WiiM Amp Ultra Users Experience

[claudia.bailey]

I still can't put my head around the WiiM Amp Ultra. Before WiiM, I really thought I was heading toward a more traditional separate component setup for my stereo system. Instead, for my living room I'm finding myself really satisfied with the Amp Ultra as an all-in-one pre-amp, amplifier, streamer, and DAC. I'm not sure where I go from here.

Just enjoy and listen to the music, that's what I would say. I think it can be hard to get your head around it if you have had separates and then come across a very small box that seems to offer a lot for the relatively inexpensive price point and sounds very good.

 

[harkpabst]

There is a bit of lag when using the remote. If you, for example, hold down the volume button, the volume will still rise or drop for a second or two after you released the button.

This is down to the nature of a Bluetooth LE remote. It will always only send individual increment or decrement commands. It works much better (and with no real lag) if you can get used to repeated single presses instead of a long press. This solves both problems.

Did you find the configuration setting for how the volume should be changed per click? You can select volume adjustment steps from 1 to 5. If you opt for a higher number, you're losing some granularity, of course.

 

[adias]

A tech tidbit - The Amp Ultra joins the WiiM family of products with 3-pronged power lines - phase/live, neutral and ground, and that’s a good thing.

 

[claudia.bailey]

I've been using an Amp Ultra for about two weeks now, and I must say that it's a keeper.

I was looking for a more user friendly setup for my livingroom and first tried a Wiim Ultra, connected to my NAD C375bee amp.
It sounded really good, but I was still annoyed by the NAD's high power consumption: idle power with no music playing is more than 120 watts, playing background music is 200 watts and more.

So when the Amp Ultra became available again on Amazon, I ordered one.

The Amp Ultra comes in a nice box with a handy remote control and all accessories included, where most other brands only include a powercord nowadays.
Setup is really easy, just install the Wiim Home app on your phone or tablet, power on the Amp Ultra and go from there.

Just be adviced, the amp's sounds and instructions are really loud! I believe it was set at 50% volume...

Using TuneIn radio app is really easy to set up, including customizable presets, and my Synology NAS was immediately visible in the "Home Music Share" tab. I just created a few bookmarks for easier access, like "album artist", "album", ....

The RoomFit room correction works great and is very easy to use. I like that you can choose to use an external mic, like a Umik1, and use its calibration file. The automated setup even makes a post correction sweep so you can hear/see the actual difference.
In my room, a correction range from 40 to 400Hz works best. It takes out the low frequency boom without altering the speaker's natural voicing.

The Amp Ultra has no problem driving my 4ohm Monitor Audio RX8 speakers. For background music in my 80sqm living room, the volume dial is somewhere between 5 and 10. I've had it up to 80 at some point, but that's (very loud) party level. And it stays clean even at that kind of output.
Yes, the NAD has more headroom and reserve when playing very, very loud, but that was to be expected because that amp is a real power house.
The Wiim Amp Ultra does get warm. Even playing background music, its casing warms up a bit. Playing loud for a longer time warms it up a lot more, but never "hot to the touch", just warm. So nothing to be concerned about, the casing was designed to be the heatsink, so it does its job.

I also tried the Amp Ultra's usb out, connected to the dac in the C375bee, and that works perfectly. Just remember to set the maximum output bitrate to whatever your dac supports.

I have a little meter connected to the Amp Ultra to measure it's mains power draw. In standby, it draws 3.5 to 4 watts on a 230volt system. Playing at a moderate volume, that rises to 17 watts. Playing loud, well over 20 watts.

There are just a few things I did notice:
There is a bit of lag when using the remote. If you, for example, hold down the volume button, the volume will still rise or drop for a second or two after you released the button.

I also would like to see the music library's "recently added" to be handled differently. Now it shows a few dates and when you select one, you get a list of tracks that were added at that date. I personally would just like to see the most recently added albums. I don't care about the date I added them, just that I recently added them.


Any way, for me, the Amp Ultra is the device I was waiting for. Great build quality, extensive feature set, easy to control, powerfull and a great sound quality at a very modest price.


edited some typos.

