USB hard drive size and external power supply needs with the Ultra

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Bill Mac

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May 12, 2023
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I'm very interested in the Ultra. I currently own a Pro and a Mini so the Ultra seems to be the next step. My concerns are the lack of information in the Ultra's product specs page regarding using an external USB hard drive. My questions are is there a hard drive size limitation and at what point (spec wise) is an external power supply needed. I use Western Digital 2-5TB My Passport and Element USB hard drives with several sources (Oppo 203, Technics SL-G700 and Eversolo DMP-A6). With these sources no external power supply is needed. The Technics is the only one with USB hard drive size limitations which is 2TB.

My other question related to the Ultra is if it currently supports both input and output USB capability. If it only supports one or the other when will both input and output functions be supported.

The ability to connect an external USB hard drive is one of the biggest features of interest for my interest in the Ultra. But before buying one I really need to know what if any restrictions there are when using external hard drives. Thanks in advance for any information regarding my questions.
 
yeah I would like to know also I have about 9TB of music, so if it has ability to scan and build a database for all these would be useful to know.
 
While capacity hasn’t been quoted, if your drive draws more than the 650mA mentioned in this faq you’ll probably need an external power supply which in my case is supplied via a y-cable and a standard USB charger.

faq.wiimhome.com

Using USB Disks with the WiiM Amp or WiiM Amp Pro

Transform your living space into an immersive concert hall by connecting a USB stick to your WiiM Amp or WiiM Amp Pro. To achieve the best performance and ensure compatibility, it's crucial to know which USB disk types and power specifications ar...
faq.wiimhome.com faq.wiimhome.com

It’s also been mentioned several times in the forum and the WiiM Fan Page on Facebook that the Ultra (and the Amp for that matter) can support both usb media input and usb audio output as the same time using an external USB hub.

I’ve used both the hub and a y-cable to successfully play audio out over usb from tracks stored on the usb drive.

However, I would question the use of the Ultra’s USB input for large music collections that in my opinion would be better served by use of a NAS and a mature UPnP server like MinimServer.
 
Bill Mac said:
I'm very interested in the Ultra. I currently own a Pro and a Mini so the Ultra seems to be the next step. My concerns are the lack of information in the Ultra's product specs page regarding using an external USB hard drive. My questions are is there a hard drive size limitation and at what point (spec wise) is an external power supply needed. I use Western Digital 2-5TB My Passport and Element USB hard drives with several sources (Oppo 203, Technics SL-G700 and Eversolo DMP-A6). With these sources no external power supply is needed. The Technics is the only one with USB hard drive size limitations which is 2TB.

My other question related to the Ultra is if it currently supports both input and output USB capability. If it only supports one or the other when will both input and output functions be supported.

The ability to connect an external USB hard drive is one of the biggest features of interest for my interest in the Ultra. But before buying one I really need to know what if any restrictions there are when using external hard drives. Thanks in advance for any information regarding my questions.
Click to expand...
Hi Team,

The WiiM Ultra can supply up to 5V and 1.7A power to an external USB disk. Please ensure this is sufficient for your external USB disk. Regarding drive size, it supports the maximum size allowed by the NTFS, FAT32, and exFAT file systems.
 
WiiM Support said:
Hi Team,

The WiiM Ultra can supply up to 5V and 1.7A power to an external USB disk. Please ensure this is sufficient for your external USB disk. Regarding drive size, it supports the maximum size allowed by the NTFS, FAT32, and exFAT file systems.
Click to expand...
Thanks for clarifying. Good to see the increased power capabilities of the WiiM Ultra. (y)
 
A member over at the Steve Hoffman forum posted that he was able to use a 2TB Western Digital hard drive with the Ultra without an external power supply. That's music to my ears (pardon the pun ;)).

forums.stevehoffman.tv

WiiM Ultra

iOS will transfer Bluetooth audio at 256K using AAC (assuming the receiving device can handle it; if not it will default to SBC). AirPlay 2 from an iOS...
forums.stevehoffman.tv forums.stevehoffman.tv
 
WiiM Support said:
Salut l'équipe,

La WiiM Ultra peut fournir jusqu'à 5 V et 1,7 A d'alimentation à un disque USB externe. Veuillez vous assurer que cette alimentation est suffisante pour votre disque USB externe. En ce qui concerne la taille du disque, elle prend en charge la taille maximale autorisée par les systèmes de fichiers NTFS, FAT32 et exFAT.
Click to expand...
Faux problème de non-fonctionnement avec votre Wiim Ultra, renvoyez probablement le produit à Amazon.ca.
i hâte some Cie take me for cobaye
 
