I per-ordered the Ultra eons ago when it was widely marketed as being AirPlay2 ready or whatever, and we all know how that worked out. I'm not married to Apple Music so I decided to try Amazon Music Unlimited, and hit a funky Amazon Music Cloud/WiiM Ultra bug that oddly didn't effect all Amazon Music users, so perhaps it was some weird Amazon cloud regional thing, not sure, but WiiM support did indicate on the trouble ticket it was Amazon Cloud related.
After the latest Ultra and WiiM Home app updates, Amazon Music is working pretty good [occasional hick-up, but tolerable]. For schitts and giggles I decided to try a variety of other music streaming services, and honestly I keep coming back to Amazon. More of the catalog that I listen to is in hi-res there than any other service I've tried, they also have a nice variety of extras like alternate mixes, tons of live recordings, many in 24/96 or better, to my eyes it looks like Amazon is on their A game and I think I can safely cancel all other streaming music services and enjoy Amazon Unlimited for $9.99/month.
Everything sounds fantastic on the Ultra, I mean it really sounds outstanding! In my opinion the Saber DAC on the Ultra sounds every bit as good as my Topping E70 Velvet or SMSL DO200 PRO, so other then trying to jimmy up a DAC with balanced XLR to go balanced out to your amp, or some other niche use case, the onboard DAC is a winner! After adding a 12" sealed AT 300W RMS active sub, and running the room calibration my dedicated 2.1 system sounds fantastic, and that's using a pair of Sony test speakers, which will be replaced by some killer Swans and I'll rerun the room correction routing again for the new speakers.
The more I use the Ultra, the more I'm loving it!! I'm even considering taking the coax or fiber out from my Oppo 105D Blu Ray player and running it to the Ultra. That would make the Oppo attached to THREE different systems haha HDMI out to my Onkyo AVR 5.2.4 Atmos setup, stereo XLR to a Dartzeel NHB-108 reference design [upgraded] Transaudio amp using the Oppo Saber32 9018 Reference DAC, and then a digital out that would use the internal DAC on the Ultra which will likely go to a pair of Fosi Audio V3 mono blocks. It would be interesting to see if there's any difference between the two Saber32 DACs from the same Oppo source.
Over all I'm thrilled with the WiiM Ultra, it's my first WiiM product and it's impressive to say the least. I'll continue adding to it, I have a Dayton Audio turntable I'll hook up to it, and that'll likely do it for a while. Hopefully WiiM will add some fun things, like a variety of VU meters both analog and digital, maybe some cool screen savers, and they have one button space left on the Home screen, what will become of that valuable screen real-estate? A new WiiM Ultra app? Or?
After the latest Ultra and WiiM Home app updates, Amazon Music is working pretty good [occasional hick-up, but tolerable]. For schitts and giggles I decided to try a variety of other music streaming services, and honestly I keep coming back to Amazon. More of the catalog that I listen to is in hi-res there than any other service I've tried, they also have a nice variety of extras like alternate mixes, tons of live recordings, many in 24/96 or better, to my eyes it looks like Amazon is on their A game and I think I can safely cancel all other streaming music services and enjoy Amazon Unlimited for $9.99/month.
Everything sounds fantastic on the Ultra, I mean it really sounds outstanding! In my opinion the Saber DAC on the Ultra sounds every bit as good as my Topping E70 Velvet or SMSL DO200 PRO, so other then trying to jimmy up a DAC with balanced XLR to go balanced out to your amp, or some other niche use case, the onboard DAC is a winner! After adding a 12" sealed AT 300W RMS active sub, and running the room calibration my dedicated 2.1 system sounds fantastic, and that's using a pair of Sony test speakers, which will be replaced by some killer Swans and I'll rerun the room correction routing again for the new speakers.
The more I use the Ultra, the more I'm loving it!! I'm even considering taking the coax or fiber out from my Oppo 105D Blu Ray player and running it to the Ultra. That would make the Oppo attached to THREE different systems haha HDMI out to my Onkyo AVR 5.2.4 Atmos setup, stereo XLR to a Dartzeel NHB-108 reference design [upgraded] Transaudio amp using the Oppo Saber32 9018 Reference DAC, and then a digital out that would use the internal DAC on the Ultra which will likely go to a pair of Fosi Audio V3 mono blocks. It would be interesting to see if there's any difference between the two Saber32 DACs from the same Oppo source.
Over all I'm thrilled with the WiiM Ultra, it's my first WiiM product and it's impressive to say the least. I'll continue adding to it, I have a Dayton Audio turntable I'll hook up to it, and that'll likely do it for a while. Hopefully WiiM will add some fun things, like a variety of VU meters both analog and digital, maybe some cool screen savers, and they have one button space left on the Home screen, what will become of that valuable screen real-estate? A new WiiM Ultra app? Or?
