VU meter is artificially boosted to always appear pegging into the red

[Math You]

My chain: Tidal (via ethernet) - > wiim ultra -> USB -> Eversolo DAC Z8 -> xlr -> smsl h400 headphone amp.

I use the wiim as a streamer only. Using (100%) fixed volume to my external DAC, the VU meter on the wiim ultra is always pegging into the red, almost maxed out.

This is without me using any PEQ, or adding or subtracting gain using pre gain. And this happens even when listening to quiet (pre-"loudness war") recordings.

After a lengthy customer support back and forth, I was told that they add "+10dB boost by default to maintain a visually appealing UI". It's just done on the UI and has no effect on volume, according to support.
Does this make sense to anyone?

I don't get why they would add +10dB boost to make the UI look better. Isn't the whole point of the VU meter to show us how close to clipping we are, and to show us the effects of our PEQ and pre gain adjustments?

 

[Djinn206]

I think there is an option to switch between input and output levels regarding the VU meter display. Set it to input level.

 

[Math You]

I think there is an option to switch between input and output levels regarding the VU meter display. Set it to input level.

Thank you. I was already aware of this, but I thought using Original Signal wouldn't be accurately displaying effects of gain and peq. But in either case I understand now that the VU meter is just eye candy. Thanks.

 

[hgo58]

My chain: Tidal (via ethernet) - > wiim ultra -> USB -> Eversolo DAC Z8 -> xlr -> smsl h400 headphone amp.

I use the wiim as a streamer only. Using (100%) fixed volume to my external DAC, the VU meter on the wiim ultra is always pegging into the red, almost maxed out.

This is without me using any PEQ, or adding or subtracting gain using pre gain. And this happens even when listening to quiet (pre-"loudness war") recordings.

After a lengthy customer support back and forth, I was told that they add "+10dB boost by default to maintain a visually appealing UI". It's just done on the UI and has no effect on volume, according to support.
Does this make sense to anyone?

I don't get why they would add +10dB boost to make the UI look better. Isn't the whole point of the VU meter to show us how close to clipping we are, and to show us the effects of our PEQ and pre gain adjustments?

The VU meters have never showed anything real. The scale is wrong for a digital pre-amp and there is no correlation between the display and the real volume. It's just eye candy.

The positive dB (red) is e.g. only relevant for a power amplifier output.

I have raised a number of tickets about this and @WiiM Support say that the team is looking into it.

The scale shall be in dBFS and with an absolute max at 0 dBFS, including max pre-gain and EQ.

A clipping indicator would be nice to have here (when the actual digital value is max volume).

dBFS = 20 * log10(volume/max-volume).

Where max volume is 0xffffff for 24 bit.

 

[hgo58]

To be honest I have never understood why @WiiM Team is treating the Ultra display as a toy, while the rest of the WiiM software is relatively professional.

 

[Houma]

Vielen Dank. Ich war mir dessen bereits bewusst, aber ich dachte, dass die Verwendung von Original Signal die Effekte von Gain und Peq nicht genau darstellen würde. Aber in jedem Fall verstehe ich jetzt, dass das VU-Meter nur eine Augenweide ist.

and this is discussed at length