Hey folks. Coming from a Chord Qutest and Auralic Taurus mk 2 amplifier I was wondering if the Uniti Atom HE would be a step up or down in performance? Wife pushing me for an all in one system so here I am lol. I use mostly the Fostex variants of headphones and Hifiman planars. Do these pair well?
Hey folks. Coming from a Chord Qutest and Auralic Taurus mk 2 amplifier I was wondering if the Uniti Atom HE would be a step up or down in performance? Wife pushing me for an all in one system so here I am lol. I use mostly the Fostex variants of headphones and Hifiman planars. Do these pair well?
Yeah, it would be a step up in looks and convenience. Hard to say about sound quality. The amp you have is recommended for the Hifiman. Not sure how hard those are to drive. The Naim had no problem driving the planar Expanse and those are hard to drive. I have a Caldera on order and will see how those sound with it. Believe those are easier to drive.
It also depends are sound signature. Naim is a more forgiving dac that focuses on rhythm and pace more than ultimate resolution, like the Chord dacs are after. But if never heard Chord with a separate amp. The Hugo 2 didn’t have a lot of weight and the Dave sounded pretty good but was only driving the Utopia at the time.
But the Naim HE is easy to setup and move around. Looks great anywhere in the house. I have it next to the couch but have moved it to the bedroom from time to time and ready to go in under a minute. And I ended up preferring it’s sound signature over Chord’s but that may not be the case for everyone.
For the looks, convenience and keeping the mrs happy I’m seriously considering this. As long as it’s not a downgrade to my current setup I’ll be happy.
Any one here used there Naim Uniti Atom HE with Fostex headphones ? Specifically TH900 mk 2 ?
Hey all. Been considering an all-in-one solution like the Uniti for a while. I moved away from IEMs and used only headphones, and currently use an iBasso DX300 Max (very powerful and sounds terrific will full sized cans).
I wanted to ask if anyone has perhaps compared the Naim to the DX300 Max or similar TOTL DAP (e.g., SP2k / SP3k, N8ii, etc.)?
Also, has anyone using or have you heard the Naim with the Meze Elite or T+A Solitaire P? And if so, how were these pairings and did the Naim do the headphones justice?
The Naim is not designed to drive IEM’s. It is a class AB headphone all-in-one.
The house tuning and power will satisfy the vast majority of headphone users. There is little to complain about from aesthetics, ergonomics to performance.
The SP2K is a more neutral, resolving unit as is typical of A&K ultima DAP’s. The firmware is outdated and laggy. It does not have anywhere near the power as a desktop unit re: headphones. I tend to pair my SP2K with the Cayin C9 when I can be bothered to do so. Whilst I haven’t heard the Meze Elite, the NAIM plays well with Empyrean and Audeze.
I have the Elites and the Naim HE and it pairs up well. It’s worth adding a good power cable with it as well. It also acts as a great pre-amp into a tube amp.
I have this gear for one year now and i think it’s a better preamp than a headphone amp. A very good streamer and dac but i prefer to join a warmer headphone amplification. Just my way. But for my accuphase speaker amp, it’s just the perfect match.
It’s not the only way. But there is no native app. Also the issue with Airplay 2 and Apple Music is that currently Apple Music still outputs at only 256 aac over Airplay 2. This is not only Naim but any Airplay 2 device. Possible this could change in an upcoming IOS release.
So the other way to play Apple Music on the Naim is a direct connection via coaxial or optical input. I have a usb to coaxial converter that works directly with the iPad mini usb-c port. On an iPhone, you’d also need to used the camera converter. With the direct method you can play hires files all the way up to 192k. With this method you bypass the streamer so the album art doesn’t show up and you lose the playback controls on the remote other than volume. You have to control only on mobile device and also be hardwired in. Kind of takes away from the beauty of the Naim.
I personally use roon with Qobuz but do have an Apple Music account for my family. So if Apple enables true lossless over Airplay 2 or some lossless handoff feature, I’ll drop Qobuz and just use Apple Music. Apple Music over Airplay 2 loses a little bit of spatial cues and sounds flatter than Qobuz. Also little less sparkle. But overall it doesn’t sound too bad for just casual listening.
It’s not the only way. But there is no native app. Also the issue with Airplay 2 and Apple Music is that currently Apple Music still outputs at only 256 aac over Airplay 2. This is not only Naim but any Airplay 2 device. Possible this could change in an upcoming IOS release.
So the other way to play Apple Music on the Naim is a direct connection via coaxial or optical input. I have a usb to coaxial converter that works directly with the iPad mini usb-c port. On an iPhone, you’d also need to used the camera converter. With the direct method you can play hires files all the way up to 192k. With this method you bypass the streamer so the album art doesn’t show up and you lose the playback controls on the remote other than volume. You have to control only on mobile device and also be hardwired in. Kind of takes away from the beauty of the Naim.
I personally use roon with Qobuz but do have an Apple Music account for my family. So if Apple enables true lossless over Airplay 2 or some lossless handoff feature, I’ll drop Qobuz and just use Apple Music. Apple Music over Airplay 2 loses a little bit of spatial cues and sounds flatter than Qobuz. Also little less sparkle. But overall it doesn’t sound too bad for just casual listening.
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