DAC Upgrade enabled - Audioquest Dragonfly

[Oatsafteroats]

Thanks to WIIM for enabling support for the Audioquest dragonfly cobalt. I opened a ticket stating that I was unable to run the dragonfly from the Ultra, they said there was currently no support for it. After the latest update they messaged me again to say the Dragonfly is accepted. I can hear an improvement in sound over the internal DAC. Shout out to WIIM for the top notch customer support.

 

[Musician]

Thanks to WIIM for enabling support for the Audioquest dragonfly cobalt. I opened a ticket stating that I was unable to run the dragonfly from the Ultra, they said there was currently no support for it. After the latest update they messaged me again to say the Dragonfly is accepted. I can hear an improvement in sound over the internal DAC. Shout out to WIIM for the top notch customer support.

Not surprised that the 74 dB SINAD cobalt dac is perceived as sounding better than the ultras 113 dB SINAD inbuilt dac . The brain need some coloration .

AudioQuest Dragonfly Cobalt Review (Portable Headphone Adapter)

This is a review and detailed measurements of the AudioQuest Dragonfly Cobalt portable DAC and headphone amplifier ("dongle"). It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $300. The Dragonfly Cobalt dates way back to when these dongles came in the form of USB flash Thumb drives: This makes...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[dangermouse]

I can hear an improvement in sound over the internal DAC.

Each to his own I suppose, but...

 

[betisbalompie]

I've just connected the Wiim Ultra to an external DAC I had at home, similar to the Drangonfly, specifically the M2Tech hiface DAC, and I'm also feeling better than with the Wiim's internal DAC. I don't know if it's normal or not, or it's just a suggestion, but I notice better sound.

 

[alpha_zulu]

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0924933812748071

 

[Musician]

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0924933812748071

I dont think this is the case.

Its more easy to use the internal dac and people would use it If it sounded the best, which is not the case.

People are searching for nice colorations to make the music more enjoyable, and they can hear the differences. Ím one of them who has the Rega dac R that sounds different to the Ultra inbuilt dac. Believe me, I had some hope that the internal dac of the Ultra would be the best sounding with a nice analog coloration , but the Rega did kill it sonically after 10 seconds.

As I wrote in another thread, its rather easy to modify the Ultras inbuilt dac to make it more earfriendly. One mod is to raise the very low output impedance from 11 ohm to 1 kOhm by just soldering a 1 kOhm carbon resistor in series with + on the rca interconnect. It will sound different and more polite, less staccato and more flowing. One other tweak is to change the digital filter to minimum phase, fast roll off in the ultra, i.e lowering the SINAD a la Linn, Rega or Marantz Ishiwata style. Small differences but together clearly audible.

Making the Ultra more ” Musical ” - easy external DIY

Here are some simple tips about changing the sound when using the built-in DA converter in the WiiM ultra, using rca cables. The analog output of the Ultra is technically as good as it gets , with low output impedance and good op amps opa 1611 used . Nothing inside the ultra can be done in a...

forum.wiimhome.com

 

[alpha_zulu]

Its more easy to use the internal dac and people would use it If it sounded the best, which is not the case.

I think it's the other way round. Some people believe that it must sound better to have changed something ‘themselves’ instead of finding the original product good. The manufacturers always deliver worse DACs, worse cables, worse power supplies ... they think.

 

[cc_rider]

People are searching for nice colorations to make the music more enjoyable, and they can hear the differences.

Nope. Transparency in the reproduction chain is the ideal. It’s easily achieved in the digital section, but still far from perfect in the acoustic sections, including speakers and room interactions.

 

[Musician]

Nope. Transparency in the reproduction chain is the ideal. It’s easily achieved in the digital section, but still far from perfect in the acoustic sections, including speakers and room interactions.

Nope.
Dont agree . Two channel stereo playback is a very flawed system, and needs some help with the right colorations to enhance the listening enjoyment. I have been there, done that .

