USB or Optical Out To DAC

[holsen]

I'm brand new here and I'm so thankful to have discovered WiiM and Roon. I just picked up a WiiM Ultra to replace 2 pieces of Sonos Gear a Beam (For HDMI IN) and a Port to get into my B&O. Just a quick question. My external DAC will take Optical and USB input. Is there a concensus on which is the better way out of the Ultra?

 

[adias]

If your DAC has a good USB input and precision clocks, use USB.

 

[pieterv1]

I'm brand new here and I'm so thankful to have discovered WiiM and Roon. I just picked up a WiiM Ultra to replace 2 pieces of Sonos Gear a Beam (For HDMI IN) and a Port to get into my B&O. Just a quick question. My external DAC will take Optical and USB input. Is there a concensus on which is the better way out of the Ultra?

USB will allow the DAC to entirely rely on its internal clock and would be the preferred method. It's an asynchronous audio connection.

With toslink/coax, you have a higher chance of jitter and digital noise, although it's probably negligible with modern transports & DAC's. The transport and the DAC have to be in sync with eachother to properly read the digital audio.

The additional benefit of optical is that both devices will be galvanically isolated. There is no direct electrical connection between both devices as you're dealing with a light signal. This reduces the risk of possible ground loops in specific setups.

 

[harkpabst]

I'm brand new here and I'm so thankful to have discovered WiiM and Roon. I just picked up a WiiM Ultra to replace 2 pieces of Sonos Gear a Beam (For HDMI IN) and a Port to get into my B&O. Just a quick question. My external DAC will take Optical and USB input. Is there a concensus on which is the better way out of the Ultra?

With optical/coaxial output you can use the Ultra's subwoofer output. You cannot do that with USB out.

NB:
Sub out only works with the WiiM Ultra managing volume control, anyway.

 

[holsen]

Beauty, Thank You all.

 

[holsen]

BTW
My Ultra arrived today and it sounded OK going into my B&O system in the living room but was lacking punch and dynamics, it was a bit flat. I stuck an iBasso DC Elite inline between the ULTRA and the B&O Amp and WOW - it's a first class experience - resolution and dynamics to the 9's The Wiim Ultra is on BF Sale on Amazon now for $263 - If you're looking for a feature rich streamer, just forget about the internal DAC on this thing and and stick a USB DAC inline and you've got the equivalent of $1K+ streamer with HDMI. I'm blown away.