[iamoneagain]

Many thanks for the feedback - this unit does look great!

You mentioned the Dave - were you referring to the "bare" unit, or the Dave + Mscaler combo?

(I already have a Naim streamer, so was considering a Chord Hugo TT2 to power my Focal Utopia headphones - but I am curious as to how the Hugo TT2 would compare to the Naim Uniti Atom HE.)

I had the Dave and the mscaler. It’s a wonderful combination. I bought with inheritance money and felt it was really out of my price range. Would have never spent that much if didn’t get the inheritance. $3200 for the Naim Uniti Atome HE is within my budget and a great value for what you get. It doesn’t have the same resolution but it’s got great tone, speed, impact and balance.

I never heard the TT2, do I can’t really comment. I’m going to assume it might sound better than the Naim. The Naim definitely sounds better than the Hugo 2 did and on par with the Focal Arche. The Dave/mscaler has life like sound but comes at an expensive cost and inconvenience. Was using battery supply on than mscaler and even considered buying Wave cables which is another $1200 or so. Chord remotes are like plastic toys and roon didn’t control the volume and the Chord remote couldn’t control the music.

The Naim works together so nicely. The remote has play, pause, skip track back and forth. Volume in roon controls the Naim volume. Can even turn on and off from the roon app. You only have the one box and WiFi work perfectly, so don’t even need Ethernet cable hooked to it. So from a usability point of view, this is the best hifi equipment I’ve has so far. Think sounds will be great for most people but if want deeper resolution, than Chord might be the way to go. For me, resolution didn’t affect my enjoyment of the music. Hugo 2 has better resolution but I didn’t like the tone and the weight of the music. Even on the Dave, I found it a hint too thin with the Focal Utopia unless used the HF on filter.

 

[searchingtom]

Hi, I did not have the M-Scaler. I used HQPlayer to ramp up the fidelity. The Dave is VERY good, just for me the total value of the Naim with all of its capabilities and good sound won out for me.

 

[dcp10]

For me, resolution didn’t affect my enjoyment of the music. Hugo 2 has better resolution but I didn’t like the tone and the weight of the music. Even on the Dave, I found it a hint too thin with the Focal Utopia unless used the HF on filter

Thanks, this is useful. I could do with a bit more weight to the sound of my Utopia headphones - I found that using a better headphone cable helps (I have the Black Dragon) but still need more. On the other hand, I do prefer the detailed "layering" that the Hugo 2 provides, compared to the "flatter" sound from my Naim DACs (CD player and streamer). It's particularly noticeable in orchestral music - the sound of the strings, the "stiction" as a bow starts to move across a string.

I guess I'll have to audition a unit…

 

[iamoneagain]

Thanks, this is useful. I could do with a bit more weight to the sound of my Utopia headphones - I found that using a better headphone cable helps (I have the Black Dragon) but still need more. On the other hand, I do prefer the detailed "layering" that the Hugo 2 provides, compared to the "flatter" sound from my Naim DACs (CD player and streamer). It's particularly noticeable in orchestral music - the sound of the strings, the "stiction" as a bow starts to move across a string.

I guess I'll have to audition a unit…

I highly recommend the Danacable Reference Lazuli for the Focal Utopia’s. To me, it’s as big of difference as a dac upgrade. It’s brings out the clarity and has so nice rich mids. When I downgraded from the Dave/mscaler I didn’t miss the Chord combo but when I sent my cable back to get fitted with balance plug, I missed it.

I don’t listen to much classical music, so all the extra money to achieve life-like resolution is somewhat wasted. I need, rich tone, impact and weight over resolution. Now I thought the Dave/mscaler did provide the best of both worlds. Highly resolving but still musical. That what i fault the Hugo 2. Just seemed to technical for my tastes.

With the Focal Arche, I also tried Hqplayer since my streamer had NAA endpoint. I felt the sound was as good as, if not better than the Dave/mscaler but might of had even more weight to it. The issue was it took som many boxes to make this happen, there was a slightly delay, and when it didn’t work, was a pain to get it running again. End up just using the Focal Arche without it and then made decision to get the Naim to simply things even more.

 

[rde01]

Any comparison to DCSs Bartok? I know it's no fair considering the price difference. But still.
I heard that Bartok and it was something special but unobtanium.
Maybe i should just go demo the Naim...

 

[dcp10]

I highly recommend the Danacable Reference Lazuli for the Focal Utopia’s. To me, it’s as big of difference as a dac upgrade.

Thanks for the tip. Yes, cables really do make a difference … I had been sceptical, but the difference between my two (long and short) black dragon cables and the stock cables is like night and day (or rather, day and night: the Black Dragons sound so much better).

I’m not quite sure about the science - perhaps impedance matching with the source - in which case, results may vary with different sources?

 

[iamoneagain]

Thanks for the tip. Yes, cables really do make a difference … I had been sceptical, but the difference between my two (long and short) black dragon cables and the stock cables is like night and day (or rather, day and night: the Black Dragons sound so much better).

