awesome and the sound is very warm and punchy, both the Micromega and the Naim products are two of our favorite lines. Also Micromega is shown to work well with Focal and both are imported by Audio Plus Services so they are shown together. Dave and Troy Audio Doctor NJ |
@mbroadus You will be much more satisfied with the Nova than the Star or the Atom. The Nova is overall better sounding unit than the other two but costs more than the other two. The Nova currently retails for $7500, it was $7k but it’s gone up to $7500 now brand new unless you could find a used one somewhere. I have the Nova paired with the Sonus Faber Olympica 1 bookshelf speakers (standmount speakers) in my bedroom setup. I was using the B&W 805 D3 standmount (bookshelf) speakers before and now changed to the SB Olympica 1 standmount speakers. I do not have anything else in this bedroom setup, trying to keep it simple and low key since it’s only for my bedroom. For or my master bedroom setup (large and much bigger bedroom) I do have the Linn Klimax DS with the latest Katalyst DAC architecture, which is the latest gen, paired with the Dan D’Agostino Momentum stereo analog integrated amp driving the Wilson Audio Duette series 2 standmount speakers. In this same setup I also have a Linn LP12 Klimax version turntable package which includes the Linn Kandid mc cartridge, Linn Ekos SE titanium tonearm, Linn Urika phonostage, Linn Radikal PSU for the Urika phonostage and the turntable. Well.....this master bedroom setup is on another league of sonic quality and performance in comparison to my simple smaller regular bedroom setup with the Naim Uniti Nova & the SB Olympica 1 but they cost way way more than the Nova/SB Olympica 1 setup. The Linn Klimax DS (Katalyst DAC architecture) alone is around $30k and this is only a digital streamer/DAC source component, and the D’Agostino Momentum analog integrated amp is $45k and the Wilson Duette series 2 standmount speakers are $22k/pair. So not a fair comparison at all. But the Naim Uniti Nova is excellent for what it is and for the money. It is a perfect all-in-one box solution, very musical sounding unit for what it is. PS : @mbroadus, in my earlier post from few days ago I said that I have the Sonus Faber Olympica 3 standmount (bookshelf) speakers, but what I was trying to say was the Olympica 1 standmount (bookshelf) speakers, not the Olympica 3, which is floorstanders. Sorry about the mistake. I would never use floorstanders in a bedroom setup. |
@audiotroy yes I stated the Atom is A/B NAIM is cagey about the overall architecture... there is clearly an A2D in the box and a DAC, where they are cagey is IF analog input REMAINS analog all the way to speaker. Many have asked and NAIM remain cagey....perhaps you could elicit a written response. NAIM forum and NAIM FB group both asking... Since you brought it up, the Optical encoder or some other volume control component has a physical mechanical rub - the note back from NAIM techinal support says “ the rub is intentional “ That strangely crude rub, the cheesy speaker wire terminations, and the sometimes balking application are my only beefs. I assume when you later refer to “you” you must mean the larger Audiogon communty of “you”. I have no need for something else, in fact I may drop down in powerfor grins...say a Music Reference RM-10 |
@tomic601 - thanks...I have already made a spreadsheet of Naim Audio Uniti Series that details inputs/outputs specs. Nova is the only device that has 2 RCA inputs unless you use the RCA to 5 pin DIN input and there are 2 on the Nova. @audiotroy - I have all my disks ripped to FLAC on an external HDD that I currently play through the oppo 205. Honestly, I’m not real happy with the sound quality of the oppo 205. |
mbroadus we are a dealer for Anthem, Naim, Micromega, and many other brands, if you have any specifi questions on any of these products please feel free to give us a call. Dave and Troy Audio Doctor NJ and yes the Micromega is awesome especially with the Focals, the class A/B amplifier is warm and the bass and dynamics are shocking. One of our absolute favorite products. |
@audiotroy - very intrigued by the Micromega but would like to hear in person. Looks as though Focal dealers have access to Micromega so I’ll ask my local dealer if they have any to listen to. I do not like that updates have to be done via USB port in the back of the machine. My biggest concern is speaker pairings because I do not plan on keeping my focals more than a year or two depending on when I decide to update my home theater. I continuously read that certain speakers only pair best with certain sources which concerns me moving forward since I only bought the focals to use for a short time. |
