Naim Uniti Atom Review (Streamer & Amp)

[Roland]

Indeed. Marketing is a huge part of it. There is synergy here between how they market overpriced gear and under-educated consumers.



Which were spurious?

The ones that don’t influence how it sounds.

 

[Roland]

Amplifiers and dacs are measured, ranked, praised or rubbished always with the caveat that the differences between good and bad (using the measures chosen) might not be audible. What is the point of that? At least try to establish if good sounds better than bad, otherwise it’s just measurement for its own sake.

 

[Garrincha]

Amplifiers and dacs are measured, ranked, praised or rubbished always with the caveat that the differences between good and bad (using the measures chosen) might not be audible. What is the point of that? At least try to establish if good sounds better than bad, otherwise it’s just measurement for its own sake.

Good amplifiers and Dacs don’t have a specific sound, maybe you should firstly learn that.

 

[Garrincha]

I’m done here guys. Cheers but I sense when I’m not welcome. I’ll get my coat.

Good riddance

 

[Engine]

Good riddance

Looks like you just love goats?

 

[Roland]

Good amplifiers and Dacs don’t have a specific sound, maybe you should firstly learn that.

What evidence do you have that non “good” amplifiers have a specific sound? Is this specific sound pleasing or awful and in what ways? At what point do amplifiers and dacs become “bad” rather than “good”? Maybe you should first learn how to avoid being condescending and rude.

 

[DMill]

What evidence do you have that non “good” amplifiers have a specific sound? Is this specific sound pleasing or awful and in what ways? At what point do amplifiers and dacs become “bad” rather than “good”? Maybe you should first learn how to avoid being condescending and rude.

Typically you wouldn’t want to use an amplifier for tone control in your system and it should be able to handle the electrical load put on it by the speakers in a linear way from 20-20kHz at least. It’s your speakers that have a “sound”. Also certain amps can introduce a fair amount of distortion which may pleasing to some. Take some tube amps for example. As to what is good or bad I suppose that’s for you to decide for yourself. But I can say if your intent is to reproduce music as recorded there is definitely some amplifiers better than others.

 

[Garrincha]

What evidence do you have that non “good” amplifiers have a specific sound? Is this specific sound pleasing or awful and in what ways? At what point do amplifiers and dacs become “bad” rather than “good”? Maybe you should first learn how to avoid being condescending and rude.

As @DMill has written, "good" for an amplifier means, linear frequency response, low distortion (THD and IMD), crosstalk etc. And it must have sufficient power to drive the load, i.e. far from clipping. A DAC must be linear as well, have high SNR etc. When these conditions are met, amps and DACs are transparent and just do their job. The signature of the sound comes from the recording and the speakers. Nobody interested in the best possible reproduction of music wants an influence of the sound from a DAC or an amp.

 

[Vacceo]

Changing the sound of the source is the job of equalization.

Nothing wrong with liking extra bass or treble, but if that's the case, EQ typically gives you that for a fraction of the price.

 

[Roland]

As @DMill has written, "good" for an amplifier means, linear frequency response, low distortion (THD and IMD), crosstalk etc. And it must have sufficient power to drive the load, i.e. far from clipping. A DAC must be linear as well, have high SNR etc. When these conditions are met, amps and DACs are transparent and just do their job. The signature of the sound comes from the recording and the speakers. Nobody interested in the best possible reproduction of music wants an influence of the sound from a DAC or an amp.

I accept the principle of “good” amplifier or dac measurements, but this is ASR, so what are the scientific, critical limits of sinad, linearity, crosstalk etc., that make sound reproduction unacceptable, and how does this manifest itself in the listening experience? Which amps or dacs do not meet these thresholds and how bad do they sound?

However, I keep reading the ASR mantra that “all amps and dacs sound the same”, so why bother measuring them, ranking them in order and trashing the ones that measure worst, if they all sound the same? Perhaps manufacturers know that all amps and dacs sound the same, so what is the point in striving for better numbers which are entirely irrelevant? Topping realise that they have a captive market of audiophool measurers who value amps and dacs that measure “more”, even if this has no bearing on the listening experience.

 

[GiBo61]

As an owner of an Atom, I have a few points: I don’t challenge any of Amir’s findings or measurements, but at the outset of the review he clearly dislikes the ‘sharp edges’ every time he moves it as he says. But… once you have it in place it doesn’t get moved at all by the user. The aesthetics of the device are surely one of the strong points; the wifi antenna is hidden, the blue tooth antenna is hidden, so well in fact that I believe there is a patent on this. Some of the comments talk about how this could be replaced with a PC connected to an outboard DAC, connected to something else… Each to their own of course, but I don’t want my living room looking like an electronics workshop. YVMV.

I wish the Atom had tested better, but I do get excellent results in use with mine. It is in use every day, for radio, streaming from Tidal or my NAS (a Uniti Core). It is very intuitive to use, and works reliably every time, every day. I like the integrated functionality, and it does everything I need just right. If Apple were into hi-fi this is what they would make (I probably need to run for cover about now ). It is hooked up to B&W bookshelf speakers – CM1, and a B&W subwoofer. The speakers are only about 83db sensitivity, but in my medium sized room (about 14ft x 25ft) I get very good volume with no trouble, and that includes the transients. I listen to jazz and classical mostly, and at moderately high levels. It actually sounds very good indeed, and better than anything I have had in the past using more powerful amps.