I must admit, when I connected everything and turned it on, it shocked me how loud it was

 

[kevinj]

I must admit, when I connected everything and turned it on, it shocked me how loud it was

Yes! Me too! Maybe that's something Wiim could change to 15 or so. That would already be loud enough.

 

[Dibster]

I took the plunge on a new WiiM amp ultra a month or so ago, along with a new pair of budget Dali Oberon 1 bookshelf speakers, and I have been blown away with the performance of this relatively low cost set up. I'd moved from a considerably more expensive/larger Cyrus Lyric / Spendor floorstanders set up. I'd realised that I had hadn't played one CD all year and was streaming everything from my Synology NAS when not listening to Spotify or internet radio. I boxed up my CD collection, got rid of the bookcase that they were housed in, sold the Lyric and Spendors and replaced them with the amp ultra and Dali's. I have absolutely no regrets.

It's interesting to look back 10 years or so and what my set up back then consisted of. Pre/Power amps, Turntable, Phono amp, Dac, CD player, tuner, Squeezebox Touch, speakers, stands, and cables running everywhere! Oh how times have changed, and to be honest for me for the better. I used to be your classic box swapper, always looking for the holy grail, and worrying more about the gear than the actual music.

I am loving the simplicity and ease of the WiiM, and the sound quality is superb. My only gripe, and it is only a very minor one, is when accessing my music library that I have on my NAS. After many years of ripping every CD I own, I've accumulated a collection of 30000+ tracks. I often like to just select All Music and play on random shuffle. When I did this through my Squeezebox Touch or Lyric the tracks appeared instantly. With the WiiM it takes at least a couple of minutes for all the tracks to appear. It's not the end of the world I know, just an observation.

I'm just toying with the idea of adding a small sub to boost the sound even more, but having never owned a sub before I've got no experience of them and what the pros and cons might be. We will see.

 

[Mr Ee]

I often like to just select All Music and play on random shuffle.

When I want that I use bubbleupnp to select N random albums / tracks from minimserver on my nas.
Despite having maybe one third of your library size I still often find stuff I've not listened to for some time.

 

[slartibartfast]

I took the plunge on a new WiiM amp ultra a month or so ago, along with a new pair of budget Dali Oberon 1 bookshelf speakers, and I have been blown away with the performance of this relatively low cost set up. I'd moved from a considerably more expensive/larger Cyrus Lyric / Spendor floorstanders set up. I'd realised that I had hadn't played one CD all year and was streaming everything from my Synology NAS when not listening to Spotify or internet radio. I boxed up my CD collection, got rid of the bookcase that they were housed in, sold the Lyric and Spendors and replaced them with the amp ultra and Dali's. I have absolutely no regrets.

It's interesting to look back 10 years or so and what my set up back then consisted of. Pre/Power amps, Turntable, Phono amp, Dac, CD player, tuner, Squeezebox Touch, speakers, stands, and cables running everywhere! Oh how times have changed, and to be honest for me for the better. I used to be your classic box swapper, always looking for the holy grail, and worrying more about the gear than the actual music.

I am loving the simplicity and ease of the WiiM, and the sound quality is superb. My only gripe, and it is only a very minor one, is when accessing my music library that I have on my NAS. After many years of ripping every CD I own, I've accumulated a collection of 30000+ tracks. I often like to just select All Music and play on random shuffle. When I did this through my Squeezebox Touch or Lyric the tracks appeared instantly. With the WiiM it takes at least a couple of minutes for all the tracks to appear. It's not the end of the world I know, just an observation.

I'm just toying with the idea of adding a small sub to boost the sound even more, but having never owned a sub before I've got no experience of them and what the pros and cons might be. We will see.

You don't need to give up LMS. The WiiM will appear as a Squeezebox player if Squeezelite is enabled.

 

[dominikz]

I took the plunge on a new WiiM amp ultra a month or so ago, along with a new pair of budget Dali Oberon 1 bookshelf speakers, and I have been blown away with the performance of this relatively low cost set up. I'd moved from a considerably more expensive/larger Cyrus Lyric / Spendor floorstanders set up. I'd realised that I had hadn't played one CD all year and was streaming everything from my Synology NAS when not listening to Spotify or internet radio. I boxed up my CD collection, got rid of the bookcase that they were housed in, sold the Lyric and Spendors and replaced them with the amp ultra and Dali's. I have absolutely no regrets.

