What external DAC to improve the Ultra?

Yes.
There are people here who claim to be able to hear a difference and recognise the manufacturer of the chip in the DAC but I’m not one of them!
I am not sure about this... I came across a thread in which the age of the ASR forum community was analysed. If I am not mistaken, the mean and the median were both over 40. According to scientific literature about hearing degradation with age, I strongly doubt those claims are true. In certain situations, we listen with our eyes/brains more than with our ears.
 
Before I bought the Ultra, I had a Wiim Pro connected to a Topping D30 DAC.

I didn't expect the Ultra onboard DAC to sound equal to the external Topping DAC.

It did, I could not tell the difference between the 2.

I know the Topping D30 was a "budget" option but I was wondering what options would offer a decent upgrade?
CheapAudioMan said the SMSL SU-1 was a little bit better than the internal. But if you want a significant better one you can aim a little bit higher.

 
And, apart the relation among room and speakers, that overcome any subtle difference between similar gears, remember that any comparison that implies more than some decimal of second and it's not on the exact instant, became easily victim of biases. Aural memory it's so short and unreliable that the time spent to stop, change, find the same point and restart, is quite a geological era...
Anyway, anything helps the endorphins production at the end can help so if you are happy, everyone is... 😉
 
CheapAudioMan said the SMSL SU-1 was a little bit better than the internal. But if you want a significant better one you can aim a little bit higher.

Maybe he is wrong about that ? Maybe he had a cup of coffe right before he listened to the su-1 ? ( coffe makes our judgement differ ). Maybe he didnt listen to the ultra after the proper burn in had been done ( took 6-7 hours with my ultra ) .
Maybe he didnt listen at all ?
 
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It seems nobody likes these "influencas", but nearly everyone clicks on their videos. That is their success. On the other side it makes the viewers to the bigger part of the "problem". Let someone make me understand....
I block a lot of them when they start peddling snake oil
 
May be I am too much out of yesterday, but if a guy calls himself "cheapaudioman" I can not take his "reviews" serious and cannot avoid reading "cheap audioman" 😉 "But grab a cup of coffee, sit down....and I will sell you the next competition destroyers." It is like a severe car accident. Cruel, but you observe although.
I find Darko Audio the worst.

He rattles on for 20 minutes and hardly expresses an actual opinion.
 
cheapaudioman, Darko audio, and others are just marketers not reviewers. I intentionally look for 1-star reviews on Amazon and negative / complaining posts on forums. They are much more useful in buying decision than these paid promoters.
 
CheapAudioMan said the SMSL SU-1 was a little bit better than the internal. But if you want a significant better one you can aim a little bit higher.

Cheapaudioman is now reviewing an analog preamp , the schiiit Kara together with WiiM ultra . His opinion is that the preamp make the Ultra sound even better than having the Ultra connected directly to the poweramps.

What he has done is lowering the SINAD with the Kara preamp and a set of cables extra , with a slightly higher output impedance at 75 ohms from the Kara driving the power amps.

The ultra internal dac uses Opa 1611 at the output and has a very low 11 ohms output impedance so - theroretically optimal to drive power amps directly with highest possible SINAD .

So, what sounds good for the ear is not certain and has nothing to do with high SINAD

 
Cheapaudioman is now reviewing an analog preamp , the schiiit Cara together with WiiM ultra . His opinion is that the preamp make the Ultra sound even better than having the Ultra connected directly to the poweramps.

What he has done is lowering the SINAD with the Cara preamp and a set of cables extra , possible with a slightly higher output impedance from the Cara driving the power amps.

The ultra internal dac uses Opa 1611 at the output and has a very low 11 ohms output impedance so - theroretically optimal to drive power amps directly with highest possible SINAD .

