Naim Uniti V Cyrus DacX/PreX/MacMini

[admin_exported]

Yes I know it has probably been asked before - but before I audition -

is the Naim a match for a Cyrus system fed by a Mac?

and (bonus question) would my MA Silver RX6s suffice?

 

[Anonymous]

Depends on the listener.

 

[John Duncan]

Apples and oranges, I'd say - they do different things. For starters, the Cyrus system you describe has neither a CD player nor any power amplification. I'm typing this listening to a Uniti and it's a wonderful thing, but in terms of comparable functionality you're probably really looking at a CD6SE and an 8XPd tops, and there's five hundred quid more than the Uniti already, without any radio...

 

[Craig M.]

i have suspicions that the dacx doesn't reject jitter well, i didn't think it sounded good on my mac at all - a dacmagic did a better job. the dacx works much better with the cdxtse transport.

 

[JoelSim]

JohnDuncan:Apples and oranges, I'd say - they do different things. For starters, the Cyrus system you describe has neither a CD player nor any power amplification. I'm typing this listening to a Uniti and it's a wonderful thing, but in terms of comparable functionality you're probably really looking at a CD6SE and an 8XPd tops, and there's five hundred quid more than the Uniti already, without any radio...

Do you have a Uniti now?

 

[John Duncan]

JoelSim:Do you have a Uniti now?

I have one of the office copies, yes. But I can feel some new speakers coming on...

 

[JoelSim]

Kudos X2

 

[John Duncan]

Interesting idea and bloody gorgeous, but must be standmounts.

 

[John Duncan]

And taking a look at their website, all their standmounts are too big.

I shall start another thread...

 

[Andrew Everard]

I think you're probably looking for something neat and petite, JD...

 

[John Duncan]

I don't think the petite is very, er, petite though is it?

 

[Andrew Everard]

31x20x18cm: they don't get much smaller...

 

[John Duncan]

Quite wide. DB1, Motive 3, Neutron 5 - all 16cm wide. However, I've had the measuring tape out and it's a possibility...

Anyway, I've started another thread - back to Uniti vs Cyrus!

(hint: Uniti)

 

[Andrew Everard]

JohnDuncan:Quite wide.

Bit tricky getting a 16.5cm mid/bass unit into anything much narrower...

 

[Anonymous]

Getting a bit esoteric - are we talking in code /

To correct my original post - power amplification via 2x smartpower (may upgrade to mono x)

Andrew i hear you are not a Cyrus fan?

Would dispute the jitter characteristics of the dac x

Cobra 3 cables

God I hate cables...

Hate the Uniti's incompatibility with aiff and itunes

 

[mitch65]

Wolfit:
Getting a bit esoteric - are we talking in code /

To correct my original post - power amplification via 2x smartpower (may upgrade to mono x)

Andrew i hear you are not a Cyrus fan?

Would dispute the jitter characteristics of the dac x

Cobra 3 cables

God I hate cables...

Hate the Uniti's incompatibility with aiff and itunes

I assume you mean apple lossless? It's fine with itunes

 

[Craig M.]

Wolfit:...
Would dispute the jitter characteristics of the dac x

can you explain why else it sounded so bad with my mac compared to the cyrus transport?

through my chord dac the mac mini is (perhaps) better then the cdxtse, very hard to tell as the sound is so close.

 

[Anonymous]

Can't explain it ... the dacx has excellent specs and sounds fine to me.. may be the optical out from the mac mini - the Chord dac is considerably more expensive - I really don'y obsess about jitter - the dac x is supposed to have a very good clock.

 

[John Duncan]

mitch65:Wolfit:
Getting a bit esoteric - are we talking in code /

To correct my original post - power amplification via 2x smartpower (may upgrade to mono x)

Andrew i hear you are not a Cyrus fan?

Would dispute the jitter characteristics of the dac x

Cobra 3 cables

God I hate cables...

Hate the Uniti's incompatibility with aiff and itunes

I assume you mean apple lossless? It's fine with itunes

And is fine with Elgato Eyeconnect, which transcodes my iTunes library to PCM on the fly. Might have to try AIFF now though...

EDIT - works fine.

 

[Craig M.]

Wolfit:Can't explain it ... the dacx has excellent specs and sounds fine to me.. may be the optical out from the mac mini - the Chord dac is considerably more expensive - I really don'y obsess about jitter - the dac x is supposed to have a very good clock.

that's my point, the optical out of the mini could have high jitter and, if it does, i don't think the dacx handles this incoming jitter well. i guess what i'm saying is if you like the sound of the dacx, don't assume it will sound the same on a mac mini. i've tried 6 different dacs on my mac, from the cheapest beresford to my chord, and the cyrus was the only one that sounded worse on it, compared to a cd transport.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Wolfit:Andrew i hear you are not a Cyrus fan?

You hear that from...?

Wolfit:Hate the Uniti's incompatibility with aiff and itunes

Will play iTunes from a Mac no probs - you just have to use EyeConnect to transcode on the fly. And it works fine with WAVs, or do you mean Apple Lossless rather than AIFF?

 

[Anonymous]

Andrew - thought you posted elsewhere that you weren't a great fan of the cyrus sound ...

The EyeConnect transcoding sounds a bit of a faff.. why won't Naim support aiff natively as they do on the Uniti Serve?

As for jitter - don't get me started...

 

[John Duncan]

It's not a faff at all, I had the uniti talking to my iTunes library in a couple of minutes.

 

[Craig M.]

Wolfit:
As for jitter - don't get me started...

why, will you not be able to stop?

hey, you asked for opinions. if you have another theory why a dacx sounded so bad on my mac, i'd love to hear it. i'm not slagging the dacx, it sounded great with the cd transport.

 

[Anonymous]

Sounds good - I just thought that transcoding was all a bit unnecessary given that I could use a macbook / macmini to do the same job without - I just like the idea of a high quality Naim single box - I'm quite tempted by the UnitiQute as a pre to a pair of Beolab 9s (don't laugh they sound fantastic!)

I wonder if the Qute's 30 Watts would be sufficiently powerful to drive the MA RX6s whilst I am saving up?

I suppose I have spent so long using Itunes/mac as a source I'm getting a bit inflexible in my old age - guess I may have to get a NAS.