I have sort-of inherited a 2011 Naim Uniti from my mother, c/w a new display that I fitted a year ago , & wondered whether it was worth using as the basis of a second system in my study / office. At first glance the UI & features all seem a tad dated, and I am not sure if I am at risk of flogging a dead horse somewhat.
Would I make things better (sound quality & user interaction) by wiring in a HiFiBerry DAC2 Pro c/w Roon / RoPieee running on an RPi ?
Or have things moved on so much in the past 13 years that a Uniti Atom / Wiim Pro / BlueSound Powernode would be more suitable?
The new streaming amps (Atom/Star/Nova) have a different sound image, more to the higher frequencies. Highly subjective obviously. If you can run the Uniti via the Naim App there is no big difference in user interaction. Check if the Uniti can do Tidal, as Spotify is still on MP3 (and that is audible indeed). Internet radio would be limited to MP3 as well.
But the other streamers you mention are definitively not as good as the 1st gen Naim streamers (of which I can only speak for a SuperUniti). Tested both of them.
If you can’t get the connections you want there’s no reason your RPi solution wouldn’t work into an analogue input on the Uniti. You will need to use the Naim app for input selection, volume etc. and switch to the Roon app for the rest.
How the sound quality would be compared to the Uniti DAC is anyone’s guess.
, & wondered whether it was worth using as the basis of a second system in my study / office. At first glance the UI & features all seem a tad dated, and I am not sure if I am at risk of flogging a dead horse somewhat.