Steve Woodhouse
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Surely replacements are available.
If you can’t find any, give them a ring. They’re very good.
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Listening impressions with the WiiM Ultra compared to the WiiM pro+ and compared to other streamers
- Thread starter Musician
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Surely replacements are available.
If you can’t find any, give them a ring. They’re very good.
Yea I move on different brand. They have nice sound in fact lively sound. The treble on these speakers really sings with a lot of detail. For some listeners who are sensitive on high frequency may find them fatiguing on long term listening. I heard many brand in fact just about every brand including those cost as much as buying a house. Do those expensive really justify the cost? Yes and no. Yes if you’re looking the best money can buy and want every ounces of performance. No, if you’re ok getting 90 percent of that performance for less money. There’s so many different design on tweeter but my favorite is none other than ring radiator tweeter.
steadyshot
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People get fatigue from various types of distortion and not treble amplitude . Also they get fatigued when you have a speaker which rolls off early in the bass section say 60hz but has extended response up high. The ear perceives the unbalance
Steve Woodhouse
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I’ve 600 standmounts.
They’re really nice, but just too bright, and yes fatiguing, for my ears at least. But not ‘harsh’ as bright speakers often are.
Well, these are leading class speaker brand compare to run of the mill brand. Agree, the woofer doesn’t go deep while treble being extent to stratosphere resulting unbalanced causing fatigue.
Addressing the thread topic: Ultra vs other WiiM streamers.
For me the key difference is Ultra's USB out port to connect to an external DAC. If one has an external DAC with a competent USB input - proper filtering/isolation and clock recosntruction, the SQ should be better than through toslink/coax.
I am beta testing the USB out firmware in the Ultra and I like what I hear. Let’s just say that if one knows how to hear (instrument separation, dynamics, soundstage), the output SQ is readily noticed.
Note: It all hinges on the quality of the USB input of the external DAC.
For me the key difference is Ultra's USB out port to connect to an external DAC. If one has an external DAC with a competent USB input - proper filtering/isolation and clock recosntruction, the SQ should be better than through toslink/coax.
I am beta testing the USB out firmware in the Ultra and I like what I hear. Let’s just say that if one knows how to hear (instrument separation, dynamics, soundstage), the output SQ is readily noticed.
Note: It all hinges on the quality of the USB input of the external DAC.
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Mr Ee
Major Contributor
So far I've only spent an hour or so listening to usb out with a brief bit of switching between it and coax, into my RME dac and then headphones.
At this early stage it would seem I don't know how to hear!
usb sounds great, but so does coax...
On the plus side, I'm using a very cheap usb cable vs a 'not quite so cheap' coax cable.
I will disagree. The final result highly depends on the DAC.
It must conform the USB standard specs, have a proper shielding and impedance and that's all. Very cheap cables do not follow the specs very often, just like "audiophile" cables, especially these from AliExpress.
Mr Ee
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Yes, I guess the point I was trying to make is that my coax cable new (I bought it 2nd hand) costs about the same as an Ultra.
And the throwaway usb cable I got with something will certainly be as cheap as they could have got away with.
And yet both usb and coax sound great.
Personally I use PicoScope USB cables. Still cheap and well made as far as I can verify it.
I can’t contribute a subjective review of the Ultra as I don’t have one. I can however tell you objectively why I don’t think I will get one.
My use would only ever be with LMS but that’s a little irrelevant except that in what follows I’m only ever talking about Squeezelite on the Ultra.
I would only ever use it with digital output. On that basis it wouldn’t represent any serious upgrade over a Pro/Pro+ except that I could use USB out but I can already do that using a Raspberry Pi. I have a Pi 4 in a nice case already in the room. As a digital transport I’d suggest that a Pi is as good as any other device if you use the correct software. SQ would therefore be down to the attached DAC (Mission 778x).
