WiiM Ultra Airplay 2

[parkertyler]

I received my WiiM Ultra about a week ago and it has been in the box this whole time. I was excited to get it but before I received it I saw the news about Airplay 2 never coming to this hardware revision of the Ultra. Now I am torn. One hand it sounds like it is a great product but on the other, as a first time WiiM purchase, the rug pull puts a bad taste in my mouth. My only disappointment with no Airplay is not being able to use multiroom audio with the Homepods I have scattered around in other rooms of the house. It is not a feature I would use all the time but one that would be used. I have seen the comments from people using the Belkin Airplay adapter as a work around but don't love having to get another device to do something that was supposed to be included (according to the original press release that was quietly modified) anyways. I am still within my return window so I am trying to figure out if I should keep it or return it before that window is up.

My question for those who feel similar but have kept the Ultra, do you miss Airplay 2? Is it a big omission or is it something you ended up not missing? I appreciate everyone's feedback!

 

[d6jg]

You could use the Ultra with its inbuilt Squeezelite client and an instance of LMS. Install the AirPlay Bridge plugin into LMS and then LMS will see both the WiiM Ultra and your Homepods as valid LMS players. You can then easily sync them all together. The caveat is that when you sync everything gets reduced to the lowest common denominator so even if you hit play on a HiRes track LMS will transcode down to 16/44.1 for consumption by all clients.

LMS has everything the WiiM App has music services wise (except Amazon Music and Alexa Cast) plus BBC Sounds, a whole lot more Internet Radio, better Radio Paradise and other stuff.

If you go this route the WiiM App becomes redundant except for setup and Amazon Music, Alexa Cast.

 

[Smartplug]

I received my WiiM Ultra about a week ago and it has been in the box this whole time. I was excited to get it but before I received it I saw the news about Airplay 2 never coming to this hardware revision of the Ultra. Now I am torn. One hand it sounds like it is a great product but on the other, as a first time WiiM purchase, the rug pull puts a bad taste in my mouth. My only disappointment with no Airplay is not being able to use multiroom audio with the Homepods I have scattered around in other rooms of the house. It is not a feature I would use all the time but one that would be used. I have seen the comments from people using the Belkin Airplay adapter as a work around but don't love having to get another device to do something that was supposed to be included (according to the original press release that was quietly modified) anyways. I am still within my return window so I am trying to figure out if I should keep it or return it before that window is up.

My question for those who feel similar but have kept the Ultra, do you miss Airplay 2? Is it a big omission or is it something you ended up not missing? I appreciate everyone's feedback!

Do you have other wiim like the mini? If so you can use that as airplay adapter. It was announced a while back that it has no chip so it can’t support airplay. There’s other option if that’s a must to have like pro/pro plus or the amp.

 

[Cal_Cobra]

I preordered mine eons ago when it was claimed to support Airplay. When it was changed to no airplay support [ever], at first I was peeved. I decided to try Amazon music (and Tidal and Quboz) and have decided I can live without Apple Music, and switched to Amazon. I was surprised that Amazon Unlimited had a better selection, often in higher resolutions, and also seems to offer a lot more live performances, remixes, alternate tracks, out-takes, etc. Honestly I was a bit surprised. Fortunately I wasn't married to Apple music, but your situation is different with the Homepods. If you had an extra Homepod, could it be used as an input to the Ultra?

 

[Burnside]

If you had an extra Homepod, could it be used as an input to the Ultra?

HomePods don’t have aux outputs, do they?

 

[d6jg]

The Belkin is about £90 which is a very similar price to a Mini.
I'd suggest that the cheapest AirPlay adapter is a Raspberry Pi Zero W (c.£50 incl case etc) coupled with a cheap USB Soundcard (£5) or a Raspberry Pi 4B Starter Kit (£60) which has a 3.5mm output so no USB soundbcard needed.
I did have something called an AirMusic until I gave it to my stepson. It was a puck smaller than the Mini that had one role only - AirPlay adapter. Not made anymore as far as I can see.

 

[pieterv1]

Do you have other wiim like the mini? If so you can use that as airplay adapter. It was announced a while back that it has no chip so it can’t support airplay. There’s other option if that’s a must to have like pro/pro plus or the amp.

I don't know why people keep suggesting this... totally absurd to spend an additional €99 on a WiiM Mini (OP clearly states that this is his first WiiM device btw), the Belkin airplay adapter or a Raspberry Pi (+ extra digital audio output board) which then occupies the optical input. That's not a solution for those stil wanting to connect a CD transport or something else. And it's a cumbersome setup where you have to control 2 different devices. For example you won't be able to control the Ultra's own volume while streaming Airplay to an external device connected at the back.

@parkertyler I've cancelled my preorder for the Ultra even though I'm also not a heavy Airplay user (I only use it for my MacBook's system audio sometimes). Seems like you're actually far more into the Apple ecosystem than I am so my suggestion would be to return it as well. My retailer suggested that once Airplay certification is completed, newer batches of the Ultra will actually support it.

 

[WiiM Support]

Hi parkertyler, Team

We understand the confusion and inconvenience caused by the lack of AirPlay support on the WiiM Ultra and sincerely apologize. The WiiM Ultra does not support AirPlay and cannot function as an AirPlay receiver.

