Most products get replaced because the new one is better. This one got replaced because a part stopped being made.
Naim announced the Uniti Star Lite on 27 August, and it is the Uniti Star with the CD slot filled in. Same 70 watts a channel, same streaming platform, same five inch screen. The drive is gone because the optical drive Naim was buying is no longer available, and the company decided to drop the feature rather than find another one.
Naim Uniti Star Lite front panel
Quick facts
- 70 watts per channel into 8 ohms, Class AB, exactly as before.
- No CD playback and no CD ripping. That is the entire difference.
- GBP 3,199 / EUR 3,999. UK and Europe only, with no North American release.
- 1kg lighter than the Star, at 11kg, and 5cm shallower.
- Roon Ready, AirPlay 2, Chromecast, Qobuz Connect, TIDAL, HDMI ARC.
Look at the two front panels side by side
This is the clearest way to see it. The Star has a slot running along the left of the front panel. The Star Lite has a plain brushed panel in the same place. Everything to the right of it, the dial, the screen, the USB socket, is unchanged.
Naim Uniti Star with its CD slot
We hold both, so here is the full spec sheet next to each other rather than my summary of it:
| FEATURE and SPECS COMPARISON | |  |  |
| Model | Naim Uniti Star Lite | Naim Uniti Star |
| Type | Integrated Amplifier | Integrated Amplifier |
| Amplifier Class | Class A/B | Class A/B |
| Power into 8 ohms | 70 watts | 70 watts |
| Minimum Impedance | - | 4 ohms |
| THD | 0.1% THD+N at 70 watts into 8 ohms | - |
| Frequency Bandwidth | - | 20 Hz-20 kHz |
| Built-in DAC | | |
| DAC | - | Burr Brown |
| Max Bit Depth | 32 | 32 |
| Max Sample Rate | 384 | 384 |
| Analog Inputs | 2 | 1 |
| Phono Input | | |
| Optical Digital Inputs | 2 | 2 |
| Coaxial Digital Inputs | 2 | 2 |
| USB Input | Yes | Yes |
| HDMI Input | Yes | Yes |
| HDMI ARC | ARC | ARC |
| Preamp Outputs | Stereo RCA | Stereo RCA |
| Headphone Output | 3.5mm | 3.5mm |
| Bluetooth | Yes | Yes |
| Wi-Fi | Dual-band | 802.11ac |
| AirPlay 2 | | |
| Chromecast built-in | | |
| Roon | Ready | Ready |
| BluOS | - | |
| HEOS | - | |
| Handheld Remote | | |
| Height | 95.0mm | 96.0mm |
| Width | 432.0mm | 434.0mm |
| Depth | 265.0mm | 316.0mm |
| Weight | 11.00kg | 12.02kg |
| MSRP | - | 5699 USD |
| Check Current Price | Amazon, B&H Photo | Amazon, B&H Photo |
The differences you can measure are small. It is 1kg lighter and about 5cm shallower, which makes sense once a disc mechanism comes out of the middle of the box. Naim also mention a modest performance improvement, but have not said what changed to produce it, so treat that one as a claim rather than a number.
If you are reading this from the US, you cannot buy it
This needs saying near the top rather than buried at the bottom. The Star Lite is sold in the UK and Europe only. Naim have confirmed it will not be offered in North America, and there is no US price at all.
That is why our database entry for it has no price where every other amplifier has one. It is not missing data, it is the actual situation. The Uniti Star it replaces listed here at $5,699, so US buyers who wanted this shape of product have gone from an expensive option to no option.
Naim Uniti Star Lite rear connections
The connections are worth a look if you are in a region that gets it. One RCA input and one 5-pin DIN, two optical, coaxial on both RCA and BNC, HDMI ARC for a TV, USB on the front and the back, plus a headphone jack. That is a genuinely well connected box, and none of it changed.
The interesting part is why the drive went
Naim's own page lists the full specification, and their explanation for the change is that the optical drive they used was discontinued and is no longer available. The remaining stock is being kept back to service and repair existing players.
That last detail is the one worth sitting with. If you own a Uniti Star, the parts to fix it exist partly because Naim stopped putting them in new machines. And it is a signal about every all-in-one with a disc slot: the mechanisms are made by a handful of suppliers, and when one of them stops, the feature disappears from products that were otherwise selling fine.
Naim Uniti Star Lite angled view
Naim could have sourced a different drive. They chose not to, and the honest read is that a CD mechanism in a streaming amplifier is now a support liability rather than a selling point.
So who is this for
If you want a single box that does streaming properly and you have no discs, this was always the better buy than the Star, and now it is cheaper and lighter too. Nothing about the streaming side has been cut.
If you have a CD collection you actually play, or you were planning to rip it, this is not a replacement for the Star and Naim are not pretending otherwise. Look at the used Star market, and be aware you are buying into a mechanism that is now out of production.
Naim Uniti Star Lite Key Specs
- 70W into 8 ohms (Class A/B)
- Integrated Amplifier
- 0.1% THD+N at 70 watts into 8 ohms THD
- Built-in DAC
- Max Bit Depth: 32
- Max Sample Rate: 384
- HDMI Input
- 3.5mm Headphone Output
- Bluetooth
- Dual-band Wi-Fi
- Ready Roon Ready
- Weight: 11.00 kg
- Dimensions (H x W x D): 95.0 x 432.0 x 265.0 mm
- Replaces the Naim Uniti Star compare them
- Read the Review
Are you still ripping CDs into an all-in-one, or has that stopped mattering to you?