Twisting the luxurious volume control on Naim’s Uniti Nova PE feels so much more engaging than using the remote or their app. Derived from their top of the line Statement preamplifier, it is absolutely luxurious. It’s nice to see the attention paid to that aspect of the Nova PEs experience. Initial listening begins with my vintage ESS AMT-1b speakers, because they are fairly tough to drive. If anything will throw a class-D amplifier a curve, it’s a speaker with a wacky impedance curve. Next up, my power hungry Magnepans. Both speakers are driven with ease by the big Naim. Streaming Keith Jarrett’s 1992 release – At The Deer Head Inn immediately showcases this amplifier’s ability to recreate tone and space. Jarrett’s live recordings on ECM are always lively, and the Naim does a great job with reproducing the quality of Jarrett’s piano, and intricate phrasing, but the ambience of the venue.
The ultimate Uniti
In just over 15 years, Naim’s Uniti has become a full range of encompassing all in one components for the music lover that wants high performance sound, but not a rack full of components. Yes, their flagship components still reveal more music, but as evidenced by the top of the range Nova PE – most of you can live happily ever after with this box.
The PE designation stands for “Power Edition,” delivering 150 watts per channel into 8-ohms and 250 into 4. The onboard Class-D power amplifier section will drive anything you can think of connecting to it in terms of speakers. Ribbons, stats, you name it – we tried it. And it’s more than a match for any of Focal’s current speakers that all work pretty well with about 50-200 watts per channel.
Past editions of the Uniti lineup have all been standard class AB amplification, and in the 30-50 watt per channel range. However, to keep the slim form factor Naim has had to embrace a Class-D architecture. No doubt, some of this expertise has come from their work in high end car audio, working with Bentley.
Zooming out to Chris’ house to mate the Nova PE with his Focal Stellas proves a fantastic match – and a great solution for someone wanting a single box solution that doesn’t want a pair of powered speakers. This class D amplifier sounds surprisingly not Class – D, and that’s a lovely thing. No doubt a big part of this is Naim taking the Eigentakt amplifier modules they use, but building them to spec at their factory.
Mega digital capability
You can read the full list of specs at the Naim site, but suffice to say the Nova PE can handle a wide range of digital source material from nearly any source. Around back, there are inputs for Ethernet, USB, SPDIF (both coaxial and RCA) and optical inputs.
While the onboard DAC, can decode files up to 32bit/384kHz, and DSD up to 5.6MHz, the DAC itself is actually built around some relatively old-school Burr Brown PCM1791A chips. However, as in all Naim DACs, it’s the implementation that makes the difference – and the Nova PE delivers the goods. Nearly all of my digital listening was over the network, via ROON, and most files were 16/44, though some higher res files were auditioned. The best compliment I can make to the DAC section of the Nova PE is the difference is mostly imperceptible.
Bias revealed – for many years I used the Naim CD555/PS555 as a reference, and staffer Earle Blanton used the Naim ND555/PS555 as his digital reference. I still use the CD5Si CD player and have owned multiple versions of other Uniti products, so I am a big fan of the Naim sound.
No analog capability
You might wonder while some of the lower priced Naim kit actually has an on-board phono stage, and the $10k Nova PE does not. As is typical with components at this level, manufacturers, especially ones centering around digital playback as the main source of music, tend to leave the level of analog involvement up to you.
Personally, I think this is an excellent approach, because you are neither paying for a phono section you may never use, or not getting one that’s good enough for your needs when that money could have been spent on the rest of the product. Like that coolio volume control…
And Naim does make a couple of great phono stages, should you choose to go that direction.
Further listening
True to the info on Purifi Audio’s website (the maker of the Class D modules), this amplifier is one of the few Class-D amplifiers we’ve used that is not terribly speaker sensitive. With Chris having the Mola Mola as his reference, and us having amplifiers from Java Hifi and Merrill nearby for a comparison, the Naim has the slightly more neutral sound of the Merrill, but the drive of the Java – which remains my personal fave.
It is worth mentioning, (for what it’s worth) that I found the match with Chris’ Focals to be exquisite. Considering that Naim is headed more towards an “experience center” retailing model, you’ll be able to hear this amplifier with a wide range of Focal speakers in a “Powered By Naim” salon. Anyone wanting an extremely high-quality system that can be purchased in one place will be very satisfied with this approach. Your only question will be which Focal speakers will you pair your Nova PE with?
Naim amplification is known for its attention to PRAT, or pace, rhythm, and timing. Many psychoacousticians claim that timing (phase accuracy) is the most important aspect of musical reproduction. If you aren’t familiar with this term – timing is about everything sounding as if it is coming from a correct location in space. Higher frequencies tend to be more forward, lower frequencies more omni-directional, and another aspect of timing is the ability for the performance to maintain a coherence about it, that contributes to a more realistic rendition of what you’re hearing. This is especially true with acoustic, and acoustic/vocal tracks.
Switching up the program material to more acoustic music, brings this characteristic of the Nova PE to the forefront. Yet, while this amplifier handles this type of material with ease, you can play rock music as heavy as you like, and electronica as loud as you want without losing the pace. The extra power here really helps.
Bringing some analog to the picture
Because the sound quality of the Nova PE is so high, pairing it up with a top notch turntable, cartridge and phono stage is an easy move, if you are into vinyl. Both the Mobile Fidelity Master Phono ($6k) and the Manley Oasis ($5k) were excellent matches, connected to our AVID Sequel turntable, sporting a modified Lyra Helicon SL cartridge. Should you like your analog slightly on the warm side, the all tube Manley injects some of that to the overall sonic picture. Sticking to a more Naim-like sound, the MoFi, especially using the transimpedance inputs is a stunning and dynamic mate for the Nova PE – provided you don’t stay all Naim.
A great single box solution
Should you only be interested in playing music from digital sources, the NOVA PE is an incredibly comprehensive solution to keeping things simple and elegant. With the Stella Utopias being such a great match, I wouldn’t hesitate in plugging a $60k pair of speakers into a Nova PE based system. You may not go that far, but the Nova PE is resolving enough that it is an excellent anchor for a system you can grow with.
Considering you are getting a preamplifier, power amplifier, DAC and streamer on one chassis, along with a great headphone amplifier, the Nova PE is an excellent value. My reference Focal Clear MG phones (and a few others in my collection) are served well by the onboard headphone amplifier.
Three very minor complaints – elegant as the new Naim backlit white color scheme is, I really miss the lime green of old. That’s personal. If you don’t have a big rack full of legacy Naim gear, none of this will matter.
Second, the remote is a bit cheesy, considering this is a ten-thousand-dollar box, but I’m guessing most of you will never use it anyway – the app will probably win the day. And, the buttons combined with the high-resolution screen on the front panel deliver excellent feel, along with being highly intuitive. Again, encouraging you to reach out and touch it. I like that. A lot.
It’s also worth mentioning that the Nova PE is easy to set up once you install the Naim app on your phone or tablet. Once it finds your network and you press a few prompts, you’re rocking. You can even use their app to run the music server/streamer – but I’m a ROON guy to the core. And, you can connect additional USB storage via the back panel to have your favorite tunes resident. A nice touch.
Finally, I know Naim has their own speaker cables that use banana plugs, but these output connectors could really stand to be more robust for any of us not wanting to use Naim cables. A minor point to be sure, but still worthy of consideration.
All in all pretty minor quibbles for what is a world-class audio solution in a high performance and stylish digital hub.