The phono, line in and digital inputs. I’d never use them. I put my turntable through a pre amp and into my amp in such a way that I am able to digitise the output when I want to without lots of changes to input / output settings. A USB Audio Interface is connected to a mixer then on to the amp. Using an Ultra for turntable input would actually make this difficult.
The screen. The room where I conceivably might what to replace my existing player currently has no Now Playing display so adding one would be a positive. However the Ultra screen is too small to be an effective Now Playing display from the other side of the room. I already use my phone for all control which won’t change. A secondhand O2 Joggler which I already have would make a better Now Playing display.
So given USB out via Pi is the equal of USB out on the Ultra then for me it isn’t a question of SQ it’s actually a question of features that I will really want to use and when I really analyse it the Ultra has nothing extra that I would use.
Other people will have a different but equally valid point of view.
PS I appreciate you could make a case for measuring the USB outputs and finding the Ultra to be superior but I don’t listen with a ruler.
PPS I do have a Pro connected to a Topping amp via Coax and feeding in ceiling speakers in my kitchen. Here the decision had a couple of different factors in play. 1. I wanted to be able to sync the output with another LMS player in my adjacent Living Room when required and 2. my Wife wanted to tell Alexa to play BBC Radio 2 and have the output over the in ceiling speakers. I would not have been able to do this with a Pi but the Pro made it possible. The Topping amp has auto on/off on all digital inputs. SQ although important isn’t the driving factor here.
My use would only ever be with LMS but that’s a little irrelevant except that in what follows I’m only ever talking about Squeezelite on the Ultra.
I would only ever use it with digital output. On that basis it wouldn’t represent any serious upgrade over a Pro/Pro+ except that I could use USB out but I can already do that using a Raspberry Pi. I have a Pi 4 in a nice case already in the room. As a digital transport I’d suggest that a Pi is as good as any other device if you use the correct software. SQ would therefore be down to the attached DAC (Mission 778x).
The phono, line in and digital inputs. I’d never use them. I put my turntable through a pre amp and into my amp in such a way that I am able to digitise the output when I want to without lots of changes to input / output settings. A USB Audio Interface is connected to a mixer then on to the amp. Using an Ultra for turntable input would actually make this difficult.
The screen. The room where I conceivably might what to replace my existing player currently has no Now Playing display so adding one would be a positive. However the Ultra screen is too small to be an effective Now Playing display from the other side of the room. I already use my phone for all control which won’t change. A secondhand O2 Joggler which I already have would make a better Now Playing display.
So given USB out via Pi is the equal of USB out on the Ultra then for me it isn’t a question of SQ it’s actually a question of features that I will really want to use and when I really analyse it the Ultra has nothing extra that I would use.
Other people will have a different but equally valid point of view.
PS I appreciate you could make a case for measuring the USB outputs and finding the Ultra to be superior but I don’t listen with a ruler.
PPS I do have a Pro connected to a Topping amp via Coax and feeding in ceiling speakers in my kitchen. Here the decision had a couple of different factors in play. 1. I wanted to be able to sync the output with another LMS player in my adjacent Living Room when required and 2. my Wife wanted to tell Alexa to play BBC Radio 2 and have the output over the in ceiling speakers. I would not have been able to do this with a Pi but the Pro made it possible. The Topping amp has auto on/off on all digital inputs. SQ although important isn’t the driving factor here.
I think that’s what I said.
I’d be using USB so ….
Honestly my understanding ofI think that’s what I said.
"If one has an external DAC with a competent USB input - proper filtering/isolation and clock recosntruction, the SQ should be better than through toslink/coax."
is a bit different. BTW what do you mean by clock reconstruction?
I thought you said that you would use a Pi for that anyway.
Unison buffers the stream and sets its own clock.
Yes. So on the SQ front the Ultra wouldn’t gain me anything.
I’m not saying the Ultra isn’t a great product I’m just saying that in my particular case there is no justification for getting one.
It always works like that for async USB audio.
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