Naim Uniti Star £3,499
I’m a huge fan of Naim – the Muso and Uniti ranges blend audiophile sound quality, connectivity and beautiful design – and it was a sad day for me when my Naim Uniti review sample was returned to the company.
If you still have a large CD collection but also love streaming, the Uniti Star is virtually perfect. You just need to add speakers. The CD player sounds terrific – the Class A/B amplifier offers 70W per channel – and if you plug in a USB drive or dongle you can rip any
CD. BBC Music Magazine’s December cover CD of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time sounded precise, detailed and dynamic, balanced beautifully between all four instruments. A rare treat.
As for streaming, you’ve got the lot, and I’d expect nothing less for the price: Apple Airplay, Chromecast, Bluetooth aptx, Spotify Connect and Tidal, plus it’s UPNP compliant so you can play from a network storage drive. It doesn’t have a DAB/FM radio, but you can stream those channels, so that isn’t a disaster. naimaudio.com