I’m not quite sure about the science - perhaps impedance matching with the source - in which case, results may vary with different sources?

Not sure either. Always found headphone cables to help but I never got into power cords and usb cables. I bought an expensive Usb cable for my Hugo 2 at the time and it sounded worse than the cheap stock cable. I guess as other than power cord and headphone cable, the Uniti takes away from all that playing around.

 

[Alpexis]

Hi. I have been using it for only one day and my early impressions are VERY FAVORABLE. I have had the Chord Dave, the TT2, the Hugo 2, the Mojo, Burson Audio Conductor Reference, Schiit Asgard 3, RME ADI-2, iFi DSD and several others and while the Chord products have a slightly more "live" sound (which is very good) the Naim Uniti Atom HE's DAC is very good.

I recently also had the new Cambridge Audio EVO 150 which I graded as a "B" overall (sound is good but short of amazing and I had consistent issues with WiFI connectivity).

Interestingly the Naim Uniti Atom Headphone Edition unit is a bit smaller when you see it in person than it looks in pictures. Very substantial though and really a piece of art.

Here is the news flash headline - "The Naim Uniti Atom Headphone Edition is Superior to the Cambridge Audio EVO in Almost Every Facet".

The sound is better, the looks are better, the connectivity is better (simpler and very few connection issues). I am really enjoying it. In fact with the Cambridge EVO I used the pre amp out to a Woo Audio WA2 to get a warmer sound profile. But with the Naim UA HE I did not need the WA2 to "improve" the sound.

Wow !

This is how audio companies can get a large fan base !

Compared to the ifi dsd?

 

[iamoneagain]

Compared to the ifi dsd?

I used to own one of these. They have power but lack refinement. Not a lot of texture and can be sibilant. This could be helped if used with HQPlayer. I even enjoy the original Chord Hugo over the ifi dsd. And now I enjoy the Naim HE over the Chord Dave.

And as far as the size, I have it on an end table next to the couch and still fits lamp and headphone stand. You also don’t need to direct connect it to anything other than power outlet. Has excellent wifi ability. It’s also easy to move around since it small and is reconnected within a minute. Whenever I had to move my Chord Dave/mscaler, it took at least half hour and had to look up the connections online since not marked well on the Dave.

 

[searchingtom]

I have my Uniti Atom HE out to a Feliks Euforia - just divine !

 

[paolosnz]

Don't like its internal amplifier?

 

[bluenight]

I have my Uniti Atom HE out to a Feliks Euforia - just divine !

So with the rca preamp output you can connect to external amp? With remote you can control the volume?

Maybe worth selling hugo 2 and Cambridge CXNv2 streamer to get this instead?

Or if you dont care about all in box its easier to get better sound with a streamer transport like Lumin U1 Mini to hugo 2 as dac to amp in $2000 range or less?

Or even the ifi zen stream instead of Lumin. Not sure how much difference the transport can make.

 

[iamoneagain]

So with the rca preamp output you can connect to external amp? With remote you can control the volume?

Maybe worth selling hugo 2 and Cambridge CXNv2 streamer to get this instead?

Or if you dont care about all in box its easier to get better sound with a streamer transport like Lumin U1 Mini to hugo 2 as dac to amp in $2000 range or less?

Or even the ifi zen stream instead of Lumin. Not sure how much difference the transport can make.

For me, the Naim HE alone beats the Hugo 2 with Focal Utopia. I even enjoy it over the Dave/mscaler. The Utopia’s sounded thin on the Hugo 2 in comparison. The Dave combo was excellent but very expensive and not everything sounded great on it. I find I enjoy all my music with the Naim. Also nice that the remote lights up and controls both playback and volume. And if have roon, it can also control power and volume thru the app. Actually any of the streaming app will wake it up and control volume.

I believe as a preamp you use it to control the volume and set amp at predetermined volume but I’m not sure what level that is.

 

[u2u2]

I believe as a preamp you use it to control the volume and set amp at predetermined volume but I’m not sure what level that is.

You have the idea down.
Set your amp at unity or what fixed level you desire.
On the Unity HE go into the audio settings and select Pre Amp max volume. As an example I set my max volume at 90%. This gives the main volume on the HE the range I need to use it as pre amp on a Woo WA22 (balanced) and a Woo WA6 (RCA) with the Woo amps volumes at 1200.
When used with my McIntosh MHA200 (on balanced) I set the pre amp max volume at 100% to allow the MHA200 to run at the unity setting.
If I only ran the WA22 with the pre amp the max would be at 50%. You can even adjust to compensate for different power tubes...
You may also have input trim settings, depending on your configuration, for further tweaks.
Playing with the various settings lets you find the sweet spot for your system and musical tastes.
Control the Atom HE from across the room with a phone, tablet, or the remote.

 

[searchingtom]

Don't like its internal amplifier?

I do like it. I just like to vary sounds depending on music genre (tube for string music, amp only for vocal).