![]() ![]() All of this results in better sound quality, Naim claims. Other sources of electrical noise present in desktop PCs are also absent from the Uniti Core: There’s no video circuitry, and no Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. It employs a linear power supply, which is less noisy than the switching power supplies used in general-purpose computers and in less robustly engineered A/V components. The Uniti Core is designed to be electrically quiet as well. Thanks to those heatsinks, no fans are needed to cool the Core’s innards - an important consideration if it’s being installed in a room used for music listening. The case is made of heavy-gauge brushed aluminum, with large, extruded-aluminum heatsinks along the sides. Measuring 8.4”W x 3.75”H x 10.4”D, it tips the scales at 15.4 pounds. The Uniti Core is built and looks like a tank. After that, you enter the Network Share location and select the folders you want to pull into Roon. Click the + Add Folder button, then, on the next screen, click + Add Network Drive. First, you have to import the Uniti Core’s contents into Roon, which you do by configuring the Core as a network share in the Storage section of Roon’s Settings menu. (The Mu-so Qb was a Product of the Year for 2017.) Music from the Core can be streamed simultaneously to as many as six zones at resolutions up to 32/384, or to ten zones at up to 16/44.1.Īlternatively, using Roon music-management software, you can play music stored on the Uniti Core to any audio device supported by Roon. These can be all-in-one units, such as Naim’s Mu-so Qb Wi-Fi speaker ($899), or network-capable components like the Uniti Atom streaming DAC-amplifier ($3295), each reviewed on this site in 2017 and named a Reviewers’ Choice. You can also use Naim’s app to play music from streaming services and the Uniti Core through Naim components on your home network. You select music and control playback with the free Naim app, available for iOS and Android. On the back of the Uniti Core is a BNC S/PDIF digital output, for direct connection to a component with an S/PDIF input. It can play WAV files to 32-bit/384kHz FLAC, ALAC, and AIFF files up to 24/384 and DSD64 and 128. According to Naim, the Core can manage libraries as large as 100,000 tracks. The Uniti Core will also download from the Internet album, track, artist info, and album art, and record this metadata along with the music. Insert a CD, and the drive immediately starts to whir as the Core writes its contents to an internal, external, or networked drive. On the front of the Uniti Core is a slot-loading optical drive. Unlike general-purpose PCs, the Uniti Core is specifically designed to rip, store, and play music. ![]() Audio companies make products for ripping CDs and storing music, such as the Bluesound Vault 2i ($1199), which I reviewed in January, and the Naim Uniti Core ($2795), reviewed here. But as music lovers turn to streaming as their primary source of new music, a question emerges: How can they integrate their CD libraries with their preferred streaming services? The obvious answer is to rip their CDs to a computer hard drive, then use an app that lets them cue up music from local and networked sources.īut you don’t have to rip to a computer. People are still buying shiny discs and, more important, lots of people have huge CD collections. That doesn’t mean that the CD is now irrelevant. Last year, streaming accounted for 75% of music-industry revenues in the US, and 46.9% globally. Last year, physical media accounted for a mere 12% of music-industry revenues in the US.Īs a whole, the recording industry is growing, thanks to surging revenues from streaming - up 34% worldwide, according to IFPI, and up 30% in the US, per the RIAA. This was the first time since 1986 that US CD sales were less than $1 billion. According to the Year-End Music Industry Revenue Report from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), CD sales fell 34% in 2018, to $698 million (all figures USD). In the US, CD sales are falling off a cliff. However, CD sales continue to grow in some Asian markets, including India and South Korea, and still account for a huge chunk of music-industry revenues in Japan, Germany, and Poland. So based on a little back-of-the-envelope math, it looks like global CD sales declined by around 12% last year. Vinyl sales grew 6%, and now account for 3.6% of worldwide music-industry revenues. According to the 2019 Global Music Report from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), worldwide sales of physical media declined 10.1% in 2018. Is the Compact Disc on its deathbed? Not yet, but there’s cause for concern.
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