NEW! Uniti Atom Headphone Edition – and streaming pre-amp!

I noticed the absence of a digital output, it would make this Uniti even better.

<insert pithy statement about the only silly question being the one you don’t ask>

Glad it helped :slight_smile:

I’ll answer my own question for those who might be interested – especially as I was concerned about comments in this forum suggesting that the HE would not be suitable for some IEMs.

I have had my Sennheiser IE900 for a few months now and I believe they are fully burned in (combo of playing music through them 24x7 for 5 days and as much listening as I can manage). I am used to listening to them through a FiiO Q5s sourced via Roon with Qobuz (either though microRendu or Mac/iPhone/iPad).

I had a chance to listen to my IE900 (using the stock 4.4mm balanced cable and stock foam tips) powered by the Naim Atom HE (playing Qobuz) at a dealer a few days ago. The HE by comparison brought out a lot more warmth and substance to the bass and lower mids. I was hearing some instruments in certain songs that I simply had not heard before or not in the same way. There was some air lost in the upper registers, but some songs that were a little piercing with my Q5s were less offensive.

I also briefly listened to the Focal Clear Mg and Stella with the HE. Each sounded great. But in that environment (which was noisy) and with the time I had, I think I preferred the IE900. I would love to have a home demo of the HE (and what the heck – the whole Focal headphone range) to better evaluate if it is the right choice for me.

Granted the Q5s is not a meaningful benchmark, but listening to the IE900 through the HE was the best I have ever heard them. I also don’t think I could hear any noise or hiss (but again, it was noisy at the dealer’s showroom at that time).

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Hello, i have a problem when reading flacs on an attached sd card (via usb).
I use the server mode otherwise i don’t see album pictures.
A few seconds before the end of songs, a 1 second pause occurs sometimes.
Does anyone also had encountered the same problem ?

For those of you that purchased the HE, what were you using to drive your headphones/earphones before?

What else did you consider buying instead of HE?

I’m wondering what those coming from dedicated headphone amps feel like they gained or lost in switching to HE.

Thanks!

I was using a Chord Hugo and after that the regular Atom. The HE sounds much better than the Atom (duh) and I like it better than the Chord Hugo due to more PRaT and musicality. I must admit though that the Hugo handled DSD better.

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I purchased it exclusively for my headphones, but I could use it as a steaming unit for my focal solo 6be using the balanced outputs. When my unit arrives again maybe I will try it.

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DSD is not that great on Naim, I convert it to pcm in roon before sending it to a Naim streamer, and that results the best.

Thanks, I will give that a try.

Edit: tried it just now and sounds excellent. More open compared to playing native DSD directly into the Atom HE. I resample to 352.8 Hz. :+1:t2:

BR,
Richard

Didn’t use a dedicated headphone amp before I purchased the Atom HE, I used a Chord DAVE. I considered the Chord Hugo/2Go as an alternative to the Atom HE. In comparison to the DAVE I didn’t feel I lost anything really, different presentation/emphasis, happy with both although don’t use the DAVE much for headphone duties as in main listening room and Atom in the living room.

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I was using the Dave/mscaler. I may have lost the precise timing and life-like presentation, but gained more enjoyment with better weight and foot tapping groove. I also gained a better integrated system that works better with roon. I have one remote to control playback and volume.

I also have the Focal Arche as 2nd headphone setup but prefer Naim HE is every aspect except Arche has slightly more air to it at the expense of weight.

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I also have the Focal Arche as well as the Atom HE and i use it mainly on my PC. It is a very nice amp and would be better if it was not so buggy.

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Hello, just to update, my Uniti was confirmed as having a problem with noisier transformer, I will receive a new one when available.

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That’s good and bad, good you’re getting a replacement but bad it had a problem to start with.

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Hi, was you transformer humming ? Did you take a video of that ?because mine seems to also hum a bit too much and some other owners told me that their unit were dead silent, so I would like to compare.

I did not made a vídeo but I found a similiar issue on YouTube, mine was a little more louder it could be listened more than 7 meters away.

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Getting a different fridge cured such a hum for us.

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Wow no it’s not that much on mine, i noticed yesterday evening because the room was nearly dead silent. When so, I can ear it from 2 meters away, but I’m very sensitive to unwanted noise.
What bothers me is that I asked several owners of the Atom if they have this problem and they said theirs were dead silent.

I will let you know when my new one arrives.

Oh jeez no, have nothing like that on mine. When I said I have some hum on both units I did not mean THIS.

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