A few weeks ago I needed to replace the main hard drive in my Synology NAS but decided to try out a low cost digital streamer by using our Amazon HD unlimited family plan….maybe it was time to move on?
Internet searching threw up a lot of positive WiiM reviews & that in turn led me to this forum, initial purchase of a Pro Plus and then shortly after swapped for the Ultra.
So…
In 2020 I was in my 60’s after spending my life since teens & ridiculous amounts of money searching for my ‘perfect’ audio system (…a HiFI graveyard in the loft is testament to this folly). I’ve always enjoyed live music and even now approaching 70, still camp out at music festivals, a 50 year addiction I can’t easily shake. A few decades ago our kids had reluctantly ‘grown up’ and moved on so that playroom I built in the 80s could finally use its dedicated ring main, earthing and strange wall, ceiling & corner panels for the hidden purpose I had never disclosed.
But…
Since discovering digital speaker and room correction in 2012 the system has hardly needed to change apart from occasional cartridge or styli swaps but I still did read, contribute to and ‘learn’ from others on those forums, as we all do.
Then…
In 2020, locked in at home I became busy with all those DIY jobs we never want time for - loft, garden, garage, shed - even patching & repainting the tarmac drive during that long, hot lonely summer with just my wife and my music as company. Time in the evenings to listen to those LPs from my youth in the music grotto but with family & friends zoom meetings as well, somehow I stopped visiting all those forums. Completely & very refreshing.
Arriving at a point where enjoying music for for what it is, is after all a goal that most of us here must be searching for, the sort of live music I attend is nearly always digitised and amplified, usually in venues with appalling acoustics so having a system that sounds ‘live’ but clear, focused, tight and dynamic almost always outclasses most of what it’s supposed to be replicating!*
So in answer to my question, I AM here to learn as much as possible about the device I have purchased, to follow firmware updates and make sure I am getting as much as possible from it. But I’m NOT here to change any part of my system or the way it sounds.
However...
I must admit to a wry smile on seeing WiiM threads espousing the virtues or otherwise of measurements or the minutiae of tweaks that seem endemic to audiophile communities. It’s a rabbit hole that I’m glad I managed to escape from - and I won’t let ‘you lot’ drag me back down, no matter how much I’m enjoying (the results of) this product!
*…a few exceptions come to mind where a live performance became ‘the best hifi system I could imagine’ - Faithless @Glastonbury Phoenix Stage, Wilco @Manchester Academy, Alanis Morisette @Phoenix Festival to name a few.
Internet searching threw up a lot of positive WiiM reviews & that in turn led me to this forum, initial purchase of a Pro Plus and then shortly after swapped for the Ultra.
So…
In 2020 I was in my 60’s after spending my life since teens & ridiculous amounts of money searching for my ‘perfect’ audio system (…a HiFI graveyard in the loft is testament to this folly). I’ve always enjoyed live music and even now approaching 70, still camp out at music festivals, a 50 year addiction I can’t easily shake. A few decades ago our kids had reluctantly ‘grown up’ and moved on so that playroom I built in the 80s could finally use its dedicated ring main, earthing and strange wall, ceiling & corner panels for the hidden purpose I had never disclosed.
But…
Since discovering digital speaker and room correction in 2012 the system has hardly needed to change apart from occasional cartridge or styli swaps but I still did read, contribute to and ‘learn’ from others on those forums, as we all do.
Then…
In 2020, locked in at home I became busy with all those DIY jobs we never want time for - loft, garden, garage, shed - even patching & repainting the tarmac drive during that long, hot lonely summer with just my wife and my music as company. Time in the evenings to listen to those LPs from my youth in the music grotto but with family & friends zoom meetings as well, somehow I stopped visiting all those forums. Completely & very refreshing.
Arriving at a point where enjoying music for for what it is, is after all a goal that most of us here must be searching for, the sort of live music I attend is nearly always digitised and amplified, usually in venues with appalling acoustics so having a system that sounds ‘live’ but clear, focused, tight and dynamic almost always outclasses most of what it’s supposed to be replicating!*
So in answer to my question, I AM here to learn as much as possible about the device I have purchased, to follow firmware updates and make sure I am getting as much as possible from it. But I’m NOT here to change any part of my system or the way it sounds.
However...
I must admit to a wry smile on seeing WiiM threads espousing the virtues or otherwise of measurements or the minutiae of tweaks that seem endemic to audiophile communities. It’s a rabbit hole that I’m glad I managed to escape from - and I won’t let ‘you lot’ drag me back down, no matter how much I’m enjoying (the results of) this product!
*…a few exceptions come to mind where a live performance became ‘the best hifi system I could imagine’ - Faithless @Glastonbury Phoenix Stage, Wilco @Manchester Academy, Alanis Morisette @Phoenix Festival to name a few.
