2. amps-preamps
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Thoughts on the Unico

Ok, to those of you who own the Unison Research Unico or who have heard it, please give me your thoughts. I have other threads going that tell of matching problems i'm having (NHT 2.5i's).

what are the amp's characteristics? Is it a VERY laid back, SOMEWHAT laid back, or more of an UP FRONT sounding amp?

How does this Unico compare to the likes of Creek 5350se, Cyrus integrated, Primare i20 or A30, Classe CAP101 or CAP151, Naim Nait 5, Musical Fidelity A3.2 or even the Moon I5? I can get any of these in my area.

I prefer a crisp, detailed sound that is somewhat punchy (not overly so) and at the same time i enjoy depth and dimentionality (i understood the Unico was a good combination of all of these characteristics...does anyone know any better?)

I'm just not sure if i should lose the Amp OR the NHT's or BOTH!!

I think I should look into picking up smaller monitors for my room, b/c first and foremost, my speakers are too large for the room.

But any thoughts on my integrated would be greatly appreciated.

thanks guys.

You've all been very helpful thus far.

Steve
loose
iancujianu5bdb
1 posts
 
Hi,
I do not know about NHT but I can tell you about the Unico integrated. I have auditioned the Unico and plenty of other including those mentioned by you and i have found it to sound very flat , I did not like it. Acording to your description of sound that you would like to have i would recomend Primare A30.1 . Creek is OK , a litle tin in medium range and harder to partner. Musical fidelity sounds to industrial in my opinion. I think that Primare will be a good choice if you can aford it , it works well with many systems. I will tell you more if you need but right now i have to go , you can email me at iancujianu@hotmail.com
lohkkw51e5
13 posts
 
Good thing about the Unico is that you can change the tubes to get the sound you want. You'll be surprised (I was) how much impact the 2 little tubes in the preamp stage have on the sound.

I've tried many amps in the price range, most at home with the same front end and speakers. I liked the Unico best of all.

Creek 5350se - Too thin sounding, slightly unrefined
Cyrus integrated - detailed and punchy (what you like) but a bit thin sounding like the Creek
Primare A30.1 - powerful, full and warm sounding, but in my system had very obvious sibilance, which is rather unusual for a warm sounding amp
Naim Nait 5 - fast and exciting (typical Naim) and more powerful than it's 30 watts suggests, but I would rather have 80 watts that sounds like 80 watts, rather than 30 watts busting it's guts to sound like 80
Musical Fidelity A3.2 - didn't like it. Good detail and punch, but also hard and edgy
Plinius 8100 - this was detailed, punchy and musical. Only downside was the noise (loud hiss) but worth checking out in case my test unit was faulty. I would consider this second best to the Unico.
karabiyikoglu
8 posts
 
unico is a wonderful amp. if one is sounding bad, it must be due to the other components. changing tubes and cables you can get anything you want out of unico. the last upgrade i had was an elco sgi-999 interconnect. you can't imagine the improvement in bass. i am using jean marie reynaud twin mkII's with it. a bargain! but they don't sound so good with bargain cables. i am using cables that are more expensive than the speakers and now they do sing.
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