Naim calls it the “most advanced all-in-one music streaming platform,” combining “seamless digital technology with a rich analogue soul.” The new Uniti family consists of three all-in-one players: the reference Uniti Nova, the multi-functional CD operating Uniti Star and the compact yet powerful Uniti Atom. The Uniti Core industry reference music server completes the range, allowing users to store and stream thousands of albums and back up all of their music in one place. Each player works independently (or together) and users simply need to add speakers to expand the music to any room of the house.
The new Unity range draws on 43 years of Naim Audio heritage and expertise in audio engineering, industrial design and streaming technology. The four units were developed based on a completely new and extremely powerful streaming platform and Uniti wireless sound systems, featuring state-of-the-art dual band Wi-Fi, premium Burr Brown digital-to-analogue processors and Class A/B amplification developed from the brand’s NAIT integrated amplifier. Conceived and built from the ground up by Naim’s engineers in Salisbury, England, the Uniti home sound system uses beautifully engineered brushed aluminium chassis, which also boasts extruded heatsinks for thermal stability and isolation, together with highly-polished full color LCD displays.
Constructed from thermal conductive aluminum that, coupled with the Statement and Mu-so-referenced heat sinks, removes heat for the circuitry, the 5mm thick, brushed aluminum top plate is scratch and dent resistant while also protecting the interior electronics from magnetic influences and unwanted internal and external vibrations that can affect the sound.
As Steve Sells, Naim Audio Electronic Design Director says, “The new Uniti range is the result of years of development, designing and building these systems from the ground up. From the user-interface and apps, to the interior electronics through to the premium materials used, we have meticulously designed the Uniti range to deliver the ultimate audio performance for a one-stop wireless solution.”
Taking design and technology elements from Naim’s award-winning Mu-so wireless speaker system range and flagship Statement amplifier - the same iconic rotary control interface is at the centre of the Uniti range - these new players are simple, plug and play hi-fi systems, with a intuitive user-interface and convenient, automatic online updates.
Designed to easily connect to a home Wi-Fi network and wirelessly stream downloaded music in high-resolution from a PC, Mac, NAS drive or a Uniti Core via UPnP (Universal Plug ’n’ Play), the Unity audio systems allow users to browse and play millions of songs through popular streaming services Spotify Connect and TIDAL. Support for Apple AirPlay allows streaming of music from Apple devices, while Google Cast for Audio plays music directly from compatible devices and control app.
The players also support Bluetooth aptX for high-quality and stable wireless streaming from compatible devices, and the Uniti Star features a CD player (for playback and ripping to a connected storage device) with the all players featuring USB slots for playback of music from MP3 players and USB sticks. All players support WAV (up to 32bits/384kHzFLAC), AIFF (up to 24bit/384kHz, ALAC (Apple Lossless up to 24bit/384kHz), MP3 (up to 48kHz, 320kbit), AAC (up to 48kHz, 320kbit), OGG and WMA (up to 48kHz) and DSD 64 and 128Fs formats. All formats are converted to 48kHz maximum sampling frequency over wireless network.
Whether playing the same song in beat-perfect sync or different music in different rooms, the new Uniti range delivers the ultimate multi-room experience. Users can play music between any combination of Uniti players and Mu-so systems with seamless, intuitive control of all systems coming via one new look dedicated Naim app for iOS and Android.
At the heart of this range is the Uniti Core, a network-storage device allowing fast, bit perfect ripping of CDs, track-level cataloguing for detailed search, storage and wireless distribution, designed to be the central library of a music collection. Users can easily slot in a hard drive or solid-state hard drive too. Maximum capacity is 8TB - enough to hold up to 16,000 CD quality albums.
Combining digital versatility with an analogue heart, the Uniti range features Class A/B amplification. The Uniti Atom’s integrated amp drives 40 watts per channel while the Uniti Star commands 70 watts and the Uniti Nova 80 watts per channel. Both the Uniti Atom and Uniti Star models boast a powerful 40-bit SHARC digital signal processor that removes ‘jitter’ timing errors while all Uniti players include digital filter technology based on components from the company’s Statement amplifier.
The Uniti range can also be a home entertainment hub, boasting digital HDMI inputs for connecting digital sources such as TVs, set-top boxes and games consoles. The Naim Uniti Core will be available in December 2016, priced at $2595; The Naim Uniti Atom will also be available from December 2016, for $2995. The Naim Uniti Star all-in-one system will be available in Spring 2017, for $5595, while the Naim Uniti Nova all-in-one will be available in February 2017, priced at $6995
www.naimaudio.com/product/range/uniti
