Ultra or Amp Ultra

[vinod_david]

I got carried away in my previous reply, not taking the use case into consideration.
For some background music in an office I would probably buy an Amp Ultra and maybe a pair of the new Dali Cupids.
No external power supplies floating around. Nice and clean.

Amp Ultra for background. Dont take it for granted. I cant digest you said this.

 

[harkpabst]

They may be indistinguishable for the most part, but I‘m still convinced that a high power amp will contribute to bass control and that a multiple of the mean power used is required to do this properly.

This might be a common belief, but there's really nothing to back this up from a technical perspective. Bass control depends (to a degree) on the amplifier's output impedance, not on it's maximum power output.

With this in mind why should I bother with expensive, heavy and energetically highly inefficient class A/B or mediocre TPA amps?

And the best TPA325x amps like e.g. the WiiM Vibelink Amp or the 3E AUDIO A5 and A7 series of amps are anything but mediocre.

You can have the best-ever power amps for around 2500 EUR, which in my mind are 2nd Gen Purifis.

Having said that, this does not rule out the existence of amplifiers that have it all, highest power, lowest distortion and lowest output impedance.

The OP @AntE apparently lost interest in the answers anyway. I still have my own opinion, of course: If none of the additional features of the WiiM Ultra are necessary, the WiiM Amp Ultra with passive speakers is certainly a perfect choice.

 

[Steve Woodhouse]

How much difference?

Matrix HiFi --> Blind testing high end full equipments