Wiim Ultra with UPNP and EQ / Digital Volume

[jorgemg1984]

Hi!

I'm looking at the Wiim Ultra, and I would like to know a few things, if possible. I do regular hi-fi reviews, and I need a device that does two or three specific things only:

1) network transport through the upnp protocol, so this means a flawless upnp protocol (gapless, no weird track skipping, no last track loops, etc...) and a usb output. Is the upnp protocol on the Wiim good? The Eversolo one does the last track loop thing, otherwise it's good.

2) I need to apply eq, usually just a simple boost in the bass. Is the eq bit-perfect or does it perform resampling? Is there any way of reducing gain before the eq? Pre-gain or digital volume? And does the eq work on the usb output? And on upnp tracks?

3) I occasionally need to do digital attenuation, some DACs, even more expensive ones, don't have volume controls and can be prone to intersample overs. Is there any way of digital attenuating the usb output? Is it done with quality, say 32-bit? Floating point? And does it work on the upnp protocol?

Many thanks in advance, and sorry for all the questions.

 

[Burnside]

I don’t think I’ve heard of a last track loop issue on WiiM UPNP ever being mentioned on the forum. I’ll leave the other UPNP queries to someone like @simbun who normally pops up at its mention

EQ can be applied to all output streams, and you can apply pregain on the device inputs.

As I take bit perfect to mean that the WiiM device doesn’t make any unwanted changes to the stream (which it doesn’t), by choosing to apply EQ you’re breaking that.

You can set a percentage volume limit on output but I don’t see that as related to the use of UPNP or not.

 

[jorgemg1984]

I don’t think I’ve heard of a last track loop issue on WiiM UPNP ever being mentioned on the forum. I’ll leave the other UPNP queries to someone like @simbun who normally pops up at its mention

EQ can be applied to all output streams, and you can apply pregain on the device inputs.

As I take bit perfect to mean that the WiiM device doesn’t make any unwanted changes to the stream (which it doesn’t), by choosing to apply EQ you’re breaking that.

You can set a percentage volume limit on output but I don’t see that as related to the use of UPNP or not.

Many thanks for the reply! Very good to know I can apply eq and pre-gain on upnp input / usb out.

 

[Mr Ee]

Is the eq bit-perfect or does it perform resampling?

If I understood a recent thread on this, the conclusion was that wiim do not resample to a specific frequency before applying eq and then resampling again back to the original input frequency.
i.e. oxymoronically, eq is applied bit-perfectly.

 

[jorgemg1984]

If I understood a recent thread on this, the conclusion was that wiim do not resample to a specific frequency before applying eq and then resampling again back to the original input frequency.
i.e. oxymoronically, eq is applied bit-perfectly.

Excellent, thanks!

 

[simbun]

1) network transport through the upnp protocol, so this means a flawless upnp protocol (gapless, no weird track skipping, no last track loops, etc...) and a usb output. Is the upnp protocol on the Wiim good?

When WiIM launched the Mini the UPnP external interface was terrible; I have no idea how Linkplay sold any units prior to that!
Except for a firmware bug that I noticed last July (resolved in September), the UPnP performance has been very stable for the last 12-18 months.

In terms of "performance" WiiM can handle gapless playback of two second tracks (I haven't actually tested one second), whether controlled by WHA or BubbleUPnP (using eventing). These tests were performed using MinimServer.as source.

One thing I have just noticed is a blip between track transitions when the WHA is configured to apply ReplayGain (not available when using third party control points), so I'll have to follow that up.

 

[jorgemg1984]

When WiIM launched the Mini the UPnP external interface was terrible; I have no idea how Linkplay sold any units prior to that!
Except for a firmware bug that I noticed last July (resolved in September), the UPnP performance has been very stable for the last 12-18 months.

In terms of "performance" WiiM can handle gapless playback of two second tracks (I haven't actually tested one second), whether controlled by WHA or BubbleUPnP (using eventing). These tests were performed using MinimServer.as source.

One thing I have just noticed is a blip between track transitions when the WHA is configured to apply ReplayGain (not available when using third party control points), so I'll have to follow that up.

Thanks for your reply!

My UPNP is Bubble UPNP using MinimServer or Qobuz, and Synfonium using Emby - I've been reviewing digital products for one and a half years, and with one exception here and there, these two combos work flawlessly. Good to know the Wiim works well, it's a must for me.

 

[simbun]

My UPNP is Bubble UPNP using MinimServer or Qobuz, and Synfonium using Emby

I use Symfonium too but with Lightweight Music Server.

Given you're a MinimServer user looking at the Ultra, you should know that the Now Playing screen (and Ultra screen too I believe) pulls metadata from the file being streamed, so any tag customisations applied in MinimServer will be lost e.g. tagFormat.

 

[jorgemg1984]

I use Symfonium too but with Lightweight Music Server.

Given you're a MinimServer user looking at the Ultra, you should know that the Now Playing screen (and Ultra screen too I believe) pulls metadata from the file being streamed, so any tag customisations applied in MinimServer will be lost e.g. tagFormat.

I would like to try Lightweight Music Server, but I have no Linux chops I'm actually very happy how Symfonium behaves with Emby.

About MinimServer, I believe all my tags are in the file, so no worries. My current "now playing" shows cover, track number, track title, artist, album name and composer (which I use to put the personnel in jazz records). All that info is on the file.

 

[simbun]

One thing I have just noticed is a blip between track transitions when the WHA is configured to apply ReplayGain (not available when using third party control points), so I'll have to follow that up.

It looks like there is a problem with ReplayGain around track transitions.

I've tested this with local libraries and have raised a ticket.

 

[simbun]

I would like to try Lightweight Music Server, but I have no Linux chops I'm actually very happy how Symfonium behaves with Emby.

I couldn't live without DiscSubtitle support (primarily for box sets) so that narrowed down the server options considerably. The other benefit of choosing a smaller project is the rate of change; I've already had a number of fixes and feature requests implemented and I've only been using it a few months.

OpenSubsonic, led by the creator of Symfonium, still has a few areas to address, but it's a fast-moving project so worth keeping an eye on.

You could use docker and install it in WSL/Docker desktop - assuming you're on Windows - but that might be a step too far still.

 

[jorgemg1984]

I couldn't live without DiscSubtitle support (primarily for box sets) so that narrowed down the server options considerably. The other benefit of choosing a smaller project is the rate of change; I've already had a number of fixes and feature requests implemented and I've only been using it a few months.

OpenSubsonic, led by the creator of Symfonium, still has a few areas to address, but it's a fast-moving project so worth keeping an eye on.

You could use docker and install it in WSL/Docker desktop - assuming you're on Windows - but that might be a step too far still.

I couldn't agree more, I've asked two (simple) requests on Emby and so far nothing...

Ah, not even Docker for Windows, I have no code skills at all - and no time or desire to have, although I wish I had on occasions like this