Unison Research

We are proud to introduce a DRAMATIC upgrade to the Unison Research Unico Integrated amp. Together with Chris Johnson, the founder and ex-president of Sonic Frontiers, I am now offering two modifications to the Unico integrated amplifier. The Unico has received rave reviews as a killer $1700.00 Integrated amp. It was Sam Tellig's (Stereophile) Product of the Year and well as receiving awards from 6moons.com and many other leading magazines. We feel that the stock Unico is the State of the Art in Hybrid or Solid State designs for under $2000.00 retail.

We have designed two levels of mods for the unit that dramatically improve its performance. The Level-1 mod is $850.00 + frt and the Level-2 is $1190.00 + frt.

a) Two sheets of SOUNDCOAT chassis damping material are cut & applied where applicable to the inner chassis

b) We Replace the "stock" preamp tubes with premium mil-spec Mullard CV4003’s (12AU7’s), designed for 10,000 hours operation –These are ultra low noise & ultra low microphony

c) Two MULTICAP PPFXS polypropylene film and tin foil inter-stage coupling capacitors

d) Two 1uf AURICAP metallized polypropylene preamp input coupling capacitors

e) Twenty Japanese RIKEN ½ and 1 watt "signal path" carbon resistors (gold-plated leads)

f) Two feet of DH LABS “Revelation series” pure 99.999% silver solid core input signal wire, with teflon tape-wrap dielectric

g) One pair of premium VAMPIRE “direct gold plated over copper body” RCA female jacks

h) Four WBT 0763 single output binding posts

i) TRT WonderSolder is used throughout

j) 4.5 hours labor

Level-2 is all of the above plus the following

1) We add an extra sheet of Soundcoat Chassis damping material

2) Eight Vishay-Telefunken SF4007 ultra-fast soft recovery diodes (to re-build 2 existing bridge rectifiers)

3) Six upgraded electrolytic capacitors are added to the power supply

4) Two custom made Burr-Brown OPA627 op amp based pc boards dramatically upgrade the amp driver stage

5) Four EAR large sorbothane isolation feet further dampen the chassis

6) An extra 3 hours, 7 hours total, labor are involved versus the 4 hours in the Level-1

In Level-1 we improve the midrange and make the unit sound more liquid and tubelike. The Level-1 unit now sounds more like a tube amp and less like a hybrid. This was the major design goal of the Level-1 mod and we think that we have accomplished the task.

Imaging is more focused while the entire soundstage is both deeper and wider.

The unit is a little quieter with a little more low level detail.

The Level-1 mod is a very nice upgrade from the stock unit but the Level-2 makes this high value amp a true Category KILLER


LEVEL-2 IS LIKE A SHOT OF ADRENALINE


Transparency is improved over both the stock and Level-1 mod. You get a cleaner look into the musical soundstage.

Dynamics are dramatically improved. Its like the amp gains more power. The stock unit is rated at 80 watts but does not really excel in dynamics compared to its more powerful, and more expensive competition. The stock units real forte is its beautiful midrange performance. The Level-2 adds killer dynamics and has much better pace. It seems to play much louder on peaks. There is a lot more excitement in the music. If the stock unit is 80 watts the Level-2 mod seems to up the power.

The amp is Quieter.... The Silences are BLACKER...It thus resolves more low level Detail, has better ambience retrieval and is much more three dimensional.

Bass response is improved big time. Both bass depth and mid-bass slam are much improved on the Level-2

Treble detail (both micro and macro) and dynamics are improved and now keep up with anything that we have heard under $5k.

The Level-2 Unico is an amazing amplifier that simply has no match at anywhere near its cost.

PRICES are as follows