Poll: Ultra with external DAC

[pieterv1]

Out of curiosity as I have yet to receive mine

Hopefully this will help other Ultra users as well:
- determining wether or not they could benefit from an external DAC
- deciding what would be a good upgrade path for them personally

 

[Mr Ee]

Beg, borrow or steal some dacs and try it for yourself.

To be clear, I'm not advocating stealing, it's just a phrase....

 

[trafo11]

Out of curiosity, since I haven't received mine yet

Hopefully this will help other Ultra users:

- determine whether or not they could benefit from an external DAC

- decide what would be a good upgrade path for them personally

I compared it to the RME adi 2 DAC and the topping e50. The difference was noticeable, but I liked the sound of the ultra by a small margin.

 

[Mr Ee]

I compared it to the RME adi 2 DAC and the topping e50. The difference was noticeable, but I liked the sound of the ultra by a small margin.

Welcome, but in English please!
I understood the bit about rme adi2 dac

 

[trafo11]

Porovnal som to s RME adi 2 DAC a toppingom e50. Rozdiel bol badateľný, ale s malou rezervou sa mi páčil zvuk ultra.

my mistake....I'm helping with Translation due to my poor English. I compared it with the RME adi 2 DAC and the topping e50. The difference was noticeable but with a small margin I liked the sound of the ultra.

 

[pieterv1]

my mistake....I'm helping with Translation due to my poor English. I compared it with the RME adi 2 DAC and the topping e50. The difference was noticeable but with a small margin I liked the sound of the ultra.

No worries! Thank you for sharing your findings!

 

[hgo58]

Only tried with external DACs as they are in each of my wireless speakers (Wharfedale A2).

 

[pieterv1]

Only tried with external DACs as they are in each of my wireless speakers.

Cool! Are they fully wireless or rather active speakers with built-in DAC? Which brand/model?

 

[sleepysurf]

Using Ultra USB out to a Topping E70 Velvet DAC. I have very revealing MartinLogan electrostatic speakers. The Topping, at least to my ears, has much better bass and overall more natural sounding.

 

[hgo58]

Cool! Are they fully wireless or rather active speakers with built-in DAC? Which brand/model?

Wharfedale Diamond A2. They have a hub connected to the WiiM via optical. The hub forward PCM data (24/96) to each speaker (via WiFi5). Each speaker have DAC, amplifier (50W), etc

 

[Mr Ee]

I've been quite lazy in my comparisons.
Got a few dacs, but my main ultra vs something test was with my Hegel H190 amp's dac, via optical.
Your choice of Clear Improvement is the closest qualified answer, yet to me the 'Clear' part implies a quite significant difference.
Like our new friend @trafo11, I thought the difference was small but noticable, in favour of the Hegel. If I didn't have such an external dac to compare against, I'd have been happy with the ultra on its own.
At that point I pretty much stopped worrying about comparing everything else (i.e. didn't bother unplugging and moving the other dacs from their systems) and just stuck with using the Hegel's dac.
The ultra has since moved into a different system, this time usb out to an rme adi 2, mostly so that I can easily switch between headphones and speakers. And I like the rme's dancing display!

 

[Burnside]

These questions are kind of moot for me as my Linn amp either accepts digital input and then uses its DAC, or it accepts analogue input, digitises that and then again uses its DAC...

 

[pieterv1]

These questions are kind of moot for me as my Linn amp either accepts digital input and then uses its DAC, or it accepts analogue input, digitises that and then again uses its DAC...

In your case I'd be inclined to use the amplifier's built-in DAC as well
It's probably better integrated and exactly tuned for the amplifier circuit.

 

[QuarryHunslet]

I don't own an Ultra yet, but if I did, it would have to sound fairly bad before I would even consider getting an external DAC.

On a similar note, I own WiiM Mini's, WiiM Pro's, WiiM Pro Plus, and WiiM Amp, and have never felt that I needed to even think about getting an external DAC, and am perfectly happy with the built in DACs.

I haven't voted in this poll, but may do if I do end up getting an Ultra.

 

[Valentino]

Answered Other because my 4-way active speaker system's input is a MiniDSP Flex Eight (digital input only) .
If I had a more conventional hifi system I would answer No and I dont't feel the need to. The Ultra's onboard DAC has excellent measured performance. That's what matters, not unrepeatable flawed listening tests á la YouTubers.

 

[HoosierHiFi]

I have my ultra connected to an RME ADI 2 DAC via USB. I like the sound (and similar to Mr Ee) I like the spectrum analyzer. As I use EQ on the ultra I also find the RME’s horizontal level meter very useful in helping to avoid clipping. I use the meter in dual mode so it shows the peak level before all DSP processing and after all processing including volume control.

 

[adias]

The Ultra has a digital USB out. USB is an asynchronous connection giving an external DAC with precise clocks a chance to reconstruct the audio stream; with better sample timing the digital to analog reconstruction can sound better. I can hear that clearly in my setup.

 

[pieterv1]

The Ultra has a digital USB out. USB is an asynchronous connection giving an external DAC with precise clocks a chance to reconstruct the audio stream; with better sample timing the digital to analog reconstruction can sound better. I can hear that clearly in my setup.

The benefits of USB audio have been repeated many times. Would help if you actually shared which model of DAC to get a better idea!

 

[morwa]

I did a quick comparison. The winner was the Arcam irDac. Better dynamics, decay and holography. Musical Fidelity A308 amplifier. Paradigm Studio.

 

[PS Panda]

Answered other because I've connected my Kef LSXs to my Ultra via optical at 96/24. I've got no option but to use the DACs in the Kefs as they digitise incoming analogue audio.