Unit Star CD noise

Am thinking of getting Star or Nova. I read a generally positive review of the Star by David Price from 2018. He mentioned that the cd unit was noisy. Can anyone comment on whether there is also noise on their Star?

Also, are there any thoughts on SQ difference between Star and Nova. The Star would allow me to sell my CD transport but I’d go for Nova if it has more detail

The Nova is a step up from the Star, from my own limited listening experience.

I don’t believe the CD drive of the Star would be noisy unless you are ripping in which case it only goes on for a couple of minutes.
Best

David

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Hi @Hasselblad100
I have owned both the Nova and a Star, now have two Novas. The Star is a very good bit of kit, if I required a CD drive I would still have one, but I bought an Innuos Zen server so the CD drive was obsolete. Have a listen to both, if you don’t require more power and would benefit from a CD drive the Star may be all you need.

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Hi, nothing out of the ordinary on my Star re CD noise, I’d say it’s rather quiet. Mines a 2019 model and may have had some improvements over the 2018. Even ripping is quieter than I’d expected.
A

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They’re there, but small, not worth the price difference IMO. But, there’s one big caveat, the Nova is more powerful and will be able to drive some speakers that the Star will struggle with. So obviously if auditioning with certain speakers the difference can appear to be much bigger.

Then again, my Star is driving Bowers & Wilkins (702 s2), which are known to like power, without issue.

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Thanks. I’m planning to end up with PMC 25/22 or maybe 21…I’m tempted to get the star and sell my CD player

I think you should really listen to both before you decide. It’s not really about power. The Nova is better in lots of regards and sounds quite different to the Star in my admittedly limited experience.
Best
David

I have Star and whilst it can be a bit noisy when ripping some CDs it is normally quiet in operation. I have been told that when it is noisy whilst ripping a CD it is because the hole is not perfectly in the centre and the highspeed of rotation during ripping caused a wobble, so as with an unbalanced load in a washing machine you get more noise.

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I have Uniti Star with PMC 25/23. Works perfectly.

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Went for Star…quite amazing SQ for an all-in-one. It’s replaced Ndx2/282/250DR. It lacks some low-frequency definition but to my ears the vocals are hugely improved.

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I have a Star and find it fantastic. I’m driving a pair of Castle Stirling’s and the sound is great, instrument separation and open soundstage.
I thought I would need new speakers and auditioned several but my “old ones” sounded better than some so being a Yorkshireman I’m not shelling out for nothing.

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As I listen to more stuff my only criticism would be lack of bass / low frequencies compared to the separates, but you have to accept there will be some deficiencies

Get yourself a sub woofer then. I got a small MJ acoustics one. Set to come in at 48hz and below to match my speaker frequency response fall off.

Hi All,

When playing CD’s we set the drive at max 10x speed, to reduce motor and warped disc vibration noise. The Star uses a technique where it does a ram buffered read of the CD so physical optics reading the data vs dac audio clocks have no correlation. Its good for sound + on damaged discs we have more chance to try and get the data off by re-reading and adjusting the spin speed to see if it improves readability. On a 1x solution you only get one chance.

When in cd rip mode we set the drive to max spin rate which from memory is 24x. So on some discs it can sound a bit like a jet engine when it’s on a nice clean disc and the data is extracting at very high rates. Naturally when ripping cd’s, the art is to rip them as fast and accurately as possible.

Best

Steve Harris
Software Director

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