The Naim Uniti Star

Hi-Fi Corner
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The Naim Uniti star has a headphone connection. How does headphone listening compare to the Uniti Atom HD? Can I play my CD player and turntable
Through it? How does the Uniti star’s CD player compare to my Naim CD5si player. Will the Uniti Star do all the things a Uniti Nova HD and a Unity Core Do?

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The UnitiStar is a mid-level all in one. It doesn’t sound as good as a UnitiNova for a start and the CD ripping and serving functions are quite limited compared to UnitiCore. The CD player isn’t a normal CD player. The Star rips the CD and plays the ripped stream. You can play a CD that way, but whether you like the sound only you can say.

The whole thing is clever, but it doesn’t add up to equal of all of those other units you mention. How could it at such a low price?

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Thank you.

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I used to own a Star and now own an Atom HE. The headphone performance on the Atom HE is in a whole other league. It is so much better you cannot really compare it. And that will also go for the Nova. If headphone quality is important to you consider the HE with a power amplifier of your choice instead.

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Presumably I can power it with my NAP250-DR?

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Yes you certainly can. That is exactly the setup I have. You will just have find the right cable somewhere. The result is very good. Of course the HE is not at the level of the 250DR but the other option is NSC 222 but that will cost more than twice the price of the HE, if you don’t add the extra power unit as well.

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Does the NSC 222 have a better headphone amp?

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It has the same headphone amplifier technology as the Atom HE. But as Steve Sells explained elsewhere on the forum the result is better than the HE as the processing and filtering of the NSC is better.

Interesting to note the NSC 222 has only one 6.5 mm socket but again Steve explained balanced vs unbalanced does not give enough difference to make the HE sound better than the NSC.

So if you already have a 250 DR and the cash it should be a pretty clear choice. It will use the same cable to connect the NSC to the 250DR as the HE needs.

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