It's interesting to look back 10 years or so and what my set up back then consisted of. Pre/Power amps, Turntable, Phono amp, Dac, CD player, tuner, Squeezebox Touch, speakers, stands, and cables running everywhere! Oh how times have changed, and to be honest for me for the better. I used to be your classic box swapper, always looking for the holy grail, and worrying more about the gear than the actual music.

I am loving the simplicity and ease of the WiiM, and the sound quality is superb. My only gripe, and it is only a very minor one, is when accessing my music library that I have on my NAS. After many years of ripping every CD I own, I've accumulated a collection of 30000+ tracks. I often like to just select All Music and play on random shuffle. When I did this through my Squeezebox Touch or Lyric the tracks appeared instantly. With the WiiM it takes at least a couple of minutes for all the tracks to appear. It's not the end of the world I know, just an observation.

Congrats on a very nice system!

I'm just toying with the idea of adding a small sub to boost the sound even more, but having never owned a sub before I've got no experience of them and what the pros and cons might be. We will see.

IMHO integrating a sub is one of the few upgrades to an audio system that can really make a tremendous positive impact, especially when combined with room correction.
It is not even a matter of low bass extension or quantity, but a simple matter of better bass quality which can be achieved by independent placement of subwoofers and main speakers. It is a way to workaround some acoustic limitations of small rooms.

E.g. when I added a very small 7" sub to my desktop system I didn't get much lower bass reproduction nor a bass boost.
However, it helped me avoid significant bass suck-out at 70Hz and 100Hz, and achieve and overall smoother bass response (compared to no sub).

The result was a pretty significant upgrade in perceived sound quality!

EDIT: If you can get lower bass extension that if of course a plus. But it requires a bigger sub.

 

[SightsNSounds]

I tested the Wiim Amp Ultra and besides few omissions, it’s a very good all-in-one package at this price point.
YouTube viideo here:

 

[Eddie Spaghetti]

I finally got around to setting up presets just for input sources on my Amp Ultra. Last time I tried, it had been announced, but hadn’t been implemented yet. It’s so easy it’s stupid, and I’m able to do exactly what I wanted: set the input source to Bluetooth or optical, speaker out, and my saved EQ with one button. I’ll probably use them mostly from within the Home app, but I’ll try it from the remote tomorrow when people aren’t sleeping, at which time I also plan on putting Lysoniq through its paces. Yeah, I know it’s not exactly doing a moon landing, but I had such a bit of difficulty trying to set them up the last time, it feels like an accomplishment to this old fart.

 

[harkpabst]

There is a bit of lag when using the remote. If you, for example, hold down the volume button, the volume will still rise or drop for a second or two after you released the button.

And I'm happy to report that WiiM have been silently working on this issue. At least I cannot remember that this has been in any of the release notes.

No overshoot anymore when holding down the volume up or volume down button. Instead, there's now just a slight delay after executing the first increase/decrease step, which is much better than the previous behaviour.

Thank you, @WiiM Team!

 

[Mr Ee]

a slight delay after executing the first increase/decrease step

A bit of an understatement... the delay is really annoying me!

 

[Wiimer]

And I'm happy to report that WiiM have been silently working on this issue. At least I cannot remember that this has been in any of the release notes.

No overshoot anymore when holding down the volume up or volume down button. Instead, there's now just a slight delay after executing the first increase/decrease step, which is much better than the previous behaviour.

Thank you, @WiiM Team!

I adore the click sound and feel of Remote 2 so much that I never press and hold, so I hadn't noticed the improvement

 

[harkpabst]

A bit of an understatement... the delay is really annoying me!

I'm the multiple press type anyway, not the long press type, so I don't agree.
(Edit: I do agree that you get annoyed, of course, since you told me so. It's just that the delay doesn't annoy me, I should have noted more precisely. )

I'll stick with that in my view a slight delay is much better than a massive overshoot.

 

[EddNog]

…I'm just toying with the idea of adding a small sub to boost the sound even more, but having never owned a sub before I've got no experience of them and what the pros and cons might be. We will see.

