Poll - what would your main influences be if you were considering buying a WiiM Ultra?

[Brantome]

Just for a bit of fun (everybody loves a poll) and for my own interest, what sources of information would influence your purchase of a WiiM Ultra? Let’s take the price and WiiM’s track record as read. It’s a short list of options, choose up to three.

 

[Wiimer]

Subjective and objective are reversed?

 

[Brantome]

Subjective and objective are reversed?

Oops Just a wee test Fixed

 

[onlyoneme]

I'm not mentioned personally, so I don't vote. I have spoken.

 

[Wiimer]

I was wondering where I could find objective reviews of Youtubers. .

I voted for 1, 3, and Other. my important points are functionality and operability. As for the sound quality, it's already good enough. I'm curious about what it can do with the display.

 

[rccarguy]

A firmware update that increases the screen size to 10"

 

[sral]

I watch reviews from YouTubers and others, not usually for the sake of their sound impressions but because they often show every aspect of how the thing looks, works, and is to use over time.

If there's a reviewer that has had the same opinion on gear that I've had, as in "this speaker is way too bright sounding" then I'm more likely to trust their opinions on other products.

It's not always possible to demo products before you buy them, so no matter how little, everything helps.

 

[Maurizio]

Hi to all
I voted, ( 1-4-6) but I would like to specify better why, when available, I will buy the WiiM Ultra.
1) I like the aesthetics. It seems well built, aluminum case and screen
2) I'm curious to try the USB audio output to connect my external DAC
3) The Linkplay guys, in my opinion, are doing a great job and they deserve to be supported.
Having said this, I would like to express a very personal opinion regarding the audio part of the Ultra .
I think that the DAC with the ESS ES9038 Q2M chip is very little Ultra. It's an old chip. This chip equipped the Topping D50s in 2021, and the D50s (250 €) had/has two of these chips. One per channel.
Now I'm using the Topping D70 Pro Saber (€700) which uses the 32-bit, 8-channel ES9039SPRO chip.
The Topping Dac alone costs almost twice the Ultra and is a pure DAC, so I won't even connect the line output of the Ultra. I think that instead of improving, I would make the situation worse.
Honestly in this field I expected more, but.....as I said I will still buy the Wiim Ultra for the other reasons I mentioned.

 

[planetti]

For me the most relevant thing is the actual sound quality and functionality versus the price we pay for.

For buying an Ultra some personal (positive) experience with WiiM products and philosophy is present since I already own the pro and mini.

Although audiosciencereview wants to be "objective", their discussions are clearly not. Some technical informations or flaws dropped there are quite useful.

On the list I would add buyers reviews (from e.g. amazon) or user experience in a forum, but all with a grain of salt, since they tend to be overly enthusiastic about their new owned product.

Many influencers and full time reviewers seem to be not reliable and objective in their verdicts.

 

[Brantome]

Hi to all
I voted, ( 1-4-6) but I would like to specify better why, when available, I will buy the WiiM Ultra.
1) I like the aesthetics. It seems well built, aluminum case and screen
2) I'm curious to try the USB audio output to connect my external DAC
3) The Linkplay guys, in my opinion, are doing a great job and they deserve to be supported.
Having said this, I would like to express a very personal opinion regarding the audio part of the Ultra .
I think that the DAC with the ESS ES9038 Q2M chip is very little Ultra. It's an old chip. This chip equipped the Topping D50s in 2021, and the D50s (250 €) had/has two of these chips. One per channel.
Now I'm using the Topping D70 Pro Saber (€700) which uses the 32-bit, 8-channel ES9039SPRO chip.
The Topping Dac alone costs almost twice the Ultra and is a pure DAC, so I won't even connect the line output of the Ultra. I think that instead of improving, I would make the situation worse.
Honestly in this field I expected more, but.....as I said I will still buy the Wiim Ultra for the other reasons I mentioned.

Hi, good to see you back. Hope all’s going well with you

 

[Steve Woodhouse]

I voted objectivist.

I’m currently sat in the Greek sun. I flew here. If Darko said one plane was better because he felt the engines were ‘chocolatey’, but it kept crashing, whilst the engineers had pointed out the issue with the engines, I wouldn’t be getting on that plane.

YMMV.

 

[Maurizio]

Hi, good to see you back. Hope all’s going well with you

Hi @Brantome
Thx so much for your interest. Fortunately all is good on my side.
You see, even if I didn't participate in the comments I always read the various posts every day. The simple truth is that I got a little tired of endless threads discussing the sex of angels and I see that the situation hasn't changed much.
However, every now and then I will return to have my say, even if...cum grano salis
Happy evening to everyone

 

[Smartplug]

@Brantome i will cast my poll if you pay for my ultra.

 

[onlyoneme]

You are worse than me, I didn't demand money.

 

[JOE HSU]

PHONO

 

[steadyshot]

Both subjective and objective sources .

 

[harkpabst]

I voted everything, except for "this forum".

This is my way of saying "I will trust the one who hasn't been mentioned".

 

[cooky560]

I saw a what hifi review of a mission amp, the 778x I think? After reading what must of been a thousand words. I still have no idea how it sounds. This is the problem with modern hifi reviews.

 

[AlanB]

Whilst I would take into account measurements and reviews, ultimately my ears would be the deciding factor.

 

[Yoku-San]

I voted 1 and 3. But I trust WiiM in developing a product which is not worse than the Pro Plus (which measured well on ASR). Therefore I will probably buy it before the ASR review is out based on the published features (which are awesome).