Launched today at the High End 2012 show here in Munich, the NaimUniti 2 is the second generation of the original Naim network music player announced in 2009.
The NaimUniti heralded an entire new range of products for the British company, not to mention winning plenty of awards; the new version has a more power, a new CD player and DAC, improvements to its analogue section and a new transformer.
Selling for £2795 when it hits the shops next month, the NaimUniti 2 increases power output to 70W per channel from the original model's 50W, which is intended to expand the range of loudspeakers and room sizes it can accommodate.
The power transformer is also larger, to handle this power hike: it now uses a 400VA with six separate secondary windings feeding separate power supplies for DAC, analogue, power amplifier, relays, CD player and digital control
The latest version of Naim's 24-bit/192kHz-capable streaming board is fitted, the digital circuitboard is improved and digital-to-analogue conversion is now handled by Burr Brown's PCM1793 DAC – all of which, Naim says, 'delivers lower distortion and better dynamics'.
The CD mechanism and loading tray has also been improved, while retained from the original model are a multiformat FM/DAB/internet radio tuner alongside the streaming capability, a front panel USB input for memory devices and digital connection and charging of Apple iPods and iPhones, and five digital and three analogue stereo inputs.
As well a driving a pair of speakers, the NaimUniti 2 also has an output for a subwoofer, and a DIN preout connection to allow it to be used with one of the company's power amplifiers.
A new USB mini socket is fitted to the rear panel to allow future updates, and the player can be controlled by the remote handset supplied or Naim's free iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch app.
Naim has also announced at the show that from next Monday it will be shipping its HDX, UnitiServe and NaimNet servers with double the storage, new software and an improved control app.
The streaming servers will now be supplied with a 2TB drive as standard, the drive being partitioned with a 'Downloads' folder to store ripped or downloaded music already in the user's collection. The 2TB drive will provide storage for around 2400 albums in Naim's preferred WAV uncompressed format.
Provided on servermodels now shipping, and available for download for existing owners of Naim servers from today is the company's Version 1.6C software. This fixes what the company describes as ' some minor issues that had occurred in the field', and comes in the form of an .iso file to be burned to a CD. Loading this disc into one of the servers will start the update.
Finally there's a new version of Naim's free n-Serve control app for the servers: Version 2.3 allows music management previously only available using the company's desktop client, including metadata editing, online look-up of data and web-searching for album art, as well as the potential for expanded information about artists including news and video.