Like everyone here, I am always looking for an upgrade, and I will no doubt replace my speakers in the coming months. (There are lots of good reviews of speakers right here for me to go on.) However, my user experience being somewhat counter to the test results leaves me wondering a little, just how much credence to place in testing; If I can’t actually hear the distortion or noise, but do hear good music, are the tests perhaps too onerous?

I also hear good music with my Denon DRA 800H 2:1 streamer + power amplifier and It also works like a charm. In Amir's tests it performs more or less like the Naim Uniti Atom but it has > 140W at 4 ohm and > 100W at 8 ohm and costs about 5 times less than the Naim. So the message here is: is it worth to spend such amount of money only for the brand and the apperarance of the device when you can get the same or even better performances at a fraction of the price?

 

[Trell]

I also hear good music with my Denon DRA 800H 2:1 streamer + power amplifier and It also works like a charm. In Amir's tests it performs more or less like the Naim Uniti Atom but it has > 140W at 4 ohm and > 100W at 8 ohm and costs about 5 times less than the Naim. So the message here is: is it worth to spend such amount of money only for the brand and the apperarance of the device when you can get the same or even better performances at a fraction of the price?

This is where build quality, service/support, reliability, looks, connectivity and other features comes in.

It’s a personal choice, apart from just the performance alone assuming it’s good enough.

 

[GiBo61]

I accept the principle of “good” amplifier or dac measurements, but this is ASR, so what are the scientific, critical limits of sinad, linearity, crosstalk etc., that make sound reproduction unacceptable, and how does this manifest itself in the listening experience? Which amps or dacs do not meet these thresholds and how bad do they sound?

However, I keep reading the ASR mantra that “all amps and dacs sound the same”, so why bother measuring them, ranking them in order and trashing the ones that measure worst, if they all sound the same? Perhaps manufacturers know that all amps and dacs sound the same, so what is the point in striving for better numbers which are entirely irrelevant? Topping realise that they have a captive market of audiophool measurers who value amps and dacs that measure “more”, even if this has no bearing on the listening experience.

When you listen music in the background likely “all amps and dacs sound the same”. For more critical listening, devices with better objective measures should differentiate themselves from those with poor performance. In any case, it is important to carry out rigorous measurements also to avoid spending absurd figures for devices that once tested show modest performance.

 

[GiBo61]

This is where build quality, service/support, reliability, looks, connectivity and other features comes in.

It’s a personal choice, apart from just the performance alone assuming it’s good enough.

It’s a personal choice, as long as you are able to accept that a device that costs more than $3000 performs no better than one that costs $600

 

[Trell]

It’s a personal choice, as long as you are able to accept that a device that costs more than $3000 performs no better than one that costs $600

Absolutely! Sorry if I was unclear about that.

I really enjoy my RME ADI-2 DAC FS and with its DSP disabled but I will hear any difference to other well measuring DAC/HPA combos that are much cheaper. I was very well aware of that when I bought it last year but it was the DSP I wanted, especially Dynamic Loudness. Some will say that can also be done using free software on my PC, but I don’t want to do so for various reasons: A preference.

 

[DMill]

I accept the principle of “good” amplifier or dac measurements, but this is ASR, so what are the scientific, critical limits of sinad, linearity, crosstalk etc., that make sound reproduction unacceptable, and how does this manifest itself in the listening experience? Which amps or dacs do not meet these thresholds and how bad do they sound?

However, I keep reading the ASR mantra that “all amps and dacs sound the same”, so why bother measuring them, ranking them in order and trashing the ones that measure worst, if they all sound the same? Perhaps manufacturers know that all amps and dacs sound the same, so what is the point in striving for better numbers which are entirely irrelevant? Topping realise that they have a captive market of audiophool measurers who value amps and dacs that measure “more”, even if this has no bearing on the listening experience.

There was an incredibly well detailed article written here about measurement scores and what is audible based in science. I'll be damned if I can find it. Perhaps another member can point you to it???

 

[Trell]

There was an incredibly well detailed article written here about measurement scores and what is audible based in science. I'll be damned if I can find it. Perhaps another member can point you to it???

This one you are thinking off?

Audibility thresholds of amp and DAC measurements

Introduction A recurring theme on ASR is whether or not the various measured qualities of the devices are audible. In this post, I'll present some clear and visual thresholds for when those imperfections can be considered a potentially audible concern. I will not explain the basics of amp/DAC...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[DMill]

This one you are thinking off?

Audibility thresholds of amp and DAC measurements

Introduction A recurring theme on ASR is whether or not the various measured qualities of the devices are audible. In this post, I'll present some clear and visual thresholds for when those imperfections can be considered a potentially audible concern. I will not explain the basics of amp/DAC...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Yes. That's the one. Thank you.

 

[Engine]

I also hear good music with my Denon DRA 800H 2:1 streamer + power amplifier and It also works like a charm. In Amir's tests it performs more or less like the Naim Uniti Atom but it has > 140W at 4 ohm and > 100W at 8 ohm and costs about 5 times less than the Naim. So the message here is: is it worth to spend such amount of money only for the brand and the apperarance of the device when you can get the same or even better performances at a fraction of the price?

I hope you are aware that this device is not even close to the same level as the Atom, not to mention the sound quality.

 

[DMill]

I hope you are aware that this device is not even close to the same level as the Atom, not to mention the sound quality.

Looks like it compares nicely to the Atom, and in fact may better it just on power alone. You'd be giving up the nice display on the Atom if that's your thing though.