Wiim Ultra with Headphones

[rmlowz]

I am very hard at hearing and have sold all my speakers and just started using headphones. Would the Wiim Ultra be good with the built in headphone amp for my use.
I have owned the Wiim pro when I could hear with awesome results, gave it to a friend. My headphones that I have are 32 ohms. Anybody using headphones with this Wiim Ultra? Thanks

 

[renoxd]

I plan to use HD 660S 150 ohms. Too bad Wiim doesn't save the volume for the various outputs (speakers vs headphones)

 

[Mr Ee]

The headphone output of the Ultra pleasantly surprised me, easily driving my two main sets of cans (see signature) to loud levels and with decent sound quality.
Yes, I can get "better" sound from other headphone amps, but for a single unit at this price I truely thought it was very good.

 

[harkpabst]

I am very hard at hearing and have sold all my speakers and just started using headphones. Would the Wiim Ultra be good with the built in headphone amp for my use.
I have owned the Wiim pro when I could hear with awesome results, gave it to a friend. My headphones that I have are 32 ohms. Anybody using headphones with this Wiim Ultra? Thanks

Not sure about higher impedance headphones, but the WiiM Ultra should do an even better job than the WiiM Pro driving your 32 ohms headphones.

The additional very flexible EQ options should be helpful, too.

 

[vdp]

The headphone output of the Ultra pleasantly surprised me, easily driving my two main sets of cans (see signature) to loud levels and with decent sound quality.
Yes, I can get "better" sound from other headphone amps, but for a single unit at this price I truely thought it was very good.

Would it be possible to do a comparison/description against other headphone amps (which one, price range) you own? What does it leave on the table?

Ultra might not be "final setup" for me so having a single box that handles headphones good enough for a secondary listening position would bring additional long term value in my eyes.

 

[Mr Ee]

Would it be possible to do a comparison/description against other headphone amps (which one, price range) you own? What does it leave on the table?

Ultra might not be "final setup" for me so having a single box that handles headphones good enough for a secondary listening position would bring additional long term value in my eyes.

As per my signature, I normally run a pro into an smsl dac / ha two box combo. This is, therefore, my reference, and about A$1400 for all 3 boxes.
Not listed in my sig is a mini feeding a fiio k11 dac / ha amp. The fiio is about A$250
As it happens, I'm using the ultra headphones right now.

I'll try to keep it short so as not to give some others here flashbacks from my earlier testing notes...

Here are the 5 comparisons I've made previously, all with no eq applied.
1) my reference - as per my sig for pro2
2) ultra headphone out
3) ultra rca out to smsl sh9, using ultra supplied rca cables
4) ultra optical out to fiio k11
5) ultra optical to fiio, rca (ultra cables) to smsl sh9

I'm not sure how to best to describe the differences between them
1) is definitely the best, and using the ultra as the source instead of the pro is, as expected, just as good.
2) vibrant, enjoyable, toe-tapping fun. Decent bass, rich vocals.
3) far and away the worst combination, and I have no idea why. Dull. Boring. Lifeless. So bad I didn't even finish a single song with this combination.
4) a significant improvement over the ultra alone, but not as good as (1). Clearer / cleaner, more vibrant, more visceral, more engaging, foot tapping fun.
5) on par with the ultra alone

So back to my earlier conclusion - the ultra IS good, especially for its price point and all the other things it provides in a single box.
But, for me, that additional A$250 for the fiio would be well worth it given the amount of headphone listening I do.
Well, it would be if I hadn't already spent 4* that on smsl.

 

[Mr Ee]

I thought I should clarify something - option (3) in my post above was using the ultra rca out, and I thought (5) using the fiio rca out was much better.
It could therefore be construed that the 'issue' here was the ultra dac stage.
I can only counter that with my comparison with the pro (not plus) analog out vs the ultra analog out into my hegel/paradigm setup, using the ultra rca cables for both.
The Ultra simply blew the pro out of the water. Huge improvement.
i.e. I can't explain why the ultra analog out into my smsl hp amp sounded so bad when the same signal into my hegel sounded so good.
OK, not quite as good as a digital signal into the hegel, but darn good nonetheless.

 

[vdp]

I thought I should clarify something - option (3) in my post above was using the ultra rca out, and I thought (5) using the fiio rca out was much better.
It could therefore be construed that the 'issue' here was the ultra dac stage.
I can only counter that with my comparison with the pro (not plus) analog out vs the ultra analog out into my hegel/paradigm setup, using the ultra rca cables for both.
The Ultra simply blew the pro out of the water. Huge improvement.
i.e. I can't explain why the ultra analog out into my smsl hp amp sounded so bad when the same signal into my hegel sounded so good.
OK, not quite as good as a digital signal into the hegel, but darn good nonetheless.

Thank you for the time writing this up. Sounds like one less hurdle. Now plex(amp) support

 

[pieterv1]

As per my signature, I normally run a pro into an smsl dac / ha two box combo. This is, therefore, my reference, and about A$1400 for all 3 boxes.
Not listed in my sig is a mini feeding a fiio k11 dac / ha amp. The fiio is about A$250
As it happens, I'm using the ultra headphones right now.

I'll try to keep it short so as not to give some others here flashbacks from my earlier testing notes...