So, what sounds good for the ear is not certain and has nothing to do with high SINAD

I guess harmonics and elevated noise level are pleasing to some people.
 
cheapaudioman, Darko audio, and others are just marketers not reviewers. I intentionally look for 1-star reviews on Amazon and negative / complaining posts on forums. They are much more useful in buying decision than these paid promoters.
TBF none of them are as bad as What HiFi.

I remember them giving 5 star reviews to everything produced by Cambridge Audio back in the day.
 
Using that money on a speaker or amp upgrade would would make a much better improvement than a DAC.
It’s funny people would spend sizeable money on dac when the biggest upgrade are speakers, amp and acoustic treatment. They were thinking dac will transport them to concert hall. They were upgrading the least amount in return. I have 3 ess dac and 3 akm dac from entry up to higher end as well as multibit. They give minimalist improvement in the chain.
 
cheapaudioman, Darko audio, and others are just marketers not reviewers. I intentionally look for 1-star reviews on Amazon and negative / complaining posts on forums. They are much more useful in buying decision than these paid promoters.
I agree the review from Amazon are real deal in review. Erin and gene which I feel give honest review. In fact, Erin faced lawsuit over bad review on speaker.
 
I agree the review from Amazon are real deal in review. Erin and gene which I feel give honest review. In fact, Erin faced lawsuit over bad review on speaker.
Personal «reviews» on shops like Amazon are mostly the buyers quick opinion after one hour of use. If its looks good and was easy to set up = top score, and if something was a bit more hassle to set up = bad score.

Also we dont know anything of the other components in a persons setup, their listeningroom or how experienced they are.

So either way - a review is just an subjective opinion to give you their impression to see if this is a product you would like to look into and test yourself 👍🏻
 
Personal «reviews» on shops like Amazon are mostly the buyers quick opinion after one hour of use. If its looks good and was easy to set up = top score, and if something was a bit more hassle to set up = bad score.

Also we dont know anything of the other components in a persons setup, their listeningroom or how experienced they are.

So either way - a review is just an subjective opinion to give you their impression to see if this is a product you would like to look into and test yourself 👍🏻
Those review just gives you insight but need to test them under your listening environment. If did not meet expectations, it can be return for refund. I mostly buy my gear based on review on test measurements from asr. So far, all their claim is spot on. As one of the most hardcore audiophile, Amir hasn’t let me down.
 
I find Darko Audio the worst.

He rattles on for 20 minutes and hardly expresses an actual opinion.
I don't know, either Darko has changed with age or I have. By now I find him to be the least disgusting "reviewer" on YouTube. Not sure why.

Maybe just because he really doesn't make many efforts (any more?) to explain what's right and what's wrong and he doesn't pretend to be more technically knowledgeable than he is. If he's presenting facts he mostly gets them right and relies on external exports where necessary. I even came to like his music recommendations.

Maby @azoriusmage is right and Darko is just the contemporary equivalent of the glossy papers. But compared to guys like cheapaudioman or Robinson or the scientific audiophile (still hope this guy will stand up one day and commit it's all been parody) he doesn't make me laugh out loud every minute, again and again.

Would I buy something because of his recommendation? Never!

Unless it's really cute and shiny ... :p
 
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CheapAudioMan said the SMSL SU-1 was a little bit better than the internal. But if you want a significant better one you can aim a little bit higher.

I’ve seen his videos. Him and the other YouTubers have Superman levels of hearing I think.
 
I do skim through a lot of the YouTube reviews, they can be entertaining if you remember to take everything with a very large pinch of salt.

The only one I positively avoid though is Andrew Robinson. He's always been nauseating, but when he started chatting to his offscreen partner, things got positively creepy.
 
A bloke called Hans Beekhuyzen just popped up on my Youtube feed.

He is discussing the different quality of the digital output from various streamers.

His opening gambit it that he could easily show the differences in the digital signals using his test equipment that is arranged behind him.

However, he never does and goes on to talk about soundstage etc.

Why doesn't he just actually measure the signals to show the differences?🤔
 
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