Initial thoughts on the Ultra...

[Bill Mac]

I've had a few days to spend with the Ultra and have to admit it hasn't gone smoothly. The biggest reason for buying the Ultra was for the ability to play music from a USB hard drive. That process has proven to be very frustrating. Found that using a 5TB HD with over 30K songs was not going to work as it took forever to scan and it had multiple errors on the files. Removed the 5TB HD and connected a 2TB HD and that scanned much quicker and accurately. There were some album artwork anomality's but nothing to worry about.

The biggest issue I'm finding is the overall way the Ultra works. Below is a list of what I find as far as the way the Ultra works.

1. When first powered up I have to go to device, settings, audio input then USB in order to play the music from the HD. Why is this? Can one setup the Ultra so when it's powered up it goes direct to the USB input?

2. If I do a search for a specific album on the HD and I select it then select the first song to play it doesn't go to the view that shows the album art and elapsed time it just shows all the tracks of the album and the album art above those tracks. In order to get the view that just shows the album art, current track playing and elapsed time of that track is to hit the back button five times to get back to the "Device" window and tap on the Ultra. Why doesn't the window with the elapsed window display once the track is selected? I do not get this.

3. Having a "Home" button would be very useful. Or at least have the Favorite, Browse, Device, Search and Settings "tabs" always displayed at the bottom of the screen no matter what window one is in with the WiiM app. The only time that they are displayed is when in the Device window.

4. Why does the Ultra need to scan the hard drive? I have an Eversolo DMP-A6 and when a 2TB or 5TB HDs are connected to it the folders can be viewed and playback can be started. I'm assuming it's a different operating system but the Ultra's OS is not very user friendly or easy to navigate IMO.

5. To do a search for albums just on the hard drive I have to go to the Device page select Ultra, settings, audio input then USB. If I do a search and it's not in the USB input the search will search Qobuz which will produce a long list of artists, albums or songs that are not on the hard drive.

If there are ways to get around all of the steps of doing basic navigating it'd be much appreciated. But if that's the way the Ultra works I'll be returning it as so far the time spent with the Ultra has been quite frustrating.

I tried adding another picture but it says the file is too large. Oh well :-(.

 

[Bill Mac]

I thought an update to my earlier thoughts were needed. To get around the need to select inputs on power up I've decided to leave the Ultra powered up. When not in use it goes into standby with the display going dark after 30 seconds. I disabled the status indicator light on the volume knob as well. This morning I powered up the system that the Ultra is in and was able to play music right away. This solution is fine with me as the Pro and Mini (Ultra replaced it) are or were always powered up and in standby when not in use.

As far as navigating the USB hard drive I've become more familiar with the way everything works. The album artwork issue is still present but only when searching for albums in a specific way. Wish I could describe it but I'd only confuse those reading this and most likely myself. The operating system is different than the Eversolo DMP-A6 but it'll be fine. Was using the Ultra synced with the Pro in different systems and it worked quite well.

The issue with the rescan function not working was resolved by deleting the WiiM app on my iPhone 13. Once the app was reinstalled it was obvious that it was updated over the version I was using. Added a few albums to the USB hard drive and with the updated app the rescan function worked just fine.

So my frustration and lack of patience got the better of me early on. Glad that I was patient and spent some time with the Ultra the past few days. It will work just fine for my needs. It's great feature packed streamer at an excellent price.

 

[Bill Mac]

Spent the better part of yesterday afternoon and evening listening to the Ultra. Was listening to music off of the hard drive in sync with the Pro in another system. The Ultra is in a bedroom system (2nd floor) and the Pro is in my main system in the living room (1st floor). The pairing worked great with no issues at all. Later last night I just listened to the Ultra and with SACD rips (24/192) its sounds excellent. I'm using the Ultra as a transport with the coaxial output to a Technics SL-G700 CD/SACD player.

This morning I powered up the bedroom system and opened the WiiM iOS app. Playback started right where I left off last night which is great. So glad I thought of the leaving the Ultra powered up so that it stays on the USB input. Not often do I come up with solutions like this. It makes using the Ultra so much easier especially since I'll be using the USB input most of the time.

I can't recommend the Ultra enough especially at the current 20% off sale price of $263.20.