Hi,
I have recently acquired a Uniti2 amp. As it is quite old it does NOT have bluetooth. I want to connect a bluetooth unit to the amp (via Aux or Digital port) but wonder if anyone has a recommendation for a unit that will perform well especially as I am using Apple Music Lossless. Thanks for your advice in advance.
Have you considered a WiiM mini streamer connected via Toslink to the Uniti2? It supports Bluetooth, I am fairly sure.
Peter
Welcome to the forum!
I don’t think there are Lossless / HiRes Bluetooth adapters yet, and I don’t think Apple Music can be accessed at full resolution without an external DAC… it’s a limitation of how they’ve built the Music app and the subject of much internet conversation and consternation here and elsewhere.
That said, you can certainly try a Bluetooth streamer such as PeterC suggests. Even without full resolution, lots of stuff sounds pretty great and is especially convenient.
One other (legacy) option you have access to on your Uniti is the iPhone USB connection. Connect with the appropriate cable, Lightning to USB-A, start playing a local track from your iPhone using the Naim app, then launch Apple Music and start playing whatever you want using the iPhone screen as your control point. This was an old hack on first generation Uniti boxes to get Tidal streaming working, back in the days before it was built into the Uniti firmware. It’s no longer available on the new Uniti streamers because Apple deprecated this connection in favour of AirPlay (but the current Apple Music app doesn’t send full res / lossless content out over AirPlay… again causing much confusion and consternation!).
Not as convenient as being “untethered” via Bluetooth or WiFi, but at least you would be getting the full resolution available as the input to your Uniti internal DAC. Plus you can try it right away and start enjoying your tunes.
Might be worth trying this out while you shop for other convenience alternatives. Best wishes!
Hi Alan, Thanks for your recomendations. I willl certainly try them. I have only recently got the unit working so havent had a lot of time to get the app working etc. Another question if you don’t mind. If you connect an iPhone via the front USB port can you play playlists in the normal way. I have tried it once and it seems to want to drive the tracks from the Uniti itself rather than the iPhone implying that it is simply using the iphone as a storage disk. I think the unit maybe on a very old version of software so I will have to upgrade it, so this maybe the cause.
Thanks K
Hi Peter, I haven’t but I will have a look at it. Thanks for the advice.
K
It was an old hack, but yes you can use the iPhone screen to control what is playing (eg from Tidal or, I believe, Apple Music).
The trick is that, as you have noticed, the Naim app wants to use local storage in the iPhone and play from there. So you used to be able to start the iPhone playing, and put the Naim input onto the USB-connected iPhone, by selecting a local track on the iPhone from within the Naim app. Once it’s happily playing, you then turn to the iPhone itself, select whatever app you want, and start playing something else.
As I say, this was a workaround hack to get internet streaming before Spotify Connect (first) or Tidal (second) we’re added to the original generation Uniti firmware (and even if you had an older UQute with the lower bitrate 96kHz streaming board, since only the 192kHz boards got the extra Tidal functionality).
I hope it still works and you have some success. There is a similar topic under discussion in a different thread, and it seems that the original NDS didn’t have this functionality… I know it worked for the Qute and the SuperUniti (I had those) and until yesterday, when we learned about the NDS, I thought it worked for all the Apple Certified Uniti boxes.
Good luck, I’m curious to hear about your results, and any on-screen info about Apple Music bitrate / bit depth that you can see if you do get it going.
Hi Alan, not yet. I already had a logictec bluetooth adapter and fitted that instead. It sounds great! I think that I need to upgrade the software on the unit before going much further. I attach the screen image that I took. It shows I think that I am on 3.21.00 (I presume that the Boot Version is something else?) so I will try to upgrade to v4.8. Do you know if that affects the way that the NAIM unit sees the iPhone? It would be nice to have the iPhone Music app controlling the Amp instead of the other way round. For example I 'd like to Shuffle my fvaourite playlist and have the amp just play it. What do you think?
PP
Hi!
Glad your Bluetooth solution is working great.
Upgrading firmware is always a good idea… just be sure to download and read the step-by-step instructions exactly (including the order of launching programs, making connections, and so on). Almost every issue reported was related to doing something “obviously okay” that was actually in the wrong order! Read twice , then follow the steps exactly as you go through it.
To be honest, I don’t recall that any of the firmware changed the Apple certified behaviour of the USB connection to an iPod or iPhone: it worked well right out of the gate iirc.
As for how things are controlled, once you move from the Naim app (to launch a local song in the iPhone from local storage) over to the Apple Music app (to change what the iPhone is playing and sending out the Lightning connection), all controls for selection are on the Music app. You can still pause via the Naim app, but shuffle, playlist selection, etc., will be within the Music app. Volume will be in the Naim app, not the physical buttons on the iPhone.
You could likely try this out in a few minutes at any time, before or after you upgrade the firmware… just locate your USB-to-Lightning cable and give it a go!
Take care. Best wishes!!
Thanks Alan. I will give it a go!!
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