ANK 5.1 tube dac with Wiim - no sound

[Quinn]

Hi, new here. Bought a Wiim Pro Plus earlier this year and really enjoy it. I played it as a dac for a bit, then a friend lent me a Schiit Bi-Frost and Gustard A26, both sounded better than the Wiim dac but left me feeling I should keep looking for an external dac..

I later bought a used L.K.S. MH-DA004 that just sounds great and have had it in play ever since. For setup I use a Coax 75ohm cable, and I have had no issues. I use an iPad with Wiim with Qobuz. I have had no issues playing anything and the sound is excellent.

Recently 2 friends offered up their dacs for me to try out. One was a Ferrum WANDLA with HYPSOS power supply, and now I have an ANK 5.1 Signature tube dac.

In both cases, using the same setup as the LKS (Coax, and RCA) there is no sound. We didn't have time to troubleshoot the Wandla, but I spent a while trying to figure out why the ANK 5.1 dac has no sound either.

I did have the setting at 24/192, so I dropped that down to 16/44 for the ANK. Still no sound. I'm open to suggestions or experiences people have had that may be the same. I left the Line Out Level as 2 Vrms. Volume is fixed.

I should add that I use a passive pre-amp (Bent Audio).

 

[Wiimer]

Hi, new here. Bought a Wiim Pro Plus earlier this year and really enjoy it. I played it as a dac for a bit, then a friend lent me a Schiit Bi-Frost and Gustard A26, both sounded better than the Wiim dac but left me feeling I should keep looking for an external dac..

I later bought a used L.K.S. MH-DA004 that just sounds great and have had it in play ever since. For setup I use a Coax 75ohm cable, and I have had no issues. I use an iPad with Wiim with Qobuz. I have had no issues playing anything and the sound is excellent.

Recently 2 friends offered up their dacs for me to try out. One was a Ferrum WANDLA with HYPSOS power supply, and now I have an ANK 5.1 Signature tube dac.

In both cases, using the same setup as the LKS (Coax, and RCA) there is no sound. We didn't have time to troubleshoot the Wandla, but I spent a while trying to figure out why the ANK 5.1 dac has no sound either.

I did have the setting at 24/192, so I dropped that down to 16/44 for the ANK. Still no sound. I'm open to suggestions or experiences people have had that may be the same. I left the Line Out Level as 2 Vrms. Volume is fixed.

I should add that I use a passive pre-amp (Bent Audio).

Hi
If you connect a device other than WiiM to ANK, will sound be produced?

 

[Quinn]

I could try it with a CD player I have that has Coax out. But ultimately I need it to work with the Wiim.

 

[Quinn]

Tried it with the CD player, no sound. After some dialog turns out the switch on the back was set not set to Coax. Sound was fine after that.

The eye opener is my CD player has always sounded great, but with the ANK 5.1 it was a whole other level. I played 2 CDs I'm very familiar with (Jazz) and the sound-stage was bigger and instruments took on a even more realistic sound.

I then switched over to the Wiim. Wow, again, songs I've heard many times with my current setup came in sounding even more natural. The other interesting part is they are all 16/44 yet sounded better than I've ever heard. I'll be comparing both the LKS and ANK today to better gauge what differences they posses.

I also wanted to point out other changes I've made with the Wiim: I replaced the stock Coax with a XLO Signature 3 Digital Coax 1 metre cable and the sound improved noticably. I then tried the stock USB C-A cable with a Linear Power Supply, I did not notice an improvement. But when I tried it with a DH Labs Digital USB cable I could hear an improvement in sound right away.