Amp ultra review

[Bryan]

If a speaker cannot be driven by the Wiim Amp Ultra, I think it reflects poorly on the speaker's design, and not the Wiim's.

There are tradeoffs when building a highly efficient speaker and there are reasons for why some of the most expensive audiophile speakers are also needing much more than what the Wiim Amp Ultra can give. More efficient speakers often require larger cabinets, have increased noise floor sensitivity, lack ultra-deep sub-base, etc. There is a concept known as Hofman's Iron Law that states you can only have two of the following three things which is why design choices are made.

• High Efficiency
• Small Enclosure Size
• Low Bass Extension

Just on personal experience, I was extremely happy when I paired the Amp Ultra with my Klipsch RP-600M but there are times I feel the Amp Ultra isn't enough to drive my Wharfedale Linton speakers. I had a set of great sounding speakers I got rid of before the Amp Ultra...that I know the Amp Ultra would have been a horrible match with them. The Amp Ultra is very good (I enjoy it very much), but it's not a perfect Amp in every situation. Also, there are other variables beyond WPC that needs to be considered in how we judge amps.

 

[pieterv1]

I disagree this this statement strongly. There are tradeoffs when building a highly efficient speaker and there are reasons for why some of the most expensive audiophile speakers are also needing much more than what the Wiim Amp Ultra can give. More efficient speakers often require larger cabinets, have increased noise floor sensitivity, lack ultra-deep sub-base, etc. There is a concept known as Hofman's Iron Law that states you can only have two of the following three things which is why design choices are made.

• High Efficiency
• Small Enclosure Size
• Low Bass Extension

Just on personal experience, I was extremely happy when I paired the Amp Ultra with my Klipsch RP-600M but there are times I feel the Amp Ultra isn't enough to drive my Wharfedale Linton speakers. I had a set of great sounding speakers I got rid of before the Amp Ultra...that I know the Amp Ultra would have been a horrible match with them. The Amp Ultra is very good (I enjoy it very much), but it's not a perfect Amp in every situation. Also, there are other variables beyond WPC that needs to be considered in how we judge amps.

Strange... I've used my Linton's with a variety of amps over the years:
- Quad 405-2 upgraded
- Rotel RB-06
- Topping Mini 300 (2 week trial period)

And I've now settled with a Hypex NCx252MP based DIY amp.

Even with the small Topping I didn't feel like I was missing anything - actually they sounded better than I had experienced ever before. It convinced me to upgrade to a more "serious" class D solution with the Hypex amp. The WiiM Amp Ultra is just slightly less powerful than the Hypex amp so hard to think it would struggle to drive any speaker.

 

[slartibartfast]

Strange... I've used my Linton's with a variety of amps over the years:
- Quad 405-2 upgraded
- Rotel RB-06
- Topping Mini 300 (2 week trial period)

And I've now settled with a Hypex NCx252MP based DIY amp.

Even with the small Topping I didn't feel like I was missing anything - actually they sounded better than I had experienced ever before. It convinced me to upgrade to a more "serious" class D solution with the Hypex amp. The WiiM Amp Ultra is just slightly less powerful than the Hypex amp so hard to think it would struggle to drive any speaker.

The relatively low gain of the WiiM amps which prevents them clipping with a full amplitude digital signal will limit maximum volume particularly if you use Replaygain. If an album has an album gain of -10dB then the maximum output power will be 10W rather than 100W.