My advice with subwoofers: the wrong subwoofer won’t integrate well and/or won’t really improve or add much to your system’s overall sound. The right one will integrate cleanly and completely transform the sound of your system to a level you could not have imagined. Take this from a guy who has played A LOT with A LOT of different subwoofers over the years.

And it’s not just about the brand. That can tell you nothing sometimes. For example, my dad, who has a pair of Magnepan LRS+ quasi-ribbon floorstanders, started off with a Rel Tzero. It added nothing to his system. It’s a toy, not a proper sub, Rel labels on the enclosure notwithstanding. Waste of time and money. But jump up to something like an HT/1205 and now suddenly that’s a serious sub. This can transform your system.

I am not sure how far your speakers extend down in your room, but you would be absolutely surprised at how much music actually exists below 30Hz. Additionally, many speakers, especially smaller standmounts, while capable of output approaching 30Hz, will begin to compress and strain to get down there, affecting the quality of sound higher up in the spectrum and inducing problems like intermodular distortion. High-pass filtering your speakers and allowing the subwoofer to cover that higher energy bass can dramatically improve the quality of your speakers’ output from just this alone, even more so if you have ported speakers and seal the ports since they’re no longer needed to boost low frequency output.

-Ed

 

[DazST]

My advice with subwoofers: the wrong subwoofer won’t integrate well and/or won’t really improve or add much to your system’s overall sound. The right one will integrate cleanly and completely transform the sound of your system to a level you could not have imagined. Take this from a guy who has played A LOT with A LOT of different subwoofers over the years.

And it’s not just about the brand. That can tell you nothing sometimes. For example, my dad, who has a pair of Magnepan LRS+ quasi-ribbon floorstanders, started off with a Rel Tzero. It added nothing to his system. It’s a toy, not a proper sub, Rel labels on the enclosure notwithstanding. Waste of time and money. But jump up to something like an HT/1205 and now suddenly that’s a serious sub. This can transform your system.

I am not sure how far your speakers extend down in your room, but you would be absolutely surprised at how much music actually exists below 30Hz. Additionally, many speakers, especially smaller standmounts, while capable of output approaching 30Hz, will begin to compress and strain to get down there, affecting the quality of sound higher up in the spectrum and inducing problems like intermodular distortion. High-pass filtering your speakers and allowing the subwoofer to cover that higher energy bass can dramatically improve the quality of your speakers’ output from just this alone, even more so if you have ported speakers and seal the ports since they’re no longer needed to boost low frequency output.

-Ed

Thanks, this is interesting as I've seen some people recommend using bungs in rear ported speakers when they're placed close to a wall, but not specifically in relation to managing bass when using a sub.

 

[EddNog]

Thanks, this is interesting as I've seen some people recommend using bungs in rear ported speakers when they're placed close to a wall, but not specifically in relation to managing bass when using a sub.

Sealing ported speakers reduces group delay, which improves the ability of the speakers to integrate with subwoofers, especially sealed subs (which also have less group delay and so are better for music listening). Sealing speakers also improves damping so you get reduced distortion.

A very easy way to seal ports on speakers that don’t come with foam port plugs is to simply measure the diameter of the ports (assuming the ports are cylindrical) and then buying test pipe plugs from the hardware store and using them to seal the ports. Of course, non-round ports are going to be more difficult to seal.

I was lucky that my speakers each have two 2” cylindrical ports, which I was easily able to find test plugs for at The Home Depot.

-Ed

 

[DazST]

Ok, I'm willing to give this a try. My q acoustics speakers came with foam bungs. What kind of material are the test pipe plugs?

 

[EddNog]

Ok, I'm willing to give this a try. My q acoustics speakers came with foam bungs. What kind of material are the test pipe plugs?

Here's an example. These are the exact ones I bought:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Oatey-Gripper-2-in-Plastic-Mechanical-Test-Plug-33401D/100346775

They come in various materials. I found these to give an excellent and secure seal with no leakage and do not come loose from vibration.

It goes without saying that they should only be tightened until snug, don't go nuts cranking these things down.

-Ed