We recognize this may be disappointing for users who primarily use AirPlay. We suggest connecting your Apple device to the WiiM Ultra via Bluetooth, which offers the same sound quality as AirPlay using the 256kbps AAC codec.

 

[Smartplug]

I don't know why people keep suggesting this... totally absurd to spend an additional €99 on a WiiM Mini (OP clearly states that this is his first WiiM device btw), the Belkin airplay adapter or a Raspberry Pi (+ extra digital audio output board) which then occupies the optical input. That's not a solution for those stil wanting to connect a CD transport or something else. And it's a cumbersome setup where you have to control 2 different devices. For example you won't be able to control the Ultra's own volume while streaming Airplay to an external device connected at the back.

@parkertyler I've cancelled my preorder for the Ultra even though I'm also not a heavy Airplay user (I only use it for my MacBook's system audio sometimes). Seems like you're actually far more into the Apple ecosystem than I am so my suggestion would be to return it as well. My retailer suggested that once Airplay certification is completed, newer batches of the Ultra will actually support it.

At this stage either wait for the next revision or get something else. You’re not alone on this but it is what it is.

 

[tomcrane]

My use case for the Ultra is a huge library of music (I still buy CDs and rip them...) managed in iTunes (on Windows) - so not Apple Music but local music that I own. I can send this via Airplay to powered speakers on my network; I also connect the computer directly to an amplifier with better speakers via audio out from the soundcard, which is what I am doing right now.

Two better options for me would be (and I might use both at different times):

- send from iTunes via Airplay (yes even from Windows) to a higher quality destination (like an Ultra into my better amp and speakers)
- connect directly via USB audio - i.e., use the streamer as the PC's soundcard

Other Wiim products support the first, and no Wiim products support the second.

I would buy an Ultra if it did one or other of these; I'd definitely buy it if it did both. But it does neither.

 

[harkpabst]

Two better options for me would be (and I might use both at different times):

- send from iTunes via Airplay (yes even from Windows) to a higher quality destination (like an Ultra into my better amp and speakers)
- connect directly via USB audio - i.e., use the streamer as the PC's soundcard

Other Wiim products support the first, and no Wiim products support the second.

I would buy an Ultra if it did one or other of these; I'd definitely buy it if it did both. But it does neither.

There is at least a third option (maybe more) and that's running a media server on your Windows PC and connecting to that via Home Music Share (a WiiM DLNA client).

Windows comes with a media server you can enable in the system settings. It has it's limitations, but it's there and easy to get going and it's free. There are multiple other, more powerful media servers available for Windows. Even the WiiM Home App for Windows (which is a beta version and can be downloaded from the WiiM homepage here contains a media server, which is available only as long as the app is up and running.

 

[tomcrane]

There is at least a third option

Thanks for that, I will investigate (though I'd still like Airplay!)

 

[CrystalGipsy]

Really have to question as to why a model designated Ultra has less streaming functions than all the lower models. Seems an odd design choice if it’s because of hardware and not software. Perhaps budget but I am sure even asking £50 more it would have been still better value than most other devices. It’s stopping me getting one. I use airplay in my system to purely connect my MacBook Pro to my audio system in my working office and man cave rather than use its crappy speakers. Everything else I use Roon so a streamer needs both. I’ll keep using my pi I guess.

 

[Burnside]

Seems an odd design choice if it’s because of hardware and not software.

If you’ve read WiiM’s statements on this, it doesn’t appear to have been a design choice

 

[alpha_zulu]

Apparently for legal reasons.

 

[Burnside]

Apparently for legal reasons.

From all that they have said it appears to be a certification issue which may require a hardware MFI chip. Guess you could view that as a legal issue

 

[parkertyler]

Thank you everyone for the feedback. A little follow up information on my music streaming setup. I have a Plex server where I store my local music and then I use Tidal for music I don't have local copies of.

A follow up question with this information in mind, how well does the Ultra work with DLNA music servers (since the "official" plex integration is still in the works)? Seamless and reliable or buggy and not worth using? Is there a quality cap when using DLNA?

 

[d6jg]

I assume the Ultra has Chromecast like the Pro and Pro+ in which case you can use Plexamp to cast to it but not in sync with AirPlay speakers.

I have a Plex server as well as an LMS server. I switched on DLNA support so the WiiM app can see it but browsing is frankly awful this way.

 

[harkpabst]

Really have to question as to why a model designated Ultra has less streaming functions than all the lower models.

It has been answered by WiiM over and over again. Right in this forum.

 

[Aquarius]

Thank you everyone for the feedback. A little follow up information on my music streaming setup. I have a Plex server where I store my local music and then I use Tidal for music I don't have local copies of.

A follow up question with this information in mind, how well does the Ultra work with DLNA music servers (since the "official" plex integration is still in the works)? Seamless and reliable or buggy and not worth using? Is there a quality cap when using DLNA?

I have my library of local files in Plexserver with DLNA activated so I can play them from the WiiM-app. Works both seemless, reliable and very fast operstion. Plays 24/192-files with startup within 1 sec

When you have Your music in Plex-server you can also use the original Plex or Plexamp-apps on Your phone and hand off the stream to the WiiM via Chromecast. No problem with 24/192. Only drawback with Chromecast is that it isnt gapless if that’s important to you.