Bill Mac said:
A member over at the Steve Hoffman forum posted that he was able to use a 2TB Western Digital hard drive with the Ultra without an external power supply. That's music to my ears (pardon the pun ;)).

forums.stevehoffman.tv

WiiM Ultra

iOS will transfer Bluetooth audio at 256K using AAC (assuming the receiving device can handle it; if not it will default to SBC). AirPlay 2 from an iOS...
forums.stevehoffman.tv forums.stevehoffman.tv
Click to expand...
I have successfully used a 4TB Toshiba drive with 58k tracks on it. I had a few attempts to get through the scanning process, but eventually got there, with some rough edges. For some reason some albums are duplicated in the index, and some have the same track up to three times, but overall I am very encouraged by what the Ultra does. It is a remarkable device for the money.
I bought it for a young man who is unfortunately confined to bed for life. I am now going to buy another to have the next time I find myself confined to bed in hospital or something similar. Just one power plug to cover my entire library. Remarkable!
 
I'm sure the music scanning system will improve, just they haven't had the decades of sonos/lms/plex/mediamonkey etc.

Perhaps if the system allowed side load of music service that frees up issues with companies that produce decent packages.
 
Bill Mac said:
I'm very interested in the Ultra. I currently own a Pro and a Mini so the Ultra seems to be the next step. My concerns are the lack of information in the Ultra's product specs page regarding using an external USB hard drive. My questions are is there a hard drive size limitation and at what point (spec wise) is an external power supply needed. I use Western Digital 2-5TB My Passport and Element USB hard drives with several sources (Oppo 203, Technics SL-G700 and Eversolo DMP-A6). With these sources no external power supply is needed. The Technics is the only one with USB hard drive size limitations which is 2TB.

My other question related to the Ultra is if it currently supports both input and output USB capability. If it only supports one or the other when will both input and output functions be supported.

The ability to connect an external USB hard drive is one of the biggest features of interest for my interest in the Ultra. But before buying one I really need to know what if any restrictions there are when using external hard drives. Thanks in advance for any information regarding my questions.
Click to expand...
To be honest with you, I bought it for this very same reason. The USB support and well it is buggy as hell. If your library is big it won't work properly. I bought it a month ago and I haven't been able to make it index my external hard drive. It just doesn't work.
 
kaidou said:
To be honest with you, I bought it for this very same reason. The USB support and well it is buggy as hell. If your library is big it won't work properly. I bought it a month ago and I haven't been able to make it index my external hard drive. It just doesn't work.
Click to expand...

That's a pity, and I can see the appeal of a streamer + HDD, no need for another machine to be on, also don't need a router etc. My brother would be interested in this setup but it seems to be beta.

Maybe hardware isn't upto the job, memory? Only 512MB on Wiim, maybe not enough.

My Kodi box also has a music scanner, it's ok, but it's still not as good as LMS. Partial rescans are still slow, also UI is slow and unresponsive, doesn't have features of LMS, etc.
 
If kaidou library is already struggling with 60,000 tracks, I'm way way above that (about 330,000) , and LMS is speedy mcqueen fast. A partial rescan takes about 15 minutes (scans for new and updated files) most of that is album art and resizing, and artist info download.

Maybe he should look into external service, it's a pain but I guess thats the thing with streamers they don't have the grunt in the local hardware.

​

 
Last edited:
rccarguy said:
If kaidou library is already struggling with 60,000 tracks, I'm way way above that (about 330,000) , and LMS is speedy mcqueen fast. A partial rescan takes about 15 minutes (scans for new and updated files) most of that is album art and artist info download.
Click to expand...
If I'm not mistaken @kaidou never told us how big his' is, but I'm happy you keep repeating how big your's is, so we don't forget. :)

It was @RipVanRadio who stated to have no issues at all with his ~60.000 songs. Shame on him for even mentioning such a lowly number. ;)

The point is: There is no proof at all the USB scanning problems are correlated to the size of the music library. Some are reporting problems with 60 files, others are doing fine with 60.000 files. Go figure.

And just so you get me right: Everybody who would expect the striped down MIniDLNA server running on WiiMs modest hardware being the ideal choice for managing 300.000 files or more must be plain crazy. Not you, of course, I know that.
 
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