Sell me a Wiim Ultra

[rccarguy]

OK with BF deals, sell me a Ultra. What benefits does the Ultra offer me over a Squeezebox touch?

I know of room EQ, also if it has presets that will allow me to use a room EQ preset for speaker pair 1 Celestion A compact and another EQ preset for speaker pair 2 Celestion A3.

But what else does it offer me?

 

[DG77]

If you only want to listen to music and care nothing about MultiRoom/Roon/DSP/LFE out/Sound quality or being able to connect external sources via Digital in like HDMI or SPDIF and use the Wiim as a "hub" to manage them before sending the output to whatever you use to actually play the sound, stick with the Squeezebox.

If you love to have control and lots of features and expandability go for the Wiim!
Myself I would never be able to go back to anything less flexible than the Wiim Ultra.

I would also add that the Squeezebox although maintained through community updates has very little in way of updates/support from Logitech as it's getting a bit old, compared to Wiim products that get new features and updates on a regular basis

 

[Burnside]

Amazon Music support

 

[canard]

OK with BF deals, sell me a Ultra. What benefits does the Ultra offer me over a Squeezebox touch?

I know of room EQ, also if it has presets that will allow me to use a room EQ preset for speaker pair 1 Celestion A compact and another EQ preset for speaker pair 2 Celestion A3.

But what else does it offer me?

you just have to look at the brand's website..they detail..and spend some time here..you're welcome

 

[rccarguy]

If you only want to listen to music and care nothing about MultiRoom/Roon/DSP/LFE out/Sound quality or being able to connect external sources via Digital in like HDMI or SPDIF and use the Wiim as a "hub" to manage them before sending the output to whatever you use to actually play the sound, stick with the Squeezebox.

If you love to have control and lots of features and expandability go for the Wiim!
Myself I would never be able to go back to anything less flexible than the Wiim Ultra.

I would also add that the Squeezebox although maintained through community updates has very little in way of updates/support from Logitech as it's getting a bit old, compared to Wiim products that get new features and updates on a regular basis

I'll be using digital out to a Tonewinner AT-300. Won't be using analogue input, digital inputs on the Ultra.

Server is a raspberry pi running picoreplayer.

 

[DG77]

you just have to look at the brand's website..they detail..and spend some time here..you're welcome

As a long time customer of logitech products (basically all their Harmony remotes and PC peripherals) I must say I hate their webspage and how they manage software and updates, their softwares are usually developed by outsourced devs that make a mess and then leave a product half-finished for an eternity or filled with spam and useless clutter.

 

[Burnside]

You can always just try one and return it if it doesn’t meet you expectations.

 

[Burnside]

As a long time customer of logitech products (basically all their Harmony remotes and PC peripherals) I must say I hate their webspage and how they manage software and updates, their softwares are usually developed by outsourced devs that make a mess and then leave a product half-finished for an eternity or filled with spam and useless clutter.

As both a harmony hub use and an LMS user, I don’t think you can compare the two - for one thing, LMS has been community developed for ages.

 

[DG77]

I'll be using digital out to a Tonewinner AT-300. Won't be using analogue input, digital inputs on the Ultra.

Server is a raspberry pi running picoreplayer.

I would say without knowing the details of your setup, that with a Wiim you could replace both the picore and your squeezebox as it has the same functionality as both of them built in.

 

[rccarguy]

As a long time customer of logitech products (basically all their Harmony remotes and PC peripherals) I must say I hate their webspage and how they manage software and updates, their softwares are usually developed by outsourced devs that make a mess and then leave a product half-finished for an eternity or filled with spam and useless clutter.

I'm using Lyrion Music server, it's a open source version of it on platforms. I don't think Logitech are releasing official releases anymore?

 

[DG77]

As both a harmony hub use and an LMS user, I don’t think you can compare the two - for one thing, LMS has been community developed for ages.

True but there you have it, you need community support to manage that product

 

[DG77]

I'm using Lyrion Music server, it's a open source version of it on platforms. I don't think Logitech are releasing official releases anymore?

If you are storing your local music files on a server or a usb drive, you could connect that to the Wiim and it can index and add those to it's "library" and you could use the wiim app (on phone or pad) to browse and play music.

