Advice for incorporating a WiiM Ultra into existing home system

[TimB]

Having a problem making all the pieces of my existing home system work with my new WiiM Ultra. The home theater system is fairly new, bought just before Covid. Yamaha Aventage AV receiver (RX-A680), Blu Ray/CD player (BD-A1060), a Roku streaming box and an LG wide screen. Two bookshelf speakers and a center (All Klipsch) hardwired to the AV receiver. I've been trying to maintain my HDMI-connections on the existing system and somehow incorporate the Ultra into my system. Not having a great deal of luck. I have two open HDMI slots on my receiver but I'd like to somehow improve the overall sound quality of the system via the Ultra. Any suggestions? Is this even possible?

Tim





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[Aquaman]

Connecting the Ultra via HDMI to your AV for audio output won‘t work. The HDMI socket on the Ultra is meant for TV input. Doesn‘t the receiver have any free line in or SPDIP inputs?

As for sound quality, you start with your speakers (and then maybe the AV receiver).

 

[Mr Ee]

I'd like to somehow improve the overall sound quality of the system via the Ultra.

Welcome.

About the only way I can think of for an Ultra to improve the sound would be using its EQ, roomfit etc.
But, as above, that's really not going to happen with a single wiim and 3.0 (left, right, centre) setup.
That AV seems to be no slouch, and for TV / movies I'd definitely go 'proper' AV over wiims. I'm sure the AV has all sorts of sound modes too.

Sure, plug the ultra into the AV for music (although the AV seems to handle a number of services anyway) and use its (the ultra's) EQ etc, but tbh you'd be crazy to try to route the main hdmi audio signal through the ultra, especially given the more limited formats it supports.
And sorry for calling you crazy, especially as we've only just met.

 

[TimB]

Thank you. Well aware my gear isn't top of the line, but I was having trouble making the Ultra unit work at all. I did get a USB thumb drive to work when connected to one of my aux audio ports on the AV receiver, but the sound quality is degraded, when compared to the HDMI connections. If I use the HDMI port on the Ultra, I'd have to reconfigure everything and I was hoping to avoid that, although it looks like I'll have to do that anyway. Thanks, again, The guide wasn't really clear on what one should connect where and why, which suggested to me you could pretty much do any configuration of HDMI/optical and the Ultra would figure it all out. That wasn't my experience, at least this far.

 

[Mr Ee]

If I use the HDMI port on the Ultra, I'd have to reconfigure everything and I was hoping to avoid that, although it looks like I'll have to do that anyway.

I would say you absolutely don't want to do that.

the sound quality is degraded

For this, do you have spotify, tidal etc. that the AV supports too? How does playing that directly via the AV vs from the Ultra sound?
Does ultra rca out vs digital out make a difference?

For the av's rca input, is there a source direct or pure direct mode? The AV will likely be converting the analog input to digital and back to analog, sometimes such a mode prevents this.
i.e. is there possibly any sort of sound profile being applied by the AV?

 

[Patagonia]

In your system the wiim ultra would act as a source for music digital media (radio, streaming services, local music, etc) then connected to your av for stereo playback via analog RCA or digital Optical spdif if supported by your AV. if both possible then try both and keep the one than yields better result for you.

Aditionally you could also connect your CD player output to the Wiim as to take advantage of the Wiim room correction.

 

[Doublej]

I would not add a WiiM to the existing setup. Your Yamaha AVR has significant functional overlap with the WiiM Ultra both in terms on playing digital music sources, equalization, room correction, and subwoofer support. And your Yamaha AVR can process multichannel audio properly whereas I believe the WiiM Ultra will convert all audio to 2.0.

FYI, the center channel in a surround sound movie audio mix typically carries about 70% of a film’s key audio presentation, including dialogue, music, and sound effects.

If you use Roon or Tidal and if the Yamaha AVR does not have support for these, you would connect the WiiM Ultra to the Yamaha AVR by using either the coaxial or optical output on the WiiM Ultra to add these capabilities to your existing setup.

If you want to improve the sound quality of your existing setup, maximize the use of the existing room correction and equalization capabilities in your Yamaha AVR (free) and then add a subwoofer to the setup.

However if you insist on adding the WiiM Ultra to your setup, you could:

Connect your two video sources to HDMI inputs on the LG widescreen,
Connect the LG ARC output to the WiiM ARC input,
Connect the coaxial or optical output from the WiiM to a coaxial or optical input on the Yamaha AVR.

The Yamaha which will convert the WiiM digital (2.0) signal to analog, create a center channel output from the 2.0 signal, and output the three channels to the Klipsch speakers.

 

[TimB]

Thanks for all the feedback, especially Doublej!