Away from the weird Forum world where people think nothing of dropping £4,000 on a mains cable, the Unitis are far from cheap items. The Nova at £4,000 is a lot more money than the Atom at £2,000. So it makes sense to have something to bridge the gap. The Nova has always sounded better than the Star, and will sound better than the Lite.
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I agree. The positioning between the atom and nova is perfect. And the price is bang in the middle, which is ideal.
So all good…all except the name 
. To me, adding the word ‘lite’ is a mistake. It implies ‘compromise’. If this product is positioned as an ‘evolution’ of the original Star, why not call it Star 2? That would imply ‘next generation’ which is far more sexy than ‘Lite’.
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The Nova was originally advertised as offering CD ripping via a connected USB optical drive but that option was dropped by the time they were actually released which was a shame.
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Still don’t understand why naim haven’t released a firmware which can do this (rip from external device).
Would have negated the need for the Star to have any CD mechanism, you would just attach a USB CD drive and rip to internal storage. No need to source or support a CD mechanism, no supply issues, no obsolescence.
It’s where other vendors such as Innuous have gone with their Stream series.
Surely the Star Light could have offered this and been the Star NextGen instead!
Missed opportunity.
With no Core, and no Star CD, naim no longer offer a CD ripping solution which simply drives customers to other vendors.
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I feel sorry that Naim have washed their hands of physical media also. I have a CDX2.2 , it was adapted and serviced just before the pandemic 
.
On the other hand whilst Naim might not be building new CD players, I can well see why Naim would see the need for a Star replacement - competitors like Arcam, Quad have very competent products above the Atom price point .
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Isn’t that Americanism speak?
Only the North Americans 
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Or maybe it does, simply missing its internal drive but switching connectivity to the USB socket but not highlighted. As you suggest it would make absolute sense for Naim to do tgat, the “Lite” just meaning it has omitted a drive….but have they?
But the Star is a streaming amplifier, not a server. It doesn’t have internal storage, so what would a ripper rip to? You’d need to attach a ripper and a store to the back.
Naim ripping to WAV has always been a bit odd, what with the non embedded metadata and lack of transferability that comes with it. Add the restricted range of metadata and it becomes a very limiting option.
I’ve found using a NAS to be better than a Naim solution and don’t understand why some suggest adding functionality that isn’t needed. I looked at your profile and it seems you have a NAS, which suggests you agree.
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Well it’s getting on for twenty years since Linn ditched CD. That certainly created a big kerfuffle at the time; it was even picked up in the Guardian. But recent financial results look pretty healthy and it’s not just LP12s, so perhaps there is life after CD.
Roger
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It’s just about numbers, Naim don’t consider they will sell enough high-end CD players to make it worthwhile developing and manufacturing a new one. Dealers don’t even appear to be able to clear remaining stock of the last Naim CD player standing, the CD5si……
Most, if not all, of the remaining UK players’ products are designed in the UK, made in China with one or two very expensive exceptions. Nothing wrong with that, but I don’t see Naim going down that route for what would still be limited sales…….
I could of course be completely wrong 
.
ATB, J
If you really feel you need a cd player just get one like the Cyrus or similar and connect.
I know you can’t rip but do that on a PC
What HIFI
“However, Naim has now confirmed to us in a statement that the new Star Lite will actually have a “better audio performance” than the outgoing Star.”
"The Uniti Star Lite was developed as a replacement for the Uniti Star following the discontinuation of the CD mechanism. However, during development, we identified some performance benefits resulting from this simplified architecture.
"By removing the CD mechanism, we were able to reduce electrical noise within the product. Combined with software optimisation and a more focused hardware architecture, the result is a cleaner signal path, with improved transparency for a more refined listening experience.
“In short, Uniti Star Lite is not simply the original Uniti Star without a CD drive; the simplified architecture has enabled us to achieve a more optimised electronic with a better audio performance.”
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Someone then has to go to a dealer and compare Nova with Starlight. 
. On sound quality.
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I always wondered how the original Star compared to the Nova sonically as a standalone device. I don’t use the Nova as intended and feed line out to the NAC 282 setup - this was intended to be temporary but has lasted quite some time. Should I repurpose it standalone with speakers as I’d originally planned I’d personally not have minded in-built CD functionality in a secondary device.
I was disgruntled when Apple ditched internal optical drives years ago but it’s not something I often miss these days especially if I have an external USB drive. Streaming services really have revolutionised media consumption for the majority of audio/video consumers.
They have the uniti core…..ok it’s only a cd ripper but it is a superb little box. And you can clear your cd shelves.
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Get a Primare NPS into Ndac ( 1k or a little bit more) and sell your Nova. The rooster advice.
Do you consider the Primare that good or the Nova analogue out quality to be bad?
Have certainly considered a better streaming device in the past but I do like the Nova for many reasons and originally planned to use it in another room with a Naim or other non-amplified streamer in the main system but certain practicalities have prevented that to date.
Elsewhere in the same article
What I find interesting is that I have a slight degree of uncertainty about Naim and USB , one of the options open to me is computer monitor with a downstream USB output , will the USB input on a potential Star allow a USB input from say a monitor or dare I say it USB input from a Playstion (I would love to play the old Tomb Raider games again)
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