 

[rccarguy]

If you are storing your local music files on a server or a usb drive, you could connect that to the Wiim and it can index and add those to it's "library" and you could use the wiim app (on phone or pad) to browse and play music.

The music is on a NAS on the network.

I have my doubts the Wiim music scanner is a good as LMS.

 

[Burnside]

If you are storing your local music files on a server or a usb drive, you could connect that to the Wiim and it can index and add those to it's "library" and you could use the wiim app (on phone or pad) to browse and play music.

To be fair, much as I really like my Ultra, using LMS with my media stored either on my NAS or an internal SSD on my piCorePlayer setup roundly beats the pants off the miniDLNA server that WiiM use for locally attached USB drives.

Also, not to do the Ultra down, I believe the squeezebox supports multiple outputs at the same time - despite being asked for many times, WiiM devices still only support one output type at a time.

 

[Burnside]

I would say without knowing the details of your setup, that with a Wiim you could replace both the picore and your squeezebox as it has the same functionality as both of them built in.

Not really. Have you used LMS recently? Its implementation of BBC Sounds and Radio Paradise, just naming two services, is so much better than WiiM’s current offerings.

I use the best of both worlds - LMS to index my local media (and in particular to use the two services I mention) and play to the squeezelite client in my WiiM Ultra feeding into my Linn MDSM/4. I also use Amazon Music on the Ultra which integrates well with Alexa and the Amazon Echos I have throughout the house. For me it’s not a case of either/or, but both LMS and WiiM

(Also, see https://forum.wiimhome.com/threads/wiim-pro-raspberry-pi-4-8gb.1150/ for the display LMS can produce - I’d say LMS and WiiM make for a happy marriage )

 

[rccarguy]

To be fair, much as I really like my Ultra, using LMS with my media stored either on my NAS or an internal SSD on my piCorePlayer setup roundly beats the pants off the miniDLNA server that WiiM use for locally attached USB drives.

Also, not to do the Ultra down, I believe the squeezebox supports multiple outputs at the same time - despite being asked for many times, WiiM devices still only support one output type at a time.

I don't need that feature, but understand why people would.

Would be good if the whole Wiim protocol was open source, that way if Wiim pull a Sonos like thing, you can backtrack server use another method and work around etc.

Products that are closed don't have as long as lifespan. ie when a new OS or phone app comes along, the software/app might not work, so with IP control.


yeah I would use combination of LMS and Wiim home app. Lms primarily for my music, and Wiim home app for radio stations, setting the wiims up (EQ etc)

 

[Burnside]

As I say, I think you should, go ahead and just try an Ultra - you might be pleasantly surprised.

And then you can be inside the forum looking out rather than outside looking in

 

[slartibartfast]

As a long time customer of logitech products (basically all their Harmony remotes and PC peripherals) I must say I hate their webspage and how they manage software and updates, their softwares are usually developed by outsourced devs that make a mess and then leave a product half-finished for an eternity or filled with spam and useless clutter.

LMS is doing just fine since Logitech abandoned it and apart from things like Amazon Music I suspect the Ultra will be used as a Squeezelite player with the benefit of room correction etc.

 

[slartibartfast]

I don't need that feature, but understand why people would.

Would be good if the whole Wiim protocol was open source, that way if Wiim pull a Sonos like thing, you can backtrack server use another method and work around etc.

Products that are closed don't have as long as lifespan. ie when a new OS or phone app comes along, the software/app might not work, so with IP control.


yeah I would use combination of LMS and Wiim home app. Lms primarily for my music, and Wiim home app for radio stations, setting the wiims up (EQ etc)

I think it is worth it purely for the EQ and Room Correction. Also bass management if you have a subwoofer.

 

[rccarguy]

I think it is worth it purely for the EQ and Room Correction. Also bass management if you have a subwoofer.

My processor has EQ/room correction- in some ways it's more advanced (per speaker EQ) but the auto system is trash, and it doesn't have enough presets. I have bass management in the processor plus I'm using a Outlaw ICBM-1 for the second speaker set so I have analogue Bass management there.