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Compact all-in-one streaming receiver

Konteebos

Konteebos

Surfing on the lake of fire
The Cambridge Minx xi that was performing TV sound duties and occasional streaming from my NAS has gone kerput, so I need a replacement. I was thinking of picking up a second-hand Naim Unitiqute but does anyone have alternative suggestions?
 
Have a look at Yamaha RN602 or the smaller 303d, available from Richer currently, I have their big brother the 803d and it is
an excellent piece of kit, limited availability now though there may be some out there..
 
Marantz MCR611 should do the trick. My girls use slightly older versions for internet radio, spotify and streaming from a NAS. The Marantz App is quite good, which is very important.
 
Well quite obviously the AURALiC Mini - that's about as comprehensive and compact as you can get.

I also like the idea of the Yamaha NP-S303, not quite compact - but slim and unobtrusive nevertheless - and again plenty of features.
 
A Bluesound Node 2 could be another good choice.

If an amp is also needed I'd try and listen to the Powernode 2.
 
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The Mini hasn't got an amp but it is an excellent bit of kit, had one a while ago. The Naim UQ is great had the 1 and 2, hard to beat if you have the budget, 2nd hand, and are OK with the features.

The Yamaha R-N303D is very good value if you can get one, I think Peter Tyson may have some clearance ones left, I bought one for about £180 a while back, loads of features, connections and important for me a very good App - sounds decent too.

Superfi had some deals on the Marantz/Denon/Yamaha stuff recently. New ranges must be due.

Gus
 
I’ve been impressed with the Yamaha streamers, particularly the WXC50, but this has no amp built in. The WXA50 is the same but with a power amp built in, but I haven’t heard it. If your budget will stretch to a Unitiqute, go for it. Just one word of warning though, give it a wired Ethernet connection as its WiFi performance can be poor.
 
htm_1968 said:
Marantz MCR611 should do the trick. My girls use slightly older versions for internet radio, spotify and streaming from a NAS. The Marantz App is quite good, which is very important.
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this - we use an earlier version in our sleeping chamber, and it works well.
 
My Aries mini offers great sound. I play it wireless through CAD 1643 Dac and AR amp. Also separate PS at around £240 is great value
This is converting me to streaming after previously always downloading
 
My cousin has the Yamaha RN602 (driving some keilidhs I picked up here for £99) and for what that setup cost, it’s superb. I bought my parents the Marantz MCR 611 a while back for their garden bar and paired it with some Katans, the sound was fine for the money but it was glitchy and tended to keep dropping off the network, we picked up a Unitiqute and it’s much better in terms of stability and SQ (as you’d expect for the price difference).

Their main system is an original Linn Majik DSI with Katans and this really does sound good and it’s very flexible, being compatible with current firmware it has pretty much the same feature set as the current model bar HDMI inputs. I’ve recently seen one sell for £850 which is unitiqute 2 money.

If you can find the Qute or DSI/M within your budget, I doubt you’ll be disappointed. If you prefer to go for something new/more affordable, the Yamaha units are worth a look.
 
hornblower said:
I agree with the poor wifi performance of Naim streamers and I would avoid if you are going down this route.
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The new models have good WiFi modules which seem to be robust, insofar as any WiFi is robust given the environmental and network variables that can always affect it. The old models including the Unitiqute the OP is considering are unfortunately not good with WiFi for many people. Personally I would always use a cable anyway, but all the more so with these old models.
 
I've got Gus' (Amber Audio) old Unitiqute1 but I'm not using it now, PM me if you're interested and it's yours for £400. I did find the wifi a bit sketchy with it as the 320k stream of radio paradise kept dropping out, was fine when using ethernet over power though. I'm actually using a Sonos Connect amp in the bedroom now with some little Dali speakers.

My recommendation would actually be to get a secondhand connect amp rather than a Unitiqute but it's available if you want it.
 
Ahh, sorry - I've been away all week. Does the original UQ handle Apple lossless? I seem to recall that the first ones didn't, but I guess it might have been fixed with new firmware.
 
I'm feeling a bit skint as I have a few car-related bills in the offing so i just bought a Yamaha CRX-N470D streaming mini system from Richer Sounds. It's remarkably good for the money - much better than the Cambridge it replaced. Oh, and the app is damn good, too - way better than the Naim one.
 
htm_1968 said:
Marantz MCR611 should do the trick. My girls use slightly older versions for internet radio, spotify and streaming from a NAS. The Marantz App is quite good, which is very important.
Click to expand...
Does anyone know if the MCR611 is 5GHz wifi compatible? I've repeatedly tried to get it to connect to the 5GHz bands of both my VM Superhub2 and AirPort Extreme but it fails to connect to either, yet it connects to the 2.4GHz bandwidth just fine. An AppleTV sitting next to the MCR611 connects to 5GHz without problem.

EDIT - According to this it's 2.4GHz only. Apparently the MCR612 model adds 5Ghz compatibility. Looks like I'll need to advise my parents to run a CAT5 cable to it for better reliability (it's located in their kitchen and they lose Internet Radio every time the microwave goes on!)
 
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