..... new amp for ultra

[Yooy257]

I have had an Ultra for two weeks now and was also searching for a suitable amplifier. It turns out that here in the Netherlands a company had the idea to make a suitable amplifier for the Ultra and it was introduced last week. I ordered it immediately and expect to receive it at the end of this week.

https://internetofmusic.nl/product/iom-ultra/

 

[Groove Catcher]

Could well be.
All I can say is I’m delighted with the MXW.

Are you using one amp or two in bridged mono?

 

[Murf99]

Just the one, it’s rated at 70w but seems way more powerful - volume at 70 on Ultra and it’s to loud to listen to, seems to have loads of headroom.

Can’t imagine what 2 in bridged mode would be like ( I was thinking along those lines, thought I’d get 1 and go from there, don’t need another )

My listening room is only 11’ wide so in a bigger space might be different.

 

[Murf99]

I have had an Ultra for two weeks now and was also searching for a suitable amplifier. It turns out that here in the Netherlands a company had the idea to make a suitable amplifier for the Ultra and it was introduced last week. I ordered it immediately and expect to receive it at the end of this week.

https://internetofmusic.nl/product/iom-ultra/

I looked at the IOM, looks good.
Also looked at Nord VL 252 almost ordered one.
I went with Cambridge as they have been going since 1968 and I’ve had a lot of their gear over the years always sounds good and is reliable.
I think I made the right choice.

 

[Groove Catcher]

You should be; the Hypex power stage inside is top-grade stuff. No doubt Cambridge's input buffer stage is up to task, too!

-Ed

Do you it’s better than the WiiM offerings? I have my eye on the Cambridge. I’ve never heard a Hypex amp.

 

[Murf99]

Do you it’s better than the WiiM offerings? I have my eye on the Cambridge. I’ve never a Hypex amp.

I can’t say as I haven’t heard the WiiM amps, but I am a fan of the WiiM stuff, have the Ultra and Pro Plus.
I was going to wait and see if WiiM produced just a plain Power Amp ( didn’t want a vibelink ) but I had put in a pre order on MXW which obbs I now have.
As before delighted with it.

 

[harkpabst]

Just the one, it’s rated at 70w but seems way more powerful - volume at 70 on Ultra and it’s to loud to listen to, seems to have loads of headroom.

That actually says nothing about headroom, just about gain, also often given in terms of input sensitivity. Is your Ultra's output voltage still at its default setting?

The input sensitivity of the MXW70 is 900 mV when fed through the RCA inputs and used in stereo mode. That means it will reach its full (!) power output with 0.9 V present at its RCA inputs. By default the WiiM Ultra will put out 2000 mV with the volume setting at 100 and a full level (0 dBFS) digital input signal. Notice the difference?

You should reduce the max output voltage of the WiiM Ultra to either 1 V or 800 mV. 800 mV would be on the safe side (you could never overdrive your power amp, but would potentially loose 1 dB of maximum power output). 1 V is also OK (you could slightly overdrive the amp in theory, but you could have full power if you need it).

With the 2 V RMS output setting you could easily drive your power ampminto full distortion. Having to turn the knob just a bit might feel impressive, but in fact your overhead is negative.

 

[EddNog]

Do you it’s better than the WiiM offerings? I have my eye on the Cambridge. I’ve never heard a Hypex amp.

The VibeLink is a good amp from WiiM. I am using it at the moment with the help of a Topping L70 preamp because the +20dB gain on the VibeLink is not enough in my system (I have a -6dB gain hit due to DIRAC Live correction), and the Topping L70 set to high gain fixes this. It is sufficient power for LS50 Metas, but that's partially because I have them high-pass filtered at 135Hz and have two tiers of subs filling in the bottom end (a pair of symmetrically placed and stereo-fed SVS 3000 Micros from 50Hz to 135Hz and an SVS PC-2000 Pro in sealed mode covering the bottom; it plays from 50Hz down to 13Hz completely flat in my room), so I don't need that much power, just mostly gain to play at reference levels, but the VibeLink is based on Texas Instruments' TPA3255 class-D chip amps and they perform very, very well when properly implemented.

