NAIM Uniti Core

Mike

Mike

Audioshark
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I picked one of these last week (along with the NAIM Uniti Nova integrated amp). AudioQuest makes special speaker cables for NAIM amps. I’m waiting on my pair of 5m AudioQuest NAIM speaker cables for the Nova. In the meantime, I got the Uniti Core up and running today. I put a 12TB Western Digital Gold Spec drive in it. The drive formats and leaves you with about 11TB of usable space.

The UnitiCore is a CD ripper/storage device that can be used to connect directly to a DAC or on your network. I connected by Ethernet on the network in the store. The NAIM app is quite versatile and lets you have a lot of control. It prompts you for ripping to WAV or FLAC. I chose WAV (just like I have DBPowerAmp Configured) and began ripping a few CD’s.

I then got to work comparing the CD rip (WAV) on the UnitiCore to the CD rip on the NAS (WAV). I will say that I was surprised that the UnitiCore sounded better. It had a quieter background and notes had more decay with a fuller sound. It’s still early, but it is noticeable.

I’m very impressed with this little device. The software does allow you to backup your library to an external NAS as well. I have configured Roon to see the Naim UnitiCore. This was a bit of a pain in the ass, but it’s done. Here is the setting if anyone is trying something similar:

Find the IP address of your UnitiCore (you do this from the admin of your router which shows all connected devices.

Rename the UnitiCore (in the Naim app) to something like “UnitiCore”. The default is something like Naim Uniti Core 441138 (with spaces).

Then in Roon, go to storage and add a network device. Type in the IP and /music.

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Are you still using the Uniti Core Mike? Do you still like it? I’m thinking about getting one since the Lumin L1 I have tops out at 5TB. The biggest 2.5” HDD available right now
 
Projectman said:
Are you still using the Uniti Core Mike? Do you still like it? I’m thinking about getting one since the Lumin L1 I have tops out at 5TB. The biggest 2.5” HDD available right now
Click to expand...

Yes. It’s great for ripping CD’s and storage. Downside is no redundancy/backup like a NAS. The app is good, not great.


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I own a BlueSound Vault 2. For ripping, it is very convenient. However, I strongly recommend using an external DAC. Also, as a streamer, while okay, it falls short in comparison to the Roon Nucleus and the Lumin T2 — both which, I admit, are far more costly devices. I have resorted to using it only for storage of my CD content not otherwise available from Tidal. I assume the Naim UnitiCore is much better.
 
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I owned the predecessor - Naim's UnitiServe for quite a while, before selling it off in favor of a $300 QNAP nas.

On the Naim forums there has been much discussion over the years as to whether Naim's claims that their rippers provide better rips pans out. (I don't think that Naim claim this any longer.) Bit-by-bit comparisons showed that the Naim rips are identical to bit-perfect rips from other rippers. The files are identical.

The default for the Naim rippers is to rip to wav, and it creates its own database of metadata in xml files that are incompatible with other servers. So if one ever wants to migrate from a Naim ripper, one is out of luck vis a vis metadata. The UnitiServe did have a function to convert its wav rips to flac, and embed rudimentary metadata, but I don't think that Naim have done that for the Core.

Backups -- using a Core does not remove the need to back up its data! I hope that the Core owners are backing up to an external drive, a cloud service, etc.

We always found that the QNAP nas running Asset sounded the same as the Naim server.

We moved to Roon about 9 months ago and have been happier with it, as its interface is better, to us, than the Naim app. The Naim app is OK, Roon is much better, imho. In particular, Roon's client is happy to run on my Mac (no such app for Naim), and Roon is happy to be accessed by multiple instances of its app (can use it on the iPhone and the Mac), whereas the Naim servers will only recognize one instance at a time.

So from the above you might infer that while I'm a huge Naim fan, I don't see their ripper/server as fulfilling anything special.

NOTE: I also am unaware of anything special about "speaker cables for Naim."
 
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