Features wanted in a Wiim Ultra 2
- Thread starter Persona Grata
- Start date
-
- Tags
- wiim ultra
RazzFazz
Active Member
WTF is 'The Team'?The Team must be either laughing or overhelmed by this thread. I bet the first.
EddNog
Senior Contributor
RazzFazz
Active Member
You've had a drink with them? It sounds so familiar.
That’s how they identify themselves here - they either post under WiiM Support or WiiM Team.
RazzFazz
Active Member
Nice ;-)
EddNog
Senior Contributor
I’m not the one claiming that they’re laughing at this thread, I’m just clarifying since you asked.
-Ed
RazzFazz
Active Member
No problem, I just was a bit astonished
Well, I find it sweet that the R&D folks are getting feedback that doesn't require fixing a bug...
I do R&D.
See, most of the time we just hear from some support engineer that some customer is having an issue.
"When Fred does this, the metalMachineCruncher smokes"
"Well, tell Fred not to do that"
"When Joe does this, the router immolates itself and burns down the fiber lines"
"What version of the firmware is Joe using?"
"Oh, I think it's 0.9"
"That's ancient! Tell Joe to update to 15.7 or later... it's supposed to only burn down the copper"
It's good to hear from fellow R&D people.
"The R&D guys over at BombsAndInc would like you to implement a homing guided bomb algorithm for WiiM Ultras based on the WiFi MAC address"
"Fantastic Idea... we'll need 1000 hours (*) of labor budget"
"Done"
"Oh, and can we have a new espresso machine for the office""
"Done"
"Sweet! We just wrote the JIRAs and got a PO for the Profitec 500"
It's nice to feel the love, all we hear are problems with old versions (stuff we fixed last year), belly aching from the program managers about the cost and schedule or the bug reports from the Test and Validation teams.
(*) I know, this is a laughable number... I'm assuming commercial stuff that we can outsource to some monkeys overseas who think Python scripts are "programming". In reality, if we're gonna follow DO178C this will be more like 10,000 hours, a Profitec 800 and we'll hire four interns to write the code in C++.
I do R&D.
See, most of the time we just hear from some support engineer that some customer is having an issue.
"When Fred does this, the metalMachineCruncher smokes"
"Well, tell Fred not to do that"
"When Joe does this, the router immolates itself and burns down the fiber lines"
"What version of the firmware is Joe using?"
"Oh, I think it's 0.9"
"That's ancient! Tell Joe to update to 15.7 or later... it's supposed to only burn down the copper"
It's good to hear from fellow R&D people.
"The R&D guys over at BombsAndInc would like you to implement a homing guided bomb algorithm for WiiM Ultras based on the WiFi MAC address"
"Fantastic Idea... we'll need 1000 hours (*) of labor budget"
"Done"
"Oh, and can we have a new espresso machine for the office""
"Done"
"Sweet! We just wrote the JIRAs and got a PO for the Profitec 500"
It's nice to feel the love, all we hear are problems with old versions (stuff we fixed last year), belly aching from the program managers about the cost and schedule or the bug reports from the Test and Validation teams.
(*) I know, this is a laughable number... I'm assuming commercial stuff that we can outsource to some monkeys overseas who think Python scripts are "programming". In reality, if we're gonna follow DO178C this will be more like 10,000 hours, a Profitec 800 and we'll hire four interns to write the code in C++.
Last edited:
EddNog
Senior Contributor
LOL.... fellow R&D...
Being doing the JIRA thing now for... OMG... since the late 90s I think. We were actually writing the book on Agile at the Lab in the late 90s. We started to lay out the cadence of Agile, Spiral and Sprints.
The most stressful tempo is the 2 week sprints. It doesn't really give you time to breathe and it's hard to do epics and stories correctly. You end up doing never ending chains of tasks that you have to come up with every two weeks. ( Heck, today is Friday.. so I have to close my tasks this weekend and open more for next sprint..).
The best one I ever did was with 4 month sprints... That gave us time to assign quite a few stories and shuffle things around. I used to joke we had epics... so many epics that we needed a "saga" to tie them down.
( Inside Atlassian joke... you either get it - a la Dilbert- or you are just not Agile enough )
The projects I've laid out and ran, I went with one month sprints. Seems to be the best balance between management and performance. With at least one week out of four that is relaxing and people can take some time off.
BTW, did you know that JIRA comes from Gojira ( Japanese for Godzilla )... and the old Bugzilla tracking tool?
Chez moi, we have two really cool norens of Gojira. Over the door to my home office, its the classic Gojira with The Great Wave off Kanagawa and Fuji. Over the front door, we have a very cool noren of modern Gojira attacking a classical bridge with fishermen falling off the boats. I'd love to find a noren of Gojira stomping on Toyopets.
Tell you the truth, I don't give a da... what the neighbors think. We LOVE GOJIRA in our home. Yes, a matter of fact we got the Fragile Lamp in by our bedroom window facing the front of the house.
But I digressed... gotta go close a couple of JIRAs to keep the management happy.
Last edited:
EddNog
Senior Contributor
Actually, I'm in operations. Our org uses Jira for tracking tech support tickets. There are way-too-long drop-downs with almost no actual options for the problem I'm trying to submit a ticket for most of the time. So yeah, probably an implementation problem.
I actually work for an investment firm--you may have heard of it, Franklin Templeton.
-Ed
I've heard of them... Of course. ;-)
I guess you could use JIRAs to track "tasks". You can write a JIRA "issue" and then follow up with the tasks.
If you use Atlassian, then there should be all kinds of options. Ideally you want to create chains... the root (reason why you are doing the work) and then the actual tasks to do design/implementation/test...
