A good friend has asked for my advice he currently has a UnitiQute the half sized power amp and a cd5i , he is thinking of the Star as a one box solution would this be a reasonable move, upgrade, downgrade or sideways move, any thoughts would be useful, I have recently heard the Nova and that sounded very nice but have never heard a Star so any guidance would be appreciated.
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I’ve had mine 5 years and love it. I’ve paired it with a pair of PMC twenty5 23i’s. And it sounds great.
I wanted a cd player even though I usually rip CDs to an HDD plugged into the back USB.
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I’m guessing the choice of a Star is down to the fact that it has a CD player so could replace both boxes? (It’s now the only device in the Naim range capable of playing CDs.)
It’s certainly more capable than a Unitiqute, although whether it’s subjectively more enjoyable is something that only listening tests can answer. On that basis, even an Atom would be an upgrade over the Unitiqute if CD playback wasn’t required. Perhaps ripping CDs and sticking them on a hard drive would then make sense?
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Hi Chris my friend has highlighted the Star for the added cd function which will enable him to swap out everything he has at the moment which appeals to him.
A demo would be next on the list just to confirm the move is for him.
I think this is mainly a convenient solution in an attempt to tidy everything up but he obviously doesn’t want to go backwards sq wise guessing a demo will answer that question 
I would suggest that as well as a demo of his existing system compared to the Star, he tries his CD5i into the Star to get an idea of the quality of the Star built in CD player. That could help focus his choices. Keeping the CD player and getting an Atom might then seem like a good option, although of course it still means two boxes.
That could potentially lead him to consider whether it’s time to rip those CDs instead of playing them, or even making use of the greatly improved streaming options available through the newer streamers, including 24 bit Todal or Qobuz and lossless iRadio.
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Good thought I will mention that to him, I think he was a little disappointed when he enquired at several dealers about trade in values, he bought everything from new so guessing it may have been a shock, I did suggest trying to sell them privately but he wasn’t keen on the idea preferring to p/ex them all which is a shame especially as the Unitiqute went back to Naim recently for a full service, new screen and any updates that were outstanding.
But nothing left once the item need to go in for service or eventual repair.
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Due to my friends age and health I don’t think he looking too far in advance bless him.
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I have owned a Star for 7 years give or take, I highly recommend it. As I understand it, the Star CD player doesn’t play directly from the CD; instead, it rips to local storage and plays that. Because of this and for ease of use, I ripped all my CDs to a USB SSD drive and listen to them as rips.
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I have owned a Uniti Star for 12 months now and love it. Yes it can play cd direct from the front loading deck.
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So l’m a little confused I presumed it just had a built in drive but it also has built in storage enabling you to rip the cd and store it on the Star is that correct…just did a little more research so it sounds like you need to add your own additional storage for the ripped files the Star doesn’t contain a hard drive
No built in storage. You use a USB drive plugged into the Star for storage.
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That’s a useful feature as my friend has a large cd collection.
Sounds like we need to book a demo so he can get a listen, I think he was concerned that he may loose some of the sq of his current setup by going to an all in one unit but it seems members are happy with its audio quality.
While you are correct that the Star’s CD player can rip to local storage, it can also play the CD without doing that. It is a slightly crude player as the display when playing CDs is very basic. I thought I would be playing CDs and streaming from local storage too, but in the end I use the computer to rip CDs to a NAS and stream that from the Star. I almost never play a CD through the Star and I wish I had bought the Nova instead as I believe that is a bit of an upgrade sound wise to the Star.
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To be honest I doubt your friend will experience much more than going from one and two half boxes to one box only, followed a big hole in his pocket.
At worst the old setup will sound better as separate CD, separate poweramp and fresh serviced Unitiqute.
At least let him try at home and have told the amount required for such a move
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This is one of the reasons he has held off changing, the thought of spending a reasonable sum of money and not really getting much of an improvement apart from maybe a simpler setup .
He will definitely be listening first before making any changes or spending any money, have no fear he is from good Scottish stock so no worries there.
If space isn’t the overriding issue I’d be inclined to get a Nova and keep the CD player. It will sound much better than the Qute. A few people on here seem to have had problems with their Star, which does seem to be rather the ugly duckling of the Uniti range.
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Morning HH my friend mentioned the nova as a possibility moving forward keeping the cd player, so a few options open to him, I just don’t want him to move to something else and not be happy with the setup, I think a demo is really the next step if he could get one to try at home in his system that would be ideal.
I updated from a Uniti2 to a Star about 5 months ago. It’s in my second system and I wanted cd playback capabilities. IMO it is a big leap over the 2 so I’d make the assumption it’s also a big improvement over the UQ. The Star is versatile as a streamer and cd player and I run a turntable through it as well and it’s an engaging and enjoyable listen for all formats
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Another option, as your friend has a nap100, would be to swap the uq for an atom he.
You get the latest streaming board, and all the same functionality plus qobuz and roon support.
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