StereoNET first reported on the announcement of the Uniti range some 9 months ago but due to licensing agreements the release had seen numerous delays. During the presentation, Len Wallis himself also remarked that the range seemed to be coming every three weeks for over six months!

With a sigh of relief, Chris Murphy of N.A. Distributors proudly unveiled the now fully licensed and finally released range including the Naim Uniti Atom, Star, Nova and Core.

The wait has been worth it with the new range offering a complete and comprehensive revamp of the previous Uniti range.

Key to the new Uniti series is the eight-layer streaming board. Murphy tells us that Naim’s top engineers have spent more than three years developing it. Also notable is that Atom, Star and Nova models feature a new fourth-generation, 40-bit SHARC DSP processor and Burr Brown DACs.

Naim’s next-generation of products are not only stylish and luxurious, but it’s also clear that Naim’s industrial designers have ensured consistency and familiarity across the range.

The adoption of the rotary dial on the top of the units has been cleverly borrowed from Naim’s award-winning Mu-so range (here and here). Len says that another welcome improvement is the large, full colour LCD display on the front panel of the players which displays menus, album artwork and track details.

The external packaging is also new with the luxury, signature Naim look and feel we've come to expect.

Having a closer look at the Atom streaming music player, which offers 40W per channel Class A/B (8 Ohms), it enables you to store up to 20,000 tracks on a USB stick or external USB hard disc.

The Uniti Core features a built-in CD ripper and your choice of a configurable hard drive. It replaces the Uniti Serve and offers up to an impressive 8TB of storage for playback through a network-connected player. Number of tracks you can store will obviously depend on the storage type and resolution, but let’s just say it an impressive capacity for a product with a fairly small footprint.

While on demonstration on the night but not actually available until later in 2017 was the Uniti Star and Nova. The Star lifts amplification to 70W per channel (8Ohms), and also can be specified with an optional DAB+ module. It comes with a built-in CD-ROM drive for playing CDs or copying them to its internal storage. While the Nova is the range topper boasting power output up to 80W per channel into 8 Ohms.

Standard features for the Atom, Star and Nova include Google Cast for Audio, Apple AirPlay, Tidal, Spotify Connect, aptX HD Bluetooth, vTuner internet radio and UPnP (universal plug and play) hi-res streaming. With all those platforms on-board, it’s no wonder there were licensing delays.

There's also comprehensive file format support including: DSD 64 and 128, WAV up to 32-bit/384kHz, FLAC, AIFF and ALAC (Apple Lossless) up to 24-bit/384kHz, plus AAC and MP3 up to 16-bit/48kHz. 

The new Naim Uniti series has plenty of tricks to call on, including the ability to stream music up to five different zones via either the bi-directional, RF remote control or the Naim Uniti’s excellent iOS or Android app. All reports from users so far suggest that Naim’s Uniti App is one of the best multi-room interfaces on the market. It’s also testament to Naim holding back the range release until the engineers were satisfied that the interface and functionality were nailed.

To learn more about the Naim Uniti range you can visit Len Wallis Audio for a demonstration now.