Recased Wiim Pro

[Vangelo51]

There is a school of thought that RF & EMS waves are detrimental to sound quality.

My HiFi set up has been fairly stable for a number of years, and over the last few months I have been tweaking the system paying attention to isolation and cabling.
I have made my own cables consisting of shielded mains, interconnects and even power cables. I have positioned equipment so cable runs are as short as possible
and made sure mains and signal cables are well separated. I have also eliminated wall-wart type power supplies running LPS instead, including for the router.

This has all paid off reducing background noise and harshness, increasing soundstage width & depth, instrument separation & focus....all the good things a system should strive for.

So, having been really pleased with how The Wiim Pro fits in my system, the only thing that lets it down is the plastic case. This was an itch I had to scratch!
I disassembled the unit and discovered 3 boards. I was not interested in the front switches, nor the internal DAC. Really, I was only interested in the main board, but this would not work without the DAC board, so I needed a metal box to house the 2 boards, and found a 110 x 100 x 40mm case on Amazon that looked like it would work. Also bought an external aerial.

A bit of measuring, planning, drilling and filing achieved the results I wanted, which also includes a lift in SQ!

 

[Mr Ee]

Oohhh, a supercharger... getting the turbo next?

I'm not sure I could separate mains from signal even if I wanted to - there are just so many cables behind the tv unit the hifi's in, from hifi to avr to nas to network switch to playstation to dvd to ....
Last time I moved the cabinet it took all afternoon just to connect everything back together again, and it's still a mess despite trying not to overlap too many wires.

 

[Vangelo51]

Being retired, I have time on my hands.

Helps to be a bit OCD too

 

[Vangelo51]

 

[Maurizio]

It seems '51 was a brilliant year

For Sure. How it could be otherwise?

 

[d6jg]

I have to say that I cannot believe that changing the power supply on your router can have any effect on your audio at all. The only reason to change it could possibly be if it was in close (too close) proximity to some analogue equipment and the charger itself was producing RF interference. A simpler and cheaper solution would be to keep it well away from your HiFi.

There are audiophile network switches also on the market but I’ve yet to see any serious audiophile website say anything about them except in a derogatory way.

Can someone actually explain how an LPS can make any difference to a digital streamer assuming that it’s original power supply is properly manufactured and works as it should? I don’t get it. A 1 is a 1 and a 0 is a 0. You can’t have straighter or broken 1s or fatter or incomplete 0s.

Edit
That all said. The case looks great

 

[audiobliss]

It all depends on your level of OCD .

 

[Vangelo51]

Like I said at the beginning, 'there is a school of thought......'

I can definitely hear the difference a cheap wall-wart power supply has on a piece of equipment......subtle in some cases, dramatic in others. My understanding is it injects also noise into the mains. But if you are of the school of thought its all 1's & 0's, & cables, power supplies, grounding boxes etc, dont make a difference....thats fine too, and you can save a ton of expense!

Have to admit I could not hear a difference when my buddy brought up his grounding box, but he swears by it. Then again, I live in a rural area, and he lives in London behind a factory where there is more mains pollution.

A lot of audio perception is psychological, and if you THINK it will make a difference, it often does.....and I am OCD

 

[Mr_J]

Can someone actually explain how an LPS can make any difference to a digital streamer assuming that it’s original power supply is properly manufactured and works as it should? I don’t get it. A 1 is a 1 and a 0 is a 0. You can’t have straighter or broken 1s or fatter or incomplete 0s.

Edit
That all said. The case looks great

Correct the 1s & 0s are not changed in anyway, however the basic premise behind the use of an LPS inplace of an SMPS is the removal of the parasitic noise which hitches a ride with the digital signal. This hash travels with (alongside) the 0s & 1s and passes unmolested through the digital circuits of a DAC to infect the resultant analogue circuit and output.
You don't really realise you have this hash problem until you remove it, yes optical outputs should not be susceptible due to forming an electrical break but this is dependent on the quality of the optical sender/receiver unit which can also produce hash if poorly implemented.
I believe I've heard this effect (hash removal) on a number of occasions, which is why I now use LPSs wherever possible.
1. When I pimped my Node2 and installed a £36 ChFi LPS and then swapped to an SBooster + Ultra ll. On both occasions the richness, dynamics, separation etc improved.
2. Using the now spare ChiFi LPS added to my CCA & FiiO Taishan DAC in system 2 the sound improved significantly.
3. I bought a Cambridge DacMagic Plus to replace the Taishan, initially I was not impressed with it as the sound was a bit thin and bright, detailed yes but with no real body to it. I then replaced the SMPS with an 80s style heavy transformer wallwart, damn, what a difference, the sound had grown up, there was warmth, richness, weight etc. This DacMagic Plus was no longer preforming like a £200 budget DAC, it was, now more like a £5 - 600 one and all because of a £16 PSU & £3 DC tip adapter.

It may seem like madness, but give it a try, £50 - £65 for a 5v LPS is pretty cheap for the kind of SQ uplift this can give.

 

[Nstzya]

Can I ask an admittedly (possibly) ignorant question? What does the external antennae NOT pick up that the new metal case presumably shields?

 

[goodmore]

And my central air kicks on making a blowing sound. I would rather be cool than live in a isolation chamber. The case looks nice. I admire talent which you surely have.

 

[Vangelo51]

Can I ask an admittedly (possibly) ignorant question? What does the external antennae NOT pick up that the new metal case presumably shields?

If I understand your question correctly, I am thinking I could not reuse the original internal aerial because the new case is metal. The aerial is necessary for Bluetooth and WiFi.

 

[Vangelo51]

And my central air kicks on making a blowing sound. I would rather be cool than live in a isolation chamber. The case looks nice. I admire talent which you surely have.

thanks! I enjoy tinkering...........

 

[Nstzya]

If I understand your question correctly, I am thinking I could not reuse the original internal aerial because the new case is metal. The aerial is necessary for Bluetooth and WiFi.

I think I worded my question poorly. You wrote that a large point of the new case was to shield against stray RF/EMS noise, etc. But won’t it all just be picked up and reintroduced by the antenna anyway?

 

[Vangelo51]

I think I worded my question poorly. You wrote that a large point of the new case was to shield against stray RF/EMS noise, etc. But won’t it all just be picked up and reintroduced by the antenna anyway?

I am not an expert, but the aerial is connected with a coax cable which is shielded so I assume this would also shield against unwanted RF entering the box....

 

[Hollywood]

I don’t get it. A 1 is a 1 and a 0 is a 0. You can’t have straighter or broken 1s or fatter or incomplete 0s.

I had an Amazon return so I printed out the email with the barcode for UPS. It took 2 sheets. Next time I had a return I printed at a smaller scale to get it all on one sheet. Although re scaled and smaller, both scanned to the proper tracking number.

 

[Nstzya]

Although the point you are trying to make is taken, it’s not exactly the best analogy as barcode is a very much an analog item for us in the analog world. It is scanned and A/D converted to digital info but that barcode is strictly for us poor analog physical beings - not much different than the old punch cards. But we stray far OT.

 

[subidapter]

Nice work! I was just discussing in another thread how the Pro Plus's cheap plastic case does not match its outstanding capabilities and performance.

 

[Vangelo51]

Nice work! I was just discussing in another thread how the Pro Plus's cheap plastic case does not match its outstanding capabilities and performance.

Thanks!
A controversial subject on this forum....as you can see

 

[wunderkind]

Hi cool hobby work. Curious to know if you hook it up to an amp or running external dac.

I think my 40 yo ears will not tell a difference in a blind test.