Unison Research Unico

[southall-1998_mk2]

Going to pick one up sometime in the new year. The On/Off switch is located at the rear of the unit. This is possibly a mark 1 model. I'm aware the Unico has been through a few variations over the years.

Never heard any of the Unison stuff, so this is going to be my first slice of the brand.

Any Unico owners here? What is the sound signature like?

Thanks.

S.

[hifinutt]

fabulous amps , alan b had one with his harbeths and then upgraded to the unico primo 90 . now you never see these for sale on ebay but having heard it with the shl5plus its a real contender . i would have one anyday. there are quite a few of the unico on ebay and some nice models . look forward to hearing how you get on

[southall-1998_mk2]

fabulous amps , alan b had one with his harbeths and then upgraded to the unico primo 90 . now you never see these for sale on ebay but having heard it with the shl5plus its a real contender . i would have one anyday. there are quite a few of the unico on ebay and some nice models . look forward to hearing how you get on

Does the Primo family sound smooth or forward?

S.

[JohnJo]

Smooth and fullsome but punchy and rhythmical not stodgy. I like them. There’s 2 preamp valves in them, ecc83 from memory but that maybe wrong. The heaters are wired in series so if the amp suddenly goes dead could be a duff heater in one valve (that happened to mine) so easily fixed with a new valve. The remote receiver in the amp went faulty in mine too but otherwise great. 80wpc I think.

[hifinutt]

Yes agreed , definately not forward in any way

[jandl100]

I've had a couple of Unison / Unico bits - Secondo integrated and some DM monoblocks.
Imo, both were on the smooth and warm side of the fence with a definite hint of a rose tinted view on the music.
It definitely made the music sound nicer, but probably not a totally accurate approach.
Good dynamics and detail.
Good fun, I did enjoy them.

I took the Secondo along to dem at Scalford many years ago - went well with the Tannoy Lancasters I had borrowed for the day. Made them almost listenable.

[gizze]

I ran one for a few months, and to be honest I never gelled with it.

I was expecting to be lovely and warm but with a bit of grunt, it had the grunt but I found it a bit hard in the mid range.
I tried the suggestions of different tubes but none really did it for me.

This was with a pair of Roksan TR5 ribbons and a Rel sub.


I had an Arcam FMJ A22 with the DAVE module that I had bought cheap for a bedroom amp and it was so much sweeter sounding.


I would like to try their bigger amps at some point, but compared to the Meridian digital pre's I had been running for a few years before that, I was really surprised at how much smoother they were, it was not the sound I was expecting at all.