Naim has been showing off two versions of its compact new Unitiserve media server at the Munich High End Show, as well as a new version of the company’s HDX digital music player.
Both flavours of UnitiServe muster service as digital audio ripper, music player and server with Naim’s own secure ripping engine (the same as the one in the HDX), and rip tracks as lossless WAV files. They will also play FLAC, AIFF, ALAC, AAC and MP3 files so long as they’re not subject to DRM.
They both use Naim’s own UPnP server to deliver music in lossless form, though you can also program them to downsample as they rip, and can send up to six StreamNet streams at CD quality to a NaimNet system in the home.
The standard UnitiServe (£2,000) has a 1TB hard drive with room for up to 1200 CDs while the SSD (£2,250) version has a 16GB solid state drive but is designed to be used with systems which have music stored on a computer or NAS drive.
The same principle has also been applied to Naim’s HDX-SSD variant (£4,595), which will lose the standard HDX’s internal hard drive in favour of the same solid state drive and be capable of doing the same trick of connecting to a NAS server to access networked music. The upgrade incorporates new RAM and a new PCI audio card, designed for a single stereo output, which promises improved sound quality.
Both UnitiServes will be available in July, which is also when existing Naim HDX owners can return their units to Naim dealers for upgrade.