I got my Uniti about two hours ago so not sure if there is any break-in period. At the moment for sound quality I’m give the nod to the Focal Arche. It has a slightly sweeter open sound. The Uniti is slightly darker and thicker. At least that’s how it sounds from memory. When I switch back and forth between them I didn’t hear much difference I thought I would. So I have to say the sound differences are subtle.
Really love the features on the amp. Volume knob has a very nice feel even though I’ll be using the remote most of the time. I was effortlessly able to switch between roon, Spotify and Apple Music. Even though the latter 2 don’t have lossless yet, they sounded great. And with Spotify, the volume buttons on the iPhone changed the volume on the amp. Also, the album art is easy to see even 6 feet away.
I wholeheartedly agree with everything said on the Hugo 2. I ended up using the HF roll off green filter for the Utopia consistently.
The Utopia does express the strengths and weaknesses or idiosyncrasies of a system. It is a highly resolving headphone. Whilst I enjoy the Utopia, I find myself reaching for the HD800S most with the Atom HE.
But what I love most is it’s versatile nature. It’s “good enough” to relax into.
It doesn’t drive the Susvara well enough. And it’s not the NDX2. But you’d be hard pressed to ever say you’re unhappy with it.
The remote and volume wheel are a delight to use and from a human ergonomic perspective very well designed.
I got my Arche at a discounted price if i bought before the year was out (2020) because i purchased the Utopia headphones, but i have now seen some shops are selling at a discount price on it’s own. The Arche is now been discontinued…fact. Anyway back to the Atom HE and i’m still loving, but one annoying thing for me is that if you play an album off a hard drive or stick, when it’s finished the Atom HE resorts back to the main menu so you have rifle all through the listings again to get back where you were. Maybe a future update could amend this ?
I should clarify that although I enjoy the Utopia from Chord products ; I definitely also believe it pairs very well with the NAIM. Iamoneagwin has a very astute ear and I again agree with his impressions.
So I don’t know if it just needed to warm up a bit but after a few hours, with my wife using for one those, I listened to the album”The Party” by Andy Shauf. I find this a great sounding album with plenty of bass and rich mids and on the Naim it sounded wonderful. Perfectly balanced. Not lacking in bass at all on the Utopia’s and the richness just the way I like it. I think my Danacable Reference Lazuli cable also helps with that richness.
As far as functionality, this is probably one of the best hifi experiences I’ve has. It looks and feels like a showcase product. No offense to the Chord Dave, but think maybe only geeky tech friends would appreciate. Has some weird design choices like round submarine style window but with an outdated square lcd screen and very cheap looking remote. It may sound like $10,000 but sure doesn’t function or look like it.
The Naim looks and feels expensive. Little things like the remote lighting up when picked up, the amazing volume knob, beautiful screen, and even the way it works with roon. There are more option available in roon to sleep the unit after certain amount of time of the music not playing. And the volume within roon controls the volume of the unit itself. The volume rocker on the iPhone also controls the volume on the unit when using Spotify Connect. It just all works so well and is a pleasure to use. So yes, sound if very important, but functionality is also important. If it’s a pleasure to use the equipment, you’ll be relaxed and in a good mood and the music with sound better as well.
The only negative I’d say is the built in Qobuz app is a little slow and very lacking to user experience in roon. Not expecting same level but lag needs to be look into. However, I’ll never be using it this way. Most likely stick with roon and use Spotify hifi when it comes out.
Oh so my issue with Qobuz doesn’t matter because I see I can use Chromecast to stream in hires if wanted to just use Qobuz instead of going thru roon. I’m already a lifetime member to roon, so probably stick with that. But the Chromecast feature is nice. Strange that Chromecast Qobuz sounds different than roon Qobuz. Think Chromecast might sound better. Amazon music has Chromecast option but for some reason only works on Android devices.
Also think my early comparison with Focal Arche wasn’t fair since don’t think I volume matched. I’d say they are on par with each other sound wise.
I agree on the matching amp. NAP 100 works well, but I believe it has been discontinued, and it’s not a stylistic match. And perhaps the biggest conundrum for Naim is, how can we sell a separate power amp and still call it “Uniti”?
Chromecast doesn’t sound as good via Chromecast to me than via Roon on my regular Atom. It’s different presentation I’ll give you that, a found it a bit more in your face. The difference is likely down to the fact Chromecast uses a lot more resources to run as Stevesky said in a number of posts. Its also not capable of gapless via the Qobuz app and prone to dropouts I have found, where other apps via Chromecast are stable.
Would that really be a problem for Naim if they sold an Atom HE + Unity Amp instead of a Nova if that’s what the customer wants. I’m not sure why Naim would find that a problem if it’s similar profit for Naim either way. More flexibility for the customer if that’s what they want, or an all-in one if they prefer. With the option in the lineup it might even attract sales that could have gone to other manufacturers.