Naim NaimUniti
Why Naim gave this clever little box such a silly name I do not know. I guess there’s an element of a play on words here: it is an all-in-one audio player and the word Unity is defined as “a whole or totality as combining all its parts into one.” So why the ‘tonite’-style spelling? And why run ‘Uniti’ and ‘Naim’ into one word? I guess it is a trendy thing to do: the result of some young persons’ affectation that is beyond the understanding of anyone over 40 years old that benefitted from a decent education.
Regardless of such Grumpy Old Man considerations, the NaimUniti – I neglected to mention that one is supposed to embolden the second half of its name whenever it is written – is still a very cool and wonderfully versatile piece of electronics.
It is, quite literally, one of those units that only requires the addition of a pair of loudspeakers and cables to become a very respectable stereo system. Nothing else is required. Built into the £1995 NaimUniti is a CD player, which is based on the company’s CD5i CD player, and a 50Watt amplifier derived from the NAIT 5i integrated amplifier. That is not a bad start, and when you add the FM/DAB radio you reach the typical input complement for most all-in-ones. However, the NaimUniti doesn’t stop there. It is not your typical CD/Receiver. It also has an Ethernet connection (along with wireless if you are not on a cabled network), which allows it to deliver internet radio – something I particularly enjoy while I am working in my office. The quality is certainly more than tolerable on the higher bit-rate broadcasts: high-end it might not be but it’s certainly up to the required standard to be entertaining. It only ever becomes annoying if your broadband connection slows and gets bogged down buffering the incoming stream. If you are serious about internet radio it might be worth asking your ISP about putting you on a lower contention ratio connection. It’ll be a few quid more but nothing worthwhile is free in the commercial world.
The fun doesn’t stop here, though, because there’s much more to the NaimImmunity, as it’s become known around here. For example, push the input selector until it indicates UPnP and the device will scan your network looking for locations from which music can be streamed. Change the input to iPod and the NaimUniti will play from and charge your iPod. Charging can be set to three options, one of which does not charge the iPod while it is playing in order to optimise its sound quality. Being honest, the iPod needs all the help it can get so this is a useful facility and typical of Naim Audio’s obsessive attention to detail. There is also a USB port along with an auto-sensing 3.5mm front-panel input, which will detect whether the incoming signal is analogue or digital.
To complete the picture the NaimUniti further features five conventional analogue inputs and five S/PDIF digital inputs. The latter feed its internal DAC so opening up the device to all manner of digital connections with, for example, computers, satellite TV connections and games consoles.
I used the Uniti to run in the NEAT Petite SX speakers that I am reviewing for Hi-Fi Plus magazine and then moved it into my office where it now powers a set of ancient Creek mini monitors. Regardless, its sound remains characteristically Naim. It plays tunes with admirable honestly: for example, it pitches vocals securely when the singer is on the case but renders poor intonation accurately when the singer is a tad shaky, as are so many of today’s X-Factor generation. When the performance contains genuine emotion that expression and passion come across strongly. It also demonstrates this tunefulness on piano recordings by showing excellent pitch security on this difficult-to-reproduce instrument. Its timing is also precise and clearly delineated as is usual with Naim equipment: you can readily appreciate the spaces between the notes, a long-term Naim trait that ensures rhythms maintain their feel of human involvement. The NaimUniti also exhibits crisp and punchy dynamics – not an attribute of many single-boxers I have heard.
Essentially, the NaimUniti displays most of the essential qualities that its hugely more expensive separate component brethren possess albeit in reduced quantity as one would expect. After all, one can spend £15,000 on Naim’s top CD player alone so it is remarkable that one can attain any semblance of that level of performance from a £2,000 does-it-all device.
The NaimUniti might be seen as representing something of a move away from its traditional customer base for Naim, which is no bad thing for a company that is committed to survival. The facts are that its present customers will not survive for ever and there is only a finite number of people who can afford to buy its audiophile wares. Also, that hardcore audiophile market is diminishing and becoming even more of a niche than it was when it was at its height thirty years ago. Naim, like other companies, needs new blood and today’s hi-fi buyer is a different character to the baby-boomers who started Naim on the road to success. Many of this new breed will not entertain the multi-component complexity of a top-flight separates system, preferring instead the extreme simplicity of a high quality all-in-one ‘solution’. Some of those multi-box system owners, however, myself included, might want a system that it sounds not dissimilar to their main system for use in their office, bedroom or kitchen. The NaimUniti offers the ideal answer: it delivers more flexibility than most mega-bucks systems yet it takes up no room at all – it occupies one shelf on the rack that holds my scanner – and is easily controlled from my desk by its remote handset. It is the epitome of convenience and conveniently happens to sound quite magnificent.
Oh dear, I do hope Naim does not read this: if it should I fear it might soon announce the two-box upgraded version, the NaimEpitomee. God forbid!
