Introduction / Weird stuff with my (to me new) Uniti Star

Hi-Fi Corner
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Hi, initially went to my dealer to add a NAP 250DR to my uniti2.

Loved what the amp did for staging, control etc, and really was keen on testing it on my own speakers. But, there was a humm inside the amp. And knowing myself and my wife, this would eventually (rather sooner than later) become an issue. Pondering with regards to do it or not, and my disappointment that i could expect an upgrade to facilitate High resolution streaming (spotify etc.), the dealer pointed at a second hand uniti Star.

So we hooked it up to the same pair of Dynaudio speakers I was playing my uniti2 on. the initial result was an bigger staging, bit more “cold” sounding at first, but as it was literaly cold, that would improve.

After a woble and short debate on pricing, i went home with the Uniti Star. Including original packaging, all except for the manual. After a two hour drive, finally arrived home and imediately hooked it up to my speakers.

The better half of me was not overly excited (to put it mildly), “so you think this sounds better than our older one?” –> needless to say that her facial expression made it very clear that this was not really a question.

However, after some warming up, there came more warmth and PRaT to the sound. So i thought to start Ripping my CD collection. And that is where the first bother arose. Ripping a CD while listening to a spotify playlist, resulted in audio interuptions and hickups. As a fond new owner, i told myself as this might be the result of the DAC having to do two tasks simultaniously. but after a bit the Uniti started to become non-repsonsive. As in; no reaction to the remote, firmly displaying the same spotify picture, while it was no longer playing that. Even no response to the instructions from the app. Enter the hard reset, uncluding the “naim” “klunck” of shutting of- and on of the power supply.

fiddled around a bit with the settings for ripping, wondering what device to use and also noticing a “electronic sounding crack” over the left speaker sometimes at the end of a track on a CD (never with the same track or CD, but always at the end of a track).

After multiple liasons with my dealer, a factory reset was suggested. Performed that one yesterday, and initially it played flawless untill earlier this afternoon.

The 128 GB usb stick that i used to rip to was full, so i had to transfer the files to a mobile external USB hard disk (500 GB). And now when i wish to RIP a CD, it states that the CD has no track and it instantly spits out the CD.

Dealer is now in confusion as well, they never ever had any issues with the new streamers of Naim (Uniti, new classic etc). But i must admit, that allthough i recognise the major DAC improvement, and the enjoyment of lossless streaming that the Uniti Star brings, i am beginning to miss the perceived robustness of the uniti2, uncluding it’s more warm and covered sound…

Any ideas or suggestion that might lead to a Robust performing as it should Uniti Star? or is this something that i Should get used to?

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I’d take it back and ask for a return of your Uniti 2 and your cash. Life is too short for this hassle.

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yeah, luckily i managed to document the irratic behaviour and i have send it to the dealer. Let’s see how they want to go about solving these issues. Somewhat in a twilight about the return of the uniti2, not sure whether they have not allready resold it.

I love the improvements but get rather frustrated with the “features” so to say.

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If you don’t need to play CDs, a Nova may be a better bet. Ripping the CDs using your computer is more flexible in many ways. But whatever you do, don’t put up with something that doesn’t work properly. It’s your dealer’s responsibility to ensure you are happy with your purchase, and if they can’t stop it doing funny things they should refund your money.

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There were some firmware issues in the past. Probably you’ve already done that, but if not, try updating to the latest version before returning the unit.

The latest version is 3.11.0.

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They won’t want to give it back, they’ll want to sell you something else!

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Yeah it allready has all the latest updates, so no idea what this is about.

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That’s for sure what they’ll want, to they probably won’t be willing to provide it at my price point though :upside_down_face:

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Well, I should have bought a shitload of lotery tickets really…

After sending a couple of video’s of the irratick behaviour the Star will be send to the Naim representative for the Netherlands. Not right away, as they are moving their business. so in early 2026 they will have a look at the issues. To summarize:

1 At times while playing a CD (and only then) there is an audible “crack” on the speakers in some transitions from one track to the next.

2 The USB at the back sometimes works, sometimes it doesn’t even bought a brandnew 1TB SSD to eliminate disk drive or USB stick issues.

3 There are sound dips at times while streaming spotify or listening to internet radio, at other times it is not there. the Star is connected via wire to a 1GB fibreoptic internet connection, with no other activity in the house (so no interference on the line possible).

4 it sometimes will see/recognize a local drive when you want to manage you music via the app, but when you want to play from said device via Servers in the menu of the app, there is a file structure, but no content…

I have been promised that i will be resolved, and as nobody has ever heard of these issues, i consider myself to be extremely fortunate to experience this, i therefore wished i had bought a lotery ticket…

p.s. I have performed a factory reset, which resolved the “No track” issue when ripping.