Here are the 5 comparisons I've made previously, all with no eq applied.
1) my reference - as per my sig for pro2
2) ultra headphone out
3) ultra rca out to smsl sh9, using ultra supplied rca cables
4) ultra optical out to fiio k11
5) ultra optical to fiio, rca (ultra cables) to smsl sh9

I'm not sure how to best to describe the differences between them
1) is definitely the best, and using the ultra as the source instead of the pro is, as expected, just as good.
2) vibrant, enjoyable, toe-tapping fun. Decent bass, rich vocals.
3) far and away the worst combination, and I have no idea why. Dull. Boring. Lifeless. So bad I didn't even finish a single song with this combination.
4) a significant improvement over the ultra alone, but not as good as (1). Clearer / cleaner, more vibrant, more visceral, more engaging, foot tapping fun.
5) on par with the ultra alone

So back to my earlier conclusion - the ultra IS good, especially for its price point and all the other things it provides in a single box.
But, for me, that additional A$250 for the fiio would be well worth it given the amount of headphone listening I do.
Well, it would be if I hadn't already spent 4* that on smsl.

Awesome! My next purchase after the Ultra will be my first serious pair of headphones, the Sennheiser HD-490 Pro. They'll be used in the studio as well. Good to hear it wouldn't be a shame to drive them directly from the Ultra

 

[rmlowz]

I ordered an Ultra be here in a few weeks. Thanks for all the feedback. I just got my HD560S headphones can't wait to try them out!

 

[mlsstl]

I've had my Ultra for a couple of days now. I find its headphone output better than expected. It's quite good but my reference headphone set is a pair of Hifiman Sundaras powered by a Schiit Midgard and Modi Multibit 2 DAC using the Midgard's "Halo" connection to the phones (the streamer is an Inovato Quadra running Squeezelite.) The Ultra isn't as good as that setup, but very enjoyable, especially so for the price and the one-box convenience.

One other observation -- the headphone output is not automatic on plug-in. You need to go into the app (either on your phone or the Ultra's touch screen) and manually select the headphone output. A minor annoyance with the couple of extra steps, especially if you plan on frequently switching back and forth between headphones, line or digital out, or bluetooth.

 

[harkpabst]

One other observation -- the headphone output is not automatic on plug-in. You need to go into the app (either on your phone or the Ultra's touch screen) and manually select the headphone output. A minor annoyance with the couple of extra steps, especially if you plan on frequently switching back and forth between headphones, line or digital out, or bluetooth.

It's a double-edged sword, no matter how it's done. Other users will prefer to leave their headphones connected all the time and only just switch to them when they want to use them.

 

[Wiimer]

Personally, I am the type of person who likes to keep headphones plugged in, so an easier way to switch between outputs on the screen would be preferable.

I believe my previous request was for an output switching button on the music controller.

 

[adias]

Thanks a lot, Mr. Ee.
Makes the decision for me a bit easier to cancel my pre-order for the Ultra. Pure curiosity simply isn't reason enough to buy.
The Ultra offers too much I will never use. Phono, HDMI, headphone out, screen, EQ/RC, all that is already well enough done by dedicated devices. Quite sure it will fit the wishes for many, many users. And I will remain praising WiiM for their policy. But every company offers things one does not ask.

Schiit Audio makes fabulous headphone amps. Their Magni Heretic on closeout $59 or so…

 

[Caffeinated]

Schiit Audio makes fabulous headphone amps. Their Magni Heretic on closeout $59 or so…

Buying direct, their shipping prices outside the US are also "fabulous". As in fabulously unaffordable. Shipping on that Heretic to Australia would be roughly the same as the item cost itself. Unfortunately stops a lot of people buying them, as we're only left with A-grade, current models... at high prices since there's only one reseller (the Heretic is AUD$249/USD$163 for example). Not necessarily a unique problem to them, shipping lowers a lot of "value" generally with hifi.

 

[Steve Woodhouse]

Someone has posted over at ASR asking for the subwoofer to automatically turned off when headphones are used. This is something I'd never considered.

I current have a Mini feeding a Topping EX5 DAV/headphone amp. My idea was to keep the Mini/EX5 for headphone, so the only switching I'd have to do was different EQ for each pair, then use the Ultra for main speakers. The reason being that it was going to be a huge faff switching EQ and switching the sub on and off every time I swapped usage.

However, the Ultra appears to have a 'Custom EQ' page on the front display, where it appears I could just click between the 4 different custom PEQs, and the sub would (potentially) switch the sub section on and off each time headphones were engaged. Apparently WiiM are looking into it.

Obviously, this depends on (a) WiiM being able to do this, (b) turning on and off the sub completely turns on/off the entire bass management section, and (c) the headphone stage being good enough.

I look forward to developments with great interest.

For now, can someone confirm how the headphone stage is switched on and off. Automatically when the phones are plugged/unplugged? In a menu, if so, how 'deep'?

Many thanks.

 

[pieterv1]

One other observation -- the headphone output is not automatic on plug-in. You need to go into the app (either on your phone or the Ultra's touch screen) and manually select the headphone output. A minor annoyance with the couple of extra steps, especially if you plan on frequently switching back and forth between headphones, line or digital out, or bluetooth.

For now, can someone confirm how the headphone stage is switched on and off. Automatically when the phones are plugged/unplugged? In a menu, if so, how 'deep'?

Many thanks.

Here's your answer

 

[Mr Ee]

And remember to turn the volume down before putting the 'phones on!

 

[Imsjry]

I compared the headphone out of the Ultra vs my Schiit Asgard amp with Arya Stealth cans and it’s pretty darn close. The Asgard has a bit more openness and separation but if I’d never heard it, I would be very happy with the Ultra.

 

[Smartplug]

do you guys use fixed volume using line level on ultra? Sorry silly question.