Support issues, since they come from "support" are normally handled by R&D as "exceptions". And then you do the analysis and fall into the cadence... You would never have an actual "epic".
How about a Super Duper WiiM Ultra Reference with:
larger OLED touch screen,
powerful analog output section with socketed op amps
Balanced output, SE output, balanced aux input and SE aux input.
Included calibrated microphone?
Dump the MM input.
Upgraded USB/DAC as deemed necessary
Optional... FIR for Input Response Calibration.
10"(w)x 9"(d) x 3.5"(h)
$1000 without Calibrated Microphone
$1100 with Calibrated Microphone
Add $200 for FIR / DSP board upgrades.
And Fix WiiM Home for the desktop.
I can help writing the JIRA epics.
I guess you could use JIRAs to track "tasks". You can write a JIRA "issue" and then follow up with the tasks.
If you use Atlassian, then there should be all kinds of options. Ideally you want to create chains... the root (reason why you are doing the work) and then the actual tasks to do design/implementation/test...
Support issues, since they come from "support" are normally handled by R&D as "exceptions". And then you do the analysis and fall into the cadence... You would never have an actual "epic".
How about a Super Duper WiiM Ultra Reference with:
larger OLED touch screen,
powerful analog output section with socketed op amps
Balanced output, SE output, balanced aux input and SE aux input.
Included calibrated microphone?
Dump the MM input.
Upgraded USB/DAC as deemed necessary
Optional... FIR for Input Response Calibration.
10"(w)x 9"(d) x 3.5"(h)
$1000 without Calibrated Microphone
$1100 with Calibrated Microphone
Add $200 for FIR / DSP board upgrades.
And Fix WiiM Home for the desktop.
I can help writing the JIRA epics.
Last edited:
steadyshot
Senior Contributor
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2023
- Messages
- 910
I believe it is better to release more than one product with a feature set targeting different audiences for each one and not try to cram everything into one device. That way the budget is focussed on quality rather than spreading into many unused features to please everybody.
dominikz
Senior Contributor
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2024
- Messages
- 938
On the other hand, I'm personally really happy WiiM offer great performing all-in-one devices like the WiiM Amp/Amp Pro/Amp Ultra.
WiiM seem to be perhaps the only ones on the market to do it while keeping the prices affordable.
And so far I see no issues with quality at all. Quite the contrary, really.
Aquaman
Senior Contributor
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2025
- Messages
- 833
I‘d go as far to say that they are the only ones in absolute terms, not just for the price.
There‘s not one streaming solution out there that has WiiM‘s rich feature set, regardless of what it costs.
EddNog
Senior Contributor
Eversolo Play has the same or more features as a WiiM Amp Ultra, although it costs a bit more and the integrated amplifier lacks PFFB and isn’t as powerful. It does offer an optional CD player (for even more money) as well as native Apple Music and AirPlay support. The bass management is interesting in that you manually measure and enter the distance from the MLP to the sub and to the speakers and enter that in, and it calculates the necessary delay for you based on that. ARC input does not automatically activate the unit or switch inputs for you as the WiiM does, which is more convenient.
Comparing WiiM Ultra (not amp), the Eversolo DMP-A6 Gen 2 offers native Apple Music, AirPlay, and an NVMe bay, which the WiiM Ultra does not. However, the WiiM Ultra has bass management, which the Eversolo does not.
From an, “audiophile,” standpoint, the Eversolo DMP-A6 Gen 2 offers a lot over WiiM, including support beyond DXD (much higher PCM than WiiM) and native DSD support, plus linear power supply, full balanced differential analog output stage, and dual mono DACs. Of course this stuff means nothing to a lot of buyers—but for those who do value it, it’s worth the difference, and WiiM does not offer it on any model at any price (UNO Reverse on this stuff). The Eversolo also offers HDMI digital output with 5.1 channel support, which is particularly good for people who have 5.1 DSD recordings in their libraries and a compatible separate DAC/AVR.
WiiM RoomFit is more mature than Eversolo’s room correction, WAY more mature and effective.
The WiiMs return from standby much quicker than the Eversolos, which are either fully on or fully off, so when you shut them down, and then turn them back on, there’s a longer wait for your music as the Eversolo boots back up (this matters if you’re using the 12V trigger out because the amps only shut down when you shut the Eversolo off).
In terms of UI, I consider Eversolo and WiiM at level/comparable in terms of both, usability and feature set, with both of them being many, many levels superior to any competitor. You get better support for a lot of end points as well. The Eversolo actually takes full, bit-perfect DSD and DXD over Plex, which the WiiM cannot do, and I’ve found SMB to work much better on Eversolo, so I can rip CDs or purchase high-res music on my computer and then use SMB to write it directly to the NVMe drive installed in the Eversolo right over WiFi.
So WiiM for sure is king in terms of price, by a long shot, but you can’t say nobody matches their feature set, “regardless of what it costs.”
-Ed
dominikz
Senior Contributor
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2024
- Messages
- 938
That sounds like a handy solution for the acoustic propagation delay, but what about additional processing delays, e.g. in case of DSP-enabled subs?
EddNog
Senior Contributor
Then yeah you’re hosed, which, until WiiM releases the corrected auto-sync, you’re also hosed.
“Two weeks,” is long past on that one.
-Ed
The problem with your idea is it requires multiple different production runs of various products with different features. That doesn't always work well for mass produced products. It may actually be more cost effective to have a more standardized product that includes features not every one uses. While that may annoy the more obsessive audiophiles, keep in mind they are a very small portion of the market. And many of those people would never lower themselves to purchase something so un-snobbishly pedestrian as a WiiM anyway.
Similar threads