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I have had a Star for 6 years and love it and had no problems,Firstly is the USB fast enough ?. I got a 1Tb Ssd plugged into the rear USB port
Did you format the drive first in the unit to set as a music store?
Regarding using with Spotify, the star sometimes looks for the Cd data on the internet ie tracks, cover photo etc so could be an internet clash of data.

Have you updated it to the latest firmware

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Hi, thnx for your reply.

Yes first thing i did with the SSD is format it on the Star, prior to transfering and ripping audio to it. The issue with the dips in audio was occuring while it was not ripping, just listening to Spotify (and then checking wether it occured during listening to the internet radio as well). My non technicall gut tells me the DAC might be off or something.

And yes it has all the latest updates as well. I am now trusting it will be resolved, and while that may take some time (in which I again cannot listen to music, boohoo) it will work out somehow. Allready looking for some additions (Muso Sub Q2, NAP amplification) but that will have to wait untill we have moved house in two years and budget becomes a bit more clear.

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The audio dips also occur during CD playback… becomming more and more clueless to what is happening here…

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The obvious question, after 28 days of hassle, is why on earth haven’t you taken it back for a refund?

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Well to take it back requires a five hour drive and i haven’t quite had the time to spare to invest that time. Plus, i will then be sitting on a bit of cash, which my better half will more easily transfer into something not quite my liking… Patience is a virtue, but i must admit, it starts to run thin..

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Well, the Star is delivered at Latham audio (Benelux distributor for Naim) for inspection and as and addition, i managed to scoop up a second hand Muso QB2. Happy to be able to listen to music uninterupted (no dips in sound/signal while streaming via the same internet cable as with the Star). And funny thing, while my wife still misses the sound of the old Uniti2 we had in comparisson with the Star, this saturday, she was constantly adding tracks to our Jam on the Qb2. Not sure wether the streaming bit/DAC of the QB2 is similar to that of the Uniti Star, but is does seem to do a better job than the Uniti Star at the moment…

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Today i got a call from my dealer. Latham reverted to them that the Uniti Star worked fine, no issues at all. Not with CD playback, not with internet radio or streaming services. The ripping was perhaps the consequence of switching the memory stick from the front USB connection to the back or vice versa. Apparently that can cause issues if you formatted and prepared the USB drive on one connection, you should just leave it there…

Conclusion is that it has all to do with my network at home (which i can remotely comprihend for the signal loss during the streaming of Spotify or internetradio, resulting from bufferin issues perhaps). But to me that does not relate to the same signal loss during the CD playback or playback from the USB drive… When mentioning that to the dealer, they keep reverting to only network issues resulting from poor routers (you should get a private router between the router of your provider and the streamer).

Liased with the technical guy at Latham, he agreed that my issues could not be the result of a faulty network, especially as the Streaming platform of the Star is quite simillar to that of the QB2. They tested it for a week at their shop and it works just fine. Could be an issue with this particular Uniti Star, but as the dealer has no demo version of it available that i could test, I decided to have the Uniti returned to the dealer that sold it to me. find an acceptable solution moneywise and perhaps try with a dealer closer to my house and see if they have a demo. To revert to an “older” solution would not be the best in respect of streaming capabilities and also with the quality of the DAC.

And as i am rather tight on the budget, i wil need to figure out a solution, and would highly appreciate your recommendations.

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Well, I went to have a listening at another dealers shop (one more close by my house). Told him about the weird stuff going on and that i was looking for something similar to the Star, perhaps a one box solution, but from any brand. Didn’t want to mess about with second hand gear attm because i was missing listening to a proper setup.

So he proposed a Naim Nova, he also had a great offer of a Cambridge Audio Edge NQ combined With an Edge W. They proposed (and now regret) that i’d bring my own speakers. Sat down for about two hours listening to the Nova. Is sounded wonderfull, Eva Cassidy again brought tears to my eyes. Things worked like I used to… Then eventually i switched to the Cambridge set. The speakers were gone, instantly, I heard stuff i have never heard before, even on quite a lot of my “soundcheck” playlist… Had a chat with the dealer who himself plays on a NC NAP250 and a NSC 222 at his house. I Asked him if he believes that his set (@15K Euros) would play the cambridge set out of the room (which costed originally 10K Euros). He told me that the detail i heared was not only the NQ DAC/Streamer, but also the seperate power amp. I continued to listen to the set and was constantly paying attention to what could be heard and the immense staging of the set. And i realised i was listening to the music, rather than enjoying it…

Then he proposed to listen to a Atom HE combined with a NC NAP 250… And the stage grew, there was more air between the instruments and the enjoyment and excitement remained. There and then i decided i would go for the Nova, and work my way up to a MC NAP 250 with eventually perhaps a switch to a dedicated streamer / pre-amplifier.

So now it is a little wait for the Nova to arrive, then a longer wait for it to break in and hopefully all of this without the hick-ups of the Star.

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Nice write-up and well done on your persistence to obtain a setup for now, and a future direction

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