[iamoneagain]

How would the focal Arche compare to the Uniti Atom in terms of sound quality and sound signature?

I still have both and prefer the Naim. The Naim has more body, texture and weight. The Arche is still fun and dynamic but not as warm. The Arche has also been able to power the Expanse and Caldera but everything sounds better on the Naim.

And then build quality is higher on the Naim. It’s twice as heavy and built like a tank. Believe has a much larger power supply. And it’s a streamer/dac/amp vs dac amp and has a great remote that lights up and is not infrared, but wireless. Saw some new streamer/dac/preamp called the MU2 for $18k that includes infrared remote so you have to aim at it.

Last thing is the Focal Arche has been discontinued so support is going to be limited and some people have issues with the usb connection. I have been using the coaxial input to avoid that and have no issues. I use the Arche as my work setup and like the fact it has the built in headstand. I also sit next to it, so don’t need to worry it doesn’t has a remote.

 

[Radiomir1964]

Does the Uniti Atom HE support Apple Music natively and not reliant on Airplay2?

Also How is it for powering planets such as Dan Clark Audio Aeon2 Noire and Quad Era-1 ?

Thanks in advance.

Aeon2 Noire is truly stunning on the HE

 

[iamoneagain]

One thing I noticed about the Naim HE is it uses the same dac chips that are in their new high end streamers. They explained that people couldn’t read into the chip’s performance because they only use part of the chip and then have their own custom upsampling and filters that gives them their house sound across their product range. The more expensive stuff has better volume control and can add external power supply but don’t think that would make much difference for headphones. And if does, not worth the cost. Make sense if going to also use for speaker setup.

 

[narticus]

Does anyone know how to eliminate hiss when using IEMs with the HE? Would an upgraded power cable or power conditioning help with that?

 

[Tanalasta]

Possible. But quite simply the impedance and design wasn’t intended for IEMs

 

[narticus]

I see. Does anyone have experience using this? https://ifi-audio.com/products/iematch/

 

[tmarshl]

I still have both and prefer the Naim. The Naim has more body, texture and weight. The Arche is still fun and dynamic but not as warm. The Arche has also been able to power the Expanse and Caldera but everything sounds better on the Naim.

And then build quality is higher on the Naim. It’s twice as heavy and built like a tank. Believe has a much larger power supply. And it’s a streamer/dac/amp vs dac amp and has a great remote that lights up and is not infrared, but wireless. Saw some new streamer/dac/preamp called the MU2 for $18k that includes infrared remote so you have to aim at it.

Last thing is the Focal Arche has been discontinued so support is going to be limited and some people have issues with the usb connection. I have been using the coaxial input to avoid that and have no issues. I use the Arche as my work setup and like the fact it has the built in headstand. I also sit next to it, so don’t need to worry it doesn’t has a remote.

I had the Arche, and got really tired of it dropping the USB handshake over and over again. Finally sold it when Focal stopped supporting it. Now I have the HE, and it works like a charm. I love the AIO design and execution.

 

[Maxfocal]

Hello everyone! Has anyone been able to compare the Naim against the Chord Hugo tt2 without mscaler? Have been thinking about upgrading but am unsure wether the tt2 suffices as a standalone unit.

 

[Maxfocal]

As far as Hugo 2 vs Naim is concerned, the HE wins by a decent margin imo. TT2 should beat both comfortably tho, right??

 

[Tanalasta]

The TT2 doesn’t have any streaming capability. It also doesn’t have 4.4mm headphone jacks.

The TT2 is technically superior and has the Chord sound. I hooked a DAP via optical to give it roon capability. Resolution etc etc. is superior in the TT2.

In the end it wasn’t worth having both and I sold the TT2.

 

[Maxfocal]

thanks for the reply.

why did you decide to settle for the HE in spite of said technical disadvantages?

 

[iamoneagain]

As far as Hugo 2 vs Naim is concerned, the HE wins by a decent margin imo. TT2 should beat both comfortably tho, right??

I read a few people posting even though technically better, the Naim HE was a more enjoyable pairing with their headphones. I had the Chord Dave w/mscaler and haven’t really missed it. The Naim HE has a nice balance of technical and musical.

I’m attending a local headphone meet next month so I’ll get to test Caldera on a few other setups to see how it compares. Also someone will have a Meze Elite, so I’ll see how that compares.

I posted before that an upgraded power cable can be used to tweak to get last bit of goodness out of the Naim.

 

[Maxfocal]

Forgot to mention that I currently use the Focal Utopia OG which according to many has a nice synergy with the HE

I did upgrade the power cable for the HE but didn't notice a sonical improvement over the 20 Euro one. Build quality and thickness are much appreciated still

Dana Cable Lazuli Reference is also under way, really excited for that one

 

[Maxfocal]

I read a few people posting even though technically better, the Naim HE was a more enjoyable pairing with their headphones. I had the Chord Dave w/mscaler and haven’t really missed it. The Naim HE has a nice balance of technical and musical.

I’m attending a local headphone meet next month so I’ll get to test Caldera on a few other setups to see how it compares. Also someone will have a Meze Elite, so I’ll see how that compares.

I posted before that an upgraded power cable can be used to tweak to get last bit of goodness out of the Naim.

I saw in your profile that you used to be a Utopia owner yourself. What made you switch?

 

[Tanalasta]

thanks for the reply.

why did you decide to settle for the HE in spite of said technical disadvantages?

My preferred headphone cable were terminated in single rca or 4.4mm. So having to run adapters and plug in a music source just meant I rarely used it over the Naim HE.

Do I miss the TT2? Sometimes. The technical aspects and soundstage are superior. But it just wasn’t worth keeping the hardware for the small (arbitrarily 10 percent) improvement. The Naim is a more organic sounding SS all in one and was good enough.