Wiim ultra USB - reciever

[LinusSA]

Hello.

I just bought a wiim ultra, it will soon arrive which I'm looking forward to.

My primary reason was to be able to stream lossless and to use the EQ.

I have a reciever (leak 230) which has the same DAC as the wiim Ultra. My plan was therefore to use the DAC in the reciever.

My initial plan was to connect by USB as I want to use the recievers clock instead of the wiims. My reciever has a USB B. I asked them if this was possible and got the following reply

" the LEAK stereo 230 USB type B port only works with devices that has the LEAK audio driver installed. As this cannot be in stalled on the wiim, what you propose will not work unfortunately. I would suggest using the optical output port on the wiim ultra instead."

So my question is how to I get by this and what would you do? Can't I just install the driver in the wiim some how?

 

[Patagonia]

While you check if you can use usb I would suggest to compare the Wiim with digital out through optical and analog out to your Leak and see what you prefer, this because the implementation needed for a dac is much more than just the “dac chip” and can yield different results.

 

[slartibartfast]

Hello.

I just bought a wiim ultra, it will soon arrive which I'm looking forward to.

My primary reason was to be able to stream lossless and to use the EQ.

I have a reciever (leak 230) which has the same DAC as the wiim Ultra. My plan was therefore to use the DAC in the reciever.

My initial plan was to connect by USB as I want to use the recievers clock instead of the wiims. My reciever has a USB B. I asked them if this was possible and got the following reply

" the LEAK stereo 230 USB type B port only works with devices that has the LEAK audio driver installed. As this cannot be in stalled on the wiim, what you propose will not work unfortunately. I would suggest using the optical output port on the wiim ultra instead."

So my question is how to I get by this and what would you do? Can't I just install the driver in the wiim some how?

I would try the USB input and see if it works. I suspect Leak support probably don't really know if it will work or not.

 

[HansD-NL]

The reply from Leak sounds as if the USB-->DAC in the Leak is not Class Compliant and therefore needs a driver. There is no option to install a USB driver on the Wiim so use optical instead. The clock in the Ultra is very stable. Analog out to the Leak is offcourse also possible and in that case you have the option to set the analog gain (Max 2Vrms) on the Wiim if needed but I guess the Leak has no problem with hot signals on it's analog inputs. Are the analog inputs on the Leak digitized or is it a straight analog path by the way?

 

[slartibartfast]

The reply from Leak sounds as if the USB-->DAC in the Leak is not Class Compliant and therefore needs a driver. There is no option to install a USB driver on the Wiim so use optical instead. The clock in the Ultra is very stable. Analog out to the Leak is offcourse also possible and in that case you have the option to set the analog gain (Max 2Vrms) on the Wiim if needed but I guess the Leak has no problem with hot signals on it's analog inputs. Are the analog inputs on the Leak digitized or is it a straight analog path by the way?

The only driver available is for Windows but it also works with a Mac where it presents as
"IAG USB Audio 2.0 Output". Maybe it appears in Linux as well.

 

[HansD-NL]

The only driver available is for Windows but it also works with a Mac where it presents as
"IAG USB Audio 2.0 Output". Maybe it appears in Linux as well.

Are you saying that it (Leak USB DAC) will work on MacOS without first installing a driver? Have seen this often that Windows needs a driver for something while MacOS doesn't. Don't know exactly why that is, has something to do with Core Audio I think, said goodbye to my last Windows computer more than 25 years ago.

 

[slartibartfast]

Are you saying that it (Leak USB DAC) will work on MacOS without first installing a driver? Have seen this often that Windows needs a driver for something while MacOS doesn't. Don't know exactly why that is has something to do with Core Audio I think, said goodbye to my last Windows computer more than 25 years ago.

I couldn't find a driver for MacOS so I think so.

Downloads – LEAK

www.leak-hifi.co.uk

Topping DACs have Windows drivers but don't need one for Linux.

 

[HansD-NL]

"Topping DACs have Windows drivers but don't need one for Linux." - Jep same on MacOS

I always thought that if an (audio) device is Class Compliant it doesn't need a driver, for sure that is the case in MacOS and Linux (including Raspberry distro's) Maybe someone here can crack that nut. It's often much nicer to learn from an actual person than to let Google or ChatGPT create an information overload.

 

[slartibartfast]

"Topping DACs have Windows drivers but don't need one for Linux." - Jep same on MacOS

I always thought that if an (audio) device is Class Compliant it doesn't need a driver, for sure that is the case in MacOS and Linux (including Raspberry distro's) Maybe someone here can crack that nut. It's often much nicer to learn from an actual person than to let Google or ChatGPT create an information overload.

Asking customer services is probably a waste of time as well

 

[LinusSA]

In this delicate situation. What would you do in my position. I suppose there is no possibility to be able to connect with usb. Will I notice a difference in the dac clock by using optical and therefore use the reciever dac? Or is it solely better to connect with rca? New to this area. Thanks guys!

 

[slartibartfast]

In this delicate situation. What would you do in my position. I suppose there is no possibility to be able to connect with usb. Will I notice a difference in the dac clock by using optical and therefore use the reciever dac? Or is it solely better to connect with rca? New to this area. Thanks guys!

Try USB. If it shows up in the WiiM app then great, if it doesn't then use optical.