I’ve just got rid of a uniti atom partly because i didn’t feel it was driving my speakers well enough and partly (possibly the same reason) the TT didn’t sound great through it
I also heard that the atom takes the analogue from the TT and converts the signal to digital before converting it back to analogue again, which just seems a bit odd/wasteful….
I am considering replacing the atom with either a uniti star or uniti nova, or a nait xs3 & blue sound node icon
Question is does the star and nova do the same as the atom regards switching the signal back and forth
That’s your choice, but as a very happy Nova owner who has used it with an LP12 and a Rega PL3 I really think the d/a conversion thing is entirely irrelevant unles you are a fully paid up member of the anti digital Taliban. Vinyl sounds absolutely fine on the Uniti series. Let Naim do the internal designing and you can focus on listening.
Fair point, but it seems like an opportunity to lose signal quality by doing something thats not required, not once but twice.
If I didnt have the option of buying back my XS3 at the same price that I traded it in for (£1000) and therefore make this option actually a little cheaper then I may have stuck with a Star or Nova.
Same £££ for either system which would you choose?
Instead of speculating about the hypothetical loss of sound quality from digitising the analogue signal I would just listen to the systems you are interested in and choose the one you like best.
There is no way of comparing a Uniti with and without this digitisation, so while it may well alter sound quality a little, the only comparison you can make is between a Uniti and another system of your choice.
THanks for your comment. I live NE Scotland, unfortunately not too many hifi shops up here that stock all the equipment Id like to try out, and trial and error can be expensiove. Hence the value of forums like this where you can obtain good advice, ideally from others with first hand experience.
Forum “advice” is NEVER a good substitute for a proper demo. Some dealers are very good at this and if you’re going to spend thousands on a Naim system I would suggest that finding one who gives you the support you need to build a system that you can really enjoy is well worth the effort.
Hi Steve, I fully understand where you’re coming from and think from the sound of it you’d be happier with the XS3. Even with Naim’s obvious ‘house sound’ no two products are going to sound the same and you also make the point you don’t think you have the drive you want from the atom anyway.
I think the unity range are essentially digital centred products with support for analogue inputs added on. Naim at least have the luxury of tailoring the A to D stage on the input side to best match the D to A conversion into the Amp stage. I’d say all the routing and gain control are kept in the digital domain. The analogue inputs (not necessarily for vinyl of course) are also available to stream to other unity devices around the house - useful in my case at least.