Hypex class-D modules have better objective performance than TPA3255-based amps. Lower distortion, more neutral response, and typically more (sometimes much more) power. They are on-par with Purifi class-D modules. Many high-end amplifiers on the market utilize Hypex or Purifi class-D modules internally, include numerous Cambridge Audio amplifiers as well as Marantz, so you may have listened to Hypex before without realizing it.

-Ed

 

[Murf99]

That actually says nothing about headroom, just about gain, also often given in terms of input sensitivity. Is your Ultra's output voltage still at its default setting?

Thee input sensitivity of the MXW70 is 900 mV when fed through the RCA inputs and used in stereo mode. That means it will reach its full (!) power output with 0.9 V present at its RCA inputs. By default the WiiM Ultra will put out 2000 mV with the volume setting at 100 and a full level (0 dBFS) digital input signal. Notice the difference?

You should reduce the max output voltage of the WiiM Ultra to either 1 V or 800 mV. 800 mV would be on the safe side (you could never overdrive your power amp, but would potentially loose 1 dB of maximum power output). 1 V is also OK (you could slightly overdrive the amp in theory, but you could have full power if you need it.

With the 2 V RMS output setting you could easily drive your power ampminto full distortion. Having to turn the knob just a bit might feel impressive, but in fact your overhead is negative.

Sorry if I used the wrong term with “ Headroom “
I have Ultra set at 1Vrms and it still goes LOUD ( is that more accurate ? )
As I said 70 on Ultra and it’s to loud to listen to, so not even close to overdrive amp ?
I don’t use the knob, volume controlled by IPad.

 

[harkpabst]

Sorry if I used the wrong term with “ Headroom “
I have Ultra set at 1Vrms and it still goes LOUD ( is that more accurate ? )
As I said 70 on Ultra and it’s to loud to listen to, so not even close to overdrive amp ?
I don’t use the knob, volume controlled by IPad.

Rest assured, I'm not after accuracy in terminology here, just accuracy in sound.

You didn't mention the output voltage setting before (I think) so I just wanted to make sure you're not missing out on best possible sound.

1 V is certainly fine. Personally (and since you said you don't need lots of power), I'd also try the 800 mV setting. The difference won't be massive, but operating the digital volume control closer to the upperend can never hurt.

WIt's the volume at 70 and the Ultra at 1 V you are certainly safe from driving the amp into clipping.

Physical knob or app control doesn't make a difference. The numbers and the resulting output are the same.

I love the form factor of these tiny boxes.

 

[alexcaire]

Hello

The Cambridge MXW 70 arrived this morning, set it up let it run for a couple of hours, I then watched BBC news and was immediately struck by how clear speech was, good start.

Then started listening to music, streamed via Qobuz Connect to WiiM Ultra / MXW 70 / PSB Imagine T 54, well to say I’m impressed would be a massive understatement - a HUGE improvement in EVERY AREA compared to Quad 405/2 ( which I’d been quite happy with up till then )

Spent the next 5 hours of track after track ( SRV, Joni, Jeff, JM, RT etc etc ) I know all these songs very well, haven’t heard them so clearly since I had my Krell KSA 100.

As you may have guessed I am very very impressed by this tiny £500 Class D amp.

( yes I have heard Fosi and Topping etc, but in my my opinion this MXW is in a different league altogether )

I haven’t even tried vinyl yet, should sound pretty good with my Oracle Delphi 2 / FR 64 Black ( Ltd Ed ) / Denon 103 D ( Le Son modified ) Tisbury Domino Phono, .

So it seems at 71 my 53 year Audio journey may be over.

Murf

Murph, I was thinking to replace my Nad D3020 with the Cambridge you just bought,I had some doubts as I would need to use the Wiim ultra as a pre amp, for your reports I think you have no complains, can you elaborate a little of your experience using the ultra as a pre amp?

 

[pieterv1]

I can’t say as I haven’t heard the WiiM amps, but I am a fan of the WiiM stuff, have the Ultra and Pro Plus.
I was going to wait and see if WiiM produced just a plain Power Amp ( didn’t want a vibelink ) but I had put in a pre order on MXW which obbs I now have.
As before delighted with it.

Could you share a picture of your setup, showing how the Cambridge compares in size to the Ultra?