Uniti software update is here!

Explain why its as moody with my other cables then. My dealer tried them and said they are fine by the way, Not everyone likes NACA5 sorry,

soldering is not exactly rocket science

Maybe you could recommend where to look for this service? Dealers will not do it right, at least in our country. They are just money-hungry dilettantes with zero knowledge.

if you’re a completely non technically minded person who has never handled a soldering iron then yes, by all means get a ‘professional’ to do it, I’ve been soldering since I was about 15. Anyway, the issues been discussed here around the latest firmware have little to do with soldering NACA5!

There’s more to it than just the ‘obvious’ soldering - you a are right, for another thread.

My apologies to the OP

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I’ve received and installed the update on my Uniti Atom and I am happy to report it is still working!

Strange. I’ve owned my Atom for 18 months, use it daily and have never experienced any variation in SQ. It always sounds fantastic!

Why don’t you have your dealer come round so you can demonstrate your findings - I’m sure he will want to help you resolve your problem?

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I think that the problem can be in the transformers and exactly please see the pictures from the middle of these devices and compare how looking integrated circuit connections between the atom, star, nova.My star still sounds great without changes SQ after three days. Perhaps it would be very helpful to try testing a dc blocker.

This DC offset limits the power supply efficiency in most multimedia and hifi equipment and causes transformers to saturate (iron core saturation) already at low level of DC voltage. The transformer DC resistance is close to zero, why the current will be quite substantial even though a DC voltage at between 0.5 and 2 Volt does not seem alarming in any way. It increases iron core and conductor winding heat build-up and may even cause transformers to sound (vibrate) with a humming noise. Eliminating DC off-set may thus prolong life of the equipment by means of preventing excessive heat and remove physical wear of the winding insulating enamel. The sonic impact is in most cases quite dramatic and again it will scale off audible sounds not belonging to the recording. You will hence listen and/or watch the actual recording instead of any mains power irregularities.

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Believe me, this problem has been discussed with dealer and Naim Headquarters for about 8 months already. Dealer doesn’t understand at all why this is happening. And Naim, after checking the unit in their factory send me Job Sheet with text “unable to confirm fault”. Also they replaced unit, but unfortunately, its behavior related to SQ fluctuations remained. I’ve got zero explanations and zero solutions form Naim about how to solve this problem.

In that case it could be a local problem. Possibly a mains issue? Is it better/worse at certain times of the day, or at weekends? Are your neighbours doing something to cause the issue?

Years ago, I used to get very variable performance on my system. I couldn’t figure it out until one day I needed a laptop repaired and discovered that the guy renting a nearby cottage was using a bedroom as what looked like a computer server farm. The wildly varying performance coincided with around the time he moved in. Coincidence? I’m still not sure, but I suspect not. Then again, it might well have been the local Smithy causing the problem. Certainly the lights would flutter and dim whenever he was using a Mig welder. Unfortunately these things are often just beyond our control.

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Today I have dealt more closely with the SQ of the new FW for my Nova.
I have listened to several well-known Albums via UPnP from the NAS.
I am not happy with the SQ (DSP-Settings).
For me is crazy that Naim is changing the SQ so much.

  • The mid tone and high tone are so present. Voices and Instruments lost the power and are not so natural like before. The Sound is very analytic.
  • The bass is reduced, so I changed the jumpers on the speaker (+1,2 db).
  • It sounds like the Speaker cables are wrong connected.

Richard, it is definitely not mains issue. I found several methods to make SQ perfect for several hours or so. I described these methods in one of the replies of the post “Nova, big SQ jump after 9 months!”. Also I found one more additional method described here and it also works perfectly.

If it would be mains issue, then yes, it would be dependent on particular time, but now the Atom behaves differently, SQ can change randomly at any time. And after applying one of the methods SQ comes back, it slowly begins to fade and after some time it worsens again (boomy, dark, dull, with quiet mids/highs, etc). So I apply one of my methods again, and SQ comes back again for several hours.

Even if it would be mains issue, I don’t think it is normal for unit experience such huge quality differences. At the times when SQ is bad, my Sony Bravia TV sounds much better – and this is absolutely abnormal considering that Naim is hi-end audio brand, and Atom costs 2500 dollars without speakers.

I had several systems in the same room connected to the same mains, and none of them had such problems.

Also there are a lot of people who experience SQ fluctuations on Uniti range players. Can’t be that such huge amount of people have such drastic mains issues. There was a big post in archived forums about the same problem, but now it is removed, or I can’t find it. Maybe you could help us to find it?

Yes it’s true it can have an impact , I would also test the Electrical Ring Circuit Inspection at home.

I asked Naim support about DC blocker. They recommended not to use it, as it definitely worsens SQ in any case.

and you checked the correctness of polarity in the wall sockets

Yes, I’ve connected everything right, checked with tester.

Sorry to hear that Luc. Most strange - and especially odd that a replacement unit behaves the same way. My own Sony Bravia sound very poor (I use a Naim amp and speakers instead), so if it’s better than your Uniti, then it must sound ghastly! I do wonder if something else is the cause. The only way to get to the bottom of it is to work with the dealer and maybe also the distributor to get to the bottom of it.

FWIW, do please try speaker cable that is properly terminated (soldered) with Naim speaker connectors. My experience with crimped connections and other methods has not been great with Naim kit.

Anyway, probably best also to start a new thread if you so wish, rather than divert this thread further.

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The DC blocker from HMS Energia MKII DCS works fine for me. I also changed the original power cord for a HMS Energia SL/O. The difference was not so big as like the SQ of the new FW in the other direction. I am very unhappy and I want to go back to 2.6. Yesterday I asked why some people … and now I am one of them.

I also suspect there’s some cognitive gremlins at play here too - and I’m including myself in that

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I think it’s a question of overall system synergy - few of us have the same hi-fi components let alone rooms or cables - if you’re lucky a firmware update that changes the sound works in your favour with your room/speakers etc, if you’re unlucky you may have preferred the sound of an older firmware.

We had a long thread on the old forum about this, and I preferred an older firmware with my specific set up. I have little doubt that if Naim is tweaking sound quality then they will choose what sounds best in their configuration but it won’t necessarily be better for all users.

The problem we have with streaming technology is that the processing involved can affect sound quality, so if the code changes timings can be diffferent - in other words it seems currently difficult to have consistent sound quality with different firmware versions.

So while your cables may play a part so do other components especially the speakers and room.

EDIT - Re-reading the comments you seem to have been having fluctuating SQ for some time on more than one unit - as far as possible I think you need to remove the constant factors like cables from the equation (assuming we’re not in a ‘burn in period’ assuming one exists). It would seem logical however that if firmware code differences can have an effect on SQ, it would also seem possible that perhaps system resources on a streamer could affect SQ depending on their states. All pretty impossible to prove, but unless the DSP and audio output conversions can be decoupled completely from code running the device, network communications, bufffering and stream/file processing, it seems likely that the latter are far from constant and could affect timing of data to the output sections/DACs.