Naim Uniti Atom Review (Streamer & Amp)

[_thelaughingman]

I'm utterly confounded by companies as established as NAIM that sell megabucks amps but can't get the basics correct? All the noise and current limitations does not warrant this being a 4k product.

EDIT: Mind you, there are YouTubers and other audiophile blogs that swear by the UNITY being a stupendous product for the money. SMH

 

[Bruce Morgen]

As pure amplification, this thing is considerably inferior to the sub-$100 Aiyima A07 "chip amp." If that's not utterly appalling coming from a supposedly "high-end" audio company, I don't know what is.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

As pure amplification, this thing is considerably inferior to the sub-$100 Aiyima A07 "chip amp." If that's not utterly appalling coming from a supposedly "high-end" audio company, I don't know what is.

That was my very thought. I have an Aiyima A07 that I bought for $89 that smokes the amp in this thing on both Sinad and power delivery.

 

[Steve Dallas]

My mediocre refurbished Peachtrees are smiling big smiles. No streamer functionality, of course, but that is what my PC running Dirac is for.

 

[Nango]

Topping & Co. should start OEM programs for all these other names.

 

[GXAlan]

The real question is if one of the very first solid state silicon transistor integrated amps can beat this premium lifestyle device (the very first solid state integrated amps used germanium transistors) …

 

[restorer-john]

Companies spec power at all kinds of metrics and there is no telling how they even measure THD at 1%.

1% is hardly HiFi, but as a number, it has gained more traction than any others. It's also a pretty simple to understand metric for the average Joe. The distortion/noise and other crap represents 1% of the total signal with 99% being 'pure'.

I'd rather specify amplifiers as 99.999% (5 nines etc) pure at X rated power. IOW, 0.001% THD.

I agree that once the knee has been reached, the amp is going non-linear, but lines in the sand are useful for comparison purposes.

None of that excuses the poor showing of this Naim. Maybe they'll drop this model...

 

[Anthony T]

Completely mystified why anyone would buy this at even one third its current price.

Because you’re nobody without a Naim

 

[wwenze]

In short, it’s a disaster from the company.

Naim was formed back in 1976 by a good friend of mine. Julian Vereker had a tiny shop on a tiny side street in a tiny English town where I used to live. He remortgaged his house to buy a Precision Instrument system so that he can be sure his amplifiers performed as SOTA.

He is turning in his grave.

Oh, so it has a long history.

I must have encountered Naim only after the direction change then. Must have been the "lifestyle" products.

 

[Chrispy]

Naim has never impressed me, seems more rooted in silly audiophilia for marketing at least. Certainly not a particularly good value type item. This review kind of was what I expected of a company like Naim.

 

[Geert]

Performance of Naim Atom ranges from fair/adequate to rather poor

But you didn't measure PRAT?

 

[enricoclaudio]

Thanks @amirm for another revealing review. This one was at the top of my short list last year when I was looking for a high end Roon Ready streamer. I'm so glad that I went with the Matrix Audio X-SABRE 3 and not the Naim Unity Atom

 

[tritopia]

Did Class A/B have a vacuum tube simulator???

 

[contium]

Did anyone think an all-in-one lifestyle product was going to be a measurement monster? I don't own a Unity Atom but I have used one and noticed nothing negative with the sound. While expensive for a lifestyle product, the user experience is second to none IMO and I would happily own if it was in my budget.

 

[amirm]

And for it to have these kind of performance numbers and look so clunky to boot with no nifty color display to show the album cover, sample rate, etc. What the hell!

It actually has a color display and will do that if you use the internal streaming function. It also flashes the input sample rate but I don't remember if it stayed up.

 

[ralph]

disappointing performance - i was seriously considering getting one of their amps (w/ the volume knob on the left, wondering whether anyone else here can appreciate this ) thanks for the review Amir!

 

[Loooop]

The Naim Superuniti streamer, which I bought about 10 years ago, was by far the worst and most expensive "hi-fi" device I've ever owned:
• the first unit had a very noisy toroidal transformer. Replaced under warranty with a less noisy one, but still audible at low volume;
• the second unit, due to particular settings of the green "naim" light on the front, went by itself in mute every moment. They pretended to repair it under warranty but only changed the above setting;
• the wi-fi was not usable and I was forced to pair it with an Apple Airport unit;
• they promised an upgrade that would give compatibility with AirPlay, but never provided it;
• the firmware update procedure was extremely cumbersome;
• the green screen (oled) after a few years became invisible. This happened to all owners of the device and other models with the same type of display, but despite this, the company demanded around € 400 for the repair (I refused to repair it);
• finally, the remote control has also broken;

The first criterion I used when choosing a new streamer last year was "stay away from Naim".

 

[dav0043]

Keep up the great work Amir. Undoing decades of false advertising and snake oil audio reviews.

 

[voodooless]

As the Germans would say: Nein!

@amirm, it’s Uniti, not Unity! This better gets properly indexed by Google

Obviously WhatHifi has a raving review:

Naim Uniti Atom review

What Hi-Fi? Awards 2023 winner. A streaming amplifier that not only looks great but sounds great

www.whathifi.com

Pros​

• Class-leading clarity and insight
• Lovely precise timing and impressive dynamic range
• Looks as impressive as it sounds

Cons​

Really nothing noteworthy

Another rave from Steve Huff:

The Naim Atom Review. This HiFi “All in One” challenged my Belief system. | Steve Huff Hi-Fi and Photo

The Naim Atom Review. This HiFi All in One challenged my Belief system. By Steve Huff UPDATE: I tested the Atom and Nova with a set of B&W 705 S2's. Read it HERE. I have raved about many a product on these pages over the last 13 years, but only when I really loved said

www.stevehuffphoto.com

The value here is extraordinary and the best (value) I have ever seen in my 30 years of HiFi.

 

[Tangband]

Ten years ago I bought a Naim streamer, and I thought that the sound was an improvement over the squeezebox Duet I had before. This was followed by the Yamaha wxc50 streamer and the sound quality was about the same as the Naim. Now I use an Apple computer with Apple lossless and a DDC and the sound is slightly better than before.

Naim always gets high regards in magazines, with 5 stars.
I like the building quality of the boxes for NAIM .