Naim’s Uniti Atom network amplifier (8/10, WIRED Recommends) has become something of an audiophile back-pocket device. The British brand’s all-in-one streamer and amp offers fantastic audio quality fit to power virtually any stereo speakers you can lay your hands on, alongside a truckload of connectivity options, from HDMI eARC and analog connection to Chromecast, AirPlay 2, and more. It’s easy to use and marvelous to hear.

But what about a Uniti Atom aimed primarily at headphones, with a price tag pushing $4,000? That’s a crazy idea, right? So I thought until I fell head over heels for Naim’s Uniti Atom HE (as in Headphone Edition). As outlandish as the price may seem, for the right buyer—someone with very expensive headphone tastes who values sweet simplicity as highly as a night of listening bliss—it’s a pretty great package.

Naim’s Uniti design style is iconic, and the company has changed very little on the exterior for its Headphone Edition model. As with its siblings, the Atom HE sports a chic, neo-industrial aesthetic, with brushed aluminum trim, blocky heat sinks along the sides, and Naim’s signature jumbo volume dial on top that lights up when you give it a spin.

The colorful front-side display welcomes you with vivid album covers when you play from your favorite streaming services. It’s also motion sensitive, calling up the song name and playback time when you approach it (though, somewhat frustratingly, it’s not a touchscreen). A long, glossy remote offers the same intuitive layout as the original, with backlit buttons that gleam when you pick it up.

The only real visible change between the HE version and the 2017 Atom I regularly use to power review speakers is the HE’s dual headphone ports set below a lighted headphone button on the front. The button is used to swap between the headphone outputs and the device’s other main use case, which is as a streaming preamp for powered speakers or an amplifier.

When it comes to the sound, it’s perhaps no surprise that this device sounds really, really good. As I cycled through multiple high-end headphones, the Atom HE provided sparkling-clean playback with enormously spacious sound staging. Instruments absolutely gleam with clear definition, dynamics seem to expand into the ether, the noise floor is all but nonexistent. The Unite Atom HE lets your music bounce around the open space like an echo in a giant auditorium.

It didn’t hurt that I got to audition the Uniti Atom HE with a pair of headphones from Naim’s sister brand, Focal, called the Utopia—they run a whopping $5,000 and print sound like one-way tickets to audio nirvana. This setup was almost too fancy for even an experienced reviewer like me. I had a palpable degree of underlying apprehension the whole time I had this automobile-priced system in my listening room. Then again, maybe that’s what systems like this are for.

The Uniti Atom elevated all the wired headphones at my disposal, including Sennheiser’s HD 660S2 (7/10, WIRED Recommends), Master and Dynamic’s MW65 (9/10, WIRED Recommends), the latest Beats headphones (7/10, WIRED Review), and everything else I plugged in. All seemed to glow with newfound luminance, as if dusting off their drivers for a purer, more concentrated sound.

I’ve tried a few amplifier/DACs in my time, ranging up to around a grand or so, and as far as I can recollect, none of them were able to provide the same fluid clarity and expressive dynamics as the Uniti Atom HE. It absolutely smoked my daily amplifier/DAC, the $300 Klipsch Heritage, though I’d still highly recommend it for the money were it not discontinued.

That said, there are loads of high-end amplifiers I haven’t tried, many of which will run you less than the Uniti Atom HE and some that may match-up in performance too. If you’re in the market for this tier of headphone amp, you should absolutely bring your own headphones and audition them in person.

What really makes the Uniti Atom HE stand out, even at its high price, is the self-contained design. You plug in or stream everything you’d need all from a single box. Even in the rarified air of audiophilia, that’s a distinct advantage.

The device is loaded with fabulous audio components, including top-shelf Burr Brown 1791A DAC (digital audio converter) with hi-res audio support up to 24 bit/384 kHz. The power supply includes both Class A and Class A/B solid-state amplification that sounds clean as a whistle, alongside plenty of other highfalutin audio circuitry.

But the special ingredient in the HE’s secret sauce is the all-in-one connectivity that lets you play almost anything and leave outboard playback devices out of the sonic picture. With no other links in the audio chain, everything can be controlled within this little chamber for an ultra-clean signal. And there’s a lot to control.

It all starts with the Naim app, which lets you manage everything you play in a Sonos-like fashion (though I’d say it's even simpler than Sonos). The one bone I’ll pick with the app is that it took four tries to get the Atom HE connected to my wireless network. You can hardwire in if you’re having trouble, but once I got connected I had zero issues over a week.

Using the app, you can stream directly from Tidal and Spotify (or utilize their “Connect” options). There’s also Qobuz and thousands of internet radio stations. AirPlay 2, Chromecast, and Bluetooth with aptX (as a backup) cover other services like Apple Music. I do wish for more native services, as Chromecast and AirPlay 2 aren’t always foolproof. While Casting HD tracks from Amazon Music, I noted that controlling volume with the Amazon app was much less granular than I wanted, jumping several clicks with each press.

This was remedied when controlling it within the Naim app, and with everything I tried, I was all but blown away by the app’s speed, stability, and intuitive design. While Chromecasting sometimes took a few seconds to initialize, Spotify was almost instantaneous for connection and control, with volume adjustment nearly as quick as using the remote or onboard controls.

Just to mess with the system, I tried popping between the BBC 6 internet radio station and Spotify multiple times. Each time, the app connected in a second or less, piping luscious tunes into my headphones. Even though Spotify uses compressed tracks, it still sounded spectacular.

When it comes to wired connections, the Atom HE offers three headphone outputs, including an unbalanced quarter-inch, a balanced 4.4 mm, and at the backside, a balanced four-pin out. All of the outputs can be used simultaneously, though Naim says you’ll get better performance using one at a time. Also at the backside are XLR and RCA preamp outputs alongside a plethora of inputs, including dual optical ports, RCA digital, USB-A (there’s also one in front), Ethernet, and RCA analog in. You’ll still need a separate preamp for the best turntables, as a built-in phono pre is one of the few omissions.

Plugging in a USB drive called up my hi-res tracks instantly, allowing me to quickly breeze through the list from the app. You can use the Atom HE as a UPnP or connect over Roon to set up a local high-end music server, and it supports multiroom connection with other Naim devices. The fact that all of this is available in one thing and it all works almost flawlessly is what keeps the features in line with the Atom’s luxury price.

Do I recommend most people run out and buy the Unit Atom HE right away? Not really. Unless you’ve got crazy-high-end headphones, it’s probably well out of the realm of your needs, even if you might want one. But it is a pretty fantastic way to elevate the best headphones in your arsenal, and experienced listeners really can’t do better in an all-in-one box. For desktop setups like mine, it would also make a fabulous controller for my headphones and powered monitors. Using my computer with my Klipsch DAC is certainly workable, but the convenient stand-alone performance of the Atom HE is undeniable.

If you have the means, and you want to invest in a serious audio player that should last for years (perhaps even a lifetime), Naim’s Uniti Atom HE is worth exploring. I can’t deny it: I’m thinking about buying one right now.