Meet WiiM Ultra - The Digital Hub for Your Music

[onlyoneme]

I’m going to suggest that the cables supplied by the manufacturer are probably adequate.

It depends on the circumstances. For example if you let the ground loop appear in the audio chain, they may have much bigger negative impact on the audio quality than higher quality ones.

 

[Wiimer]

I didn't write that anywhere...even if it was a bit of a play at the time when you two weren't letting me go...it was just becoming harder for me to participate even though I had been there for a very long time...but I'm a big boy and it's honestly not a big deal...I don't need to "exist" here...reading it can be enough for me...it's really the dialogue sharing it with onlyoneme that made me rewrite and participate... when we see the turn of onlyoneme's post which could simply be factual feedback... it on the other hand makes me return to my radishes.... have fun ,-)

I wish you a good harvest.



The radishes in my country are very flat, long range and clear.

 

[Steve Woodhouse]

A quick comment on the long asked for balanced output.

I have my WiiM Mini connected via optical to my Topping EX5 DAC. I Have a Topping PA5ii amp.

The EX5 has both RCA and balanced outs. You can select to output over just RCA, just balanced, or both at once. The amp has both balanced and rca inputs and a toggle switch to select.

I played a variety of tracks, toggling back and forth, and I can’t hear even the tiniest difference.

No ground loops on RCA, but as I say, I do have the Mini connected to the DAC via optical.

 

[alpha_zulu]

Very positive review of Ultra:

 

[daydreamer]

He says the WiiM has, and I quote directly, “a little more body in the midrange”.

So let’s be clear, if the WiiM’s frequency response measures as flat, he’s provably talking nonsense.

If body, warmth and tonality in general were entirely governed by frequency response, you'd be provably correct. Yet, as much as I hate to admit it, I've owned thin-sounding DACs and full-sounding ones each having a ruler-flat frequency response. I really would prefer this not be the case, but if my ears agreed with what my EE training and your post both say, I would still be happily using a Benchmark DAC1 in my main listening room.

 

[Steve Woodhouse]

If body, warmth and tonality in general were entirely governed by frequency response, you'd be provably correct. Yet, as much as I hate to admit it, I've owned thin-sounding DACs and full-sounding ones each having a ruler-flat frequency response. I really would prefer this not be the case, but if my ears agreed with what my EE training and your post both say, I would still be happily using a Benchmark DAC1 in my main listening room.

In each case, there must be something else ‘broken’.

I’m not dismissing your comments, I’m sure you’re accurate. But ‘full’ and ‘thin’ by definition mean audible frequencies.

An odd one.

 

[Smartplug]

If body, warmth and tonality in general were entirely governed by frequency response, you'd be provably correct. Yet, as much as I hate to admit it, I've owned thin-sounding DACs and full-sounding ones each having a ruler-flat frequency response. I really would prefer this not be the case, but if my ears agreed with what my EE training and your post both say, I would still be happily using a Benchmark DAC1 in my main listening room.

That part ruler flat response. I agree with what you said about tin sounding and full bodied despite their ruler flat. I have r2r dac which is the most full bodied in comparison with ess and akm. It sound too dark to my liking. “Dark” soft treble strong bass and mid.

 

[Al_Dub24]

My UK seller just told me middle of next month

 

[Steve Woodhouse]

For me, I’m off on holiday for a week, starting a week today, back on the 4th August.

So ‘the middle of August’ doesn’t sound too long away from there.

 

[Cal_Cobra]

My Wiim Ultra landed last evening! I have a test setup, once I get everything tested out, I'll move it to it's new home.

I will say that as a new WiiM owner/user, the WiiM Home app seems pretty clunky. I've been streaming Amazon Music on the Ultra, and it's not uncommon for it to stop playing, or when you start a song, it doesn't play for a random period of time. It's not a network issue, my signal strength is fine, I also stream Apple Music from my iPhone in this same location and it's rock solid, so seems to be an issue with the Ultra or it's implementation of the Amazon Music app within the WiiM Home app?

Overall I like the design, but music playback is sporadic, at least Amazon Music, I'll try to test other services. Ultimately I want AirPlay to work. As a side note to @WiiM Team it's almost inconceivable for a product who's main purpose in life is to stream music, not to support AirPlay...just say'in

On a more positive note, the Sabre ESS DAC sounds great, very nice implementation IMHO.

EDIT: While I await WiiM to implement AIrPlay support, I have been testing Amazon Music. The lower tier that comes with Amazon Prime, which in addition to having a somewhat poor selection, with random odd transitions from one album to s, The Amazon Music playback experience is pretty bad on the Ultra. The WiiM Home app user experience is poor IMO for the free/lower Amazon Music tier. decided to try the HD/UHD Unlimited tier, and when it works, it's on and I've noticed that many more titles are in higher resolution versus Apple Music, and often artists have a larger selection of material vs Apple. That said, the Amazon Music playback experieince on the Ultra is poor in terms of stability. It randomly freezes up, sometimes it requres intervention to get it to continue playing, like pushing play/pause/play and that seems restart the stream. I've tested a lot of streaming devices with both Apple and Amazon and they were rock solid, the Ultra, not so much I do notice that WiFI shows "weak" on the Ultra, yet any other device in the exact position shows a full 5 out of 5 bars of signal strength, and have zero drops, or freeze ups while streaming. Hopefully WiiM is on this, and a fix comes out shortly.

 

[Smartplug]

For me, I’m off on holiday for a week, starting a week today, back on the 4th August.

So ‘the middle of August’ doesn’t sound too long away from there.

You going to have too many time on your hand while you’re off. Enjoy your time off.

 

[Smartplug]

Does ultra support usb out on stack firmware?

 

[seth_success]

I tried connecting my Audio Dragonfly Black to the USB port. It lights up but I dont see it as an output option in the app. Working for anyone else?

 

[adias]

I tried connecting my Audio Dragonfly Black to the USB port. It lights up but I dont see it as an output option in the app. Working for anyone else?

You need to wait for a firmware update. As of today beta testers have it and when released for production, if your DAC has a competent USB input filtered/managed port, you will be up for a pleasant surprise.

 

[mlsstl]

Just adding a data point. I'm in the US and had an existing pre-order with Crutchfield placed on June 4.

The status changed today to "Order Placed" and then to "Shipped" about an hour later with a UPS tracking number assigned. Don't have a specific expected delivery date yet but am hoping for early next week.

 

[Brantome]

My UK seller just told me middle of next month

Not surprised at all given the rollout of the previous models…

 

[jed1]

You need to wait for a firmware update. As of today beta testers have it and when released for production, if your DAC has a competent USB input filtered/managed port, you will be up for a pleasant surprise.

That sounds exciting! Until now, I has not considered WiiM Ultra because of lack of balanced output. If USB output provides the better quality than optical output, then I will serious consider. Is WiiM Ultra's USB isolated? Reason I use TOSLINK rather than COAX is to isolate WiiM from external DAC electrically.

 

[adias]

That sounds exciting! Until now, I has not considered WiiM Ultra because of lack of balanced output. If USB output provides the better quality than optical output, then I will serious consider. Is WiiM Ultra's USB isolated? Reason I use TOSLINK rather than COAX is to isolate WiiM from external DAC electrically.

The USB isolation you want is on the DAC side. I use Schiit Audio DACs with Unison USB. There are other DACs at least with galvanic isolation but not all have it.

 

[Mr Ee]

@Cal_Cobra have you tried casting to the wiim from the amazon app?
You need to enable Amazon Alexa at the very end of the music services list.

 

[Caffeinated]

My UK seller just told me middle of next month

It moved from 31 July to 19 August in Australia.