The transparency dogma is just a wet dream in the pants of an ASR fundamentalist. Its a circle of confusion searching for perfection because there is no real realism in two channel playback. Its all a good illusion of the real event, at best.
You might have to do your own recordings to fully understand that.

Chasing tranparency to optimize 2 channel playback will end up a very boring system and you will stop listening to music.

(Edit: I dont mean that cc rider is an ASR fundamentalist.)

 

[IainMacUK]

Thanks to WIIM for enabling support for the Audioquest dragonfly cobalt. I opened a ticket stating that I was unable to run the dragonfly from the Ultra, they said there was currently no support for it. After the latest update they messaged me again to say the Dragonfly is accepted. I can hear an improvement in sound over the internal DAC. Shout out to WIIM for the top notch customer support.

DF Red now working too!

 

[vdp]

So people should do what they like and believe in and which gives them most enjoyment. Sounds reasonable

Only getting into this hobby, think I'll have to decide to get my popcorn out for these topics while enjoying the music

 

[cc_rider]

Chasing tranparency to optimize 2 channel playback will end up a very boring system and you will stop listening to music.

ROFL. Complete and utter nonsense.

 

[betisbalompie]

I've just connected the Wiim Ultra to an external DAC I had at home, similar to the Drangonfly, specifically the M2Tech hiface DAC, and I'm also feeling better than with the Wiim's internal DAC. I don't know if it's normal or not, or it's just a suggestion, but I notice better sound.

Well, yes, I'm sorry from what I wrote, today doing tests again, I don't experience better sensations than with the Wiim Ultra's internal DAC. I can't therefore say that one sounds worse than the other. It's slight details that depending on what predisposition I'm in, I can tip the scales back and forth. So maybe alpha_zulu was right and it's all a product of the suggestion. My apologies.

 

[Cal_Cobra]

The transparency dogma is just a wet dream in the pants of an ASR fundamentalist.

Memorable quote

 

[harkpabst]

No.

 

[mlsstl]

That's the nice thing about this hobby -- plenty of opinions to go around. No one leaves empty-handed.

 

[McMx72]

Chasing tranparency to optimize 2 channel playback will end up a very boring system and you will stop listening to music.

Er, nope. Probably the most brilliant lie of the „hifi“ manufacturers though, that a flat frequency or transparency sound boring. But then there are people who turn the saturation on their TVs well up, so your mileage may vary….

 

[Yoku-San]

Believe me, I had some hope that the internal dac of the Ultra would be the best sounding with a nice analog coloration , but the Rega did kill it sonically after 10 seconds.

I guess you could try to use the internal DAC and play with the Ultra's PEQ until you get the right "analog" sound coloration. To get better hints, you could try to measure with REW the sound of the internal DAC vs the sound with the REGA DAC. You should be able to see differences in the frequency response if you hear it. And then you can tune the PEQ to obtain the REGA response with the internal DAC.

 

[Musician]

I guess you could try to use the internal DAC and play with the Ultra's PEQ until you get the right "analog" sound coloration. To get better hints, you could try to measure with REW the sound of the internal DAC vs the sound with the REGA DAC. You should be able to see differences in the frequency response if you hear it. And then you can tune the PEQ to obtain the REGA response with the internal DAC.

problem is that the coloration in the Rega is mostly about earfriendly compression from the analog stage and higher distortion following higher levels ( as one can read in the stereophile review ) , not frequency response differences .

If it could work as you say it would, I would have used it because its much more convenient .

I could always try a tube preamp buffer between the ultra and the poweramp or a line level transformer ( supra ) to get similar coloration.

Making the Ultra more ” Musical ” - easy external DIY

Here are some simple tips about changing the sound when using the built-in DA converter in the WiiM ultra, using rca cables. The analog output of the Ultra is technically as good as it gets , with low output impedance and good op amps opa 1611 used . Nothing inside the ultra can be done in a...

forum.wiimhome.com