My New WiiM Ultra!

[Farley Q Fjnork]

Got my WiiM Ultra in and hooked up. Haven’t had time to do any tweaks and am already impressed with the clarity and overall sound.
Wife loves that it’s all in the cabinet and the “big honkin’ Onkyo” surround receiver is gone! LOVE the iPad control!

WiiM Ultra -> 2 Fosi V3 Monoblocks - Magnaplanar 1.6 Qr pair.

$330 for the WiiM, $200 for the pair of Fosi’s, $200 for the Maggie’s. Under $750 for the whole system!
(A neighbor had the Maggies. Hadn’t been turned on in over 20 years because he had a hearing loss. Actually traded him for a log cabin style bed that I was selling for $200 on FB marketplace. They have worked flawlessly! I had the MG II-a back around 1979.)

 

[Mort]

$200 for the Maggie’s

Kinda buried the headline there. Enjoy your system!

 

[Power Pop 23]

The current headline for this thread of 'New WiiM Ultra!' suggested to me that WiiM had updated their Ultra streamer.

Consider editing the headline of the thread to read 'My New WiiM Ultra!' or similar.

 

[dtaylo1066]

Yes, the WiiM Ultra is an astounding bargain and posesses an amazingly rich feature set. Unless you really want to spend a lot more, I don't see a need to upgrade. Maybe Eversolo.

 

[RaymondFromThePyrénéés]

Dear Dtaylo1066.

I am also "probably" ? going to buy the WiiM streamer
but I see quite a lot of people saying that the sound is not really
quite so good comparing it to an Eversolo, Holo Audio Red or the
Cambridge CXN 100.

I understand that way more important is
the choice of speakers,
placing of the speakers
and the room itself
than the differences between amps and streamers, but still ?

I read a blind test between streamers WiiM and Cambridge
showing that most people did hear a better sound.
Cheapaudioman on youtube says the same
thing, markedly better sound with the Camebridge compared to the
WiiM and as far as the price difference, as cheapaudioman says, if you
end up adding a clock and DAC to your WiiM streamer, the WiiM will
cost you more than the Cambridge.

Another blind test using the WiiM Ultra with a DAC, but this time
it was less convincing.

I have not yet bought anything,
but a Ncore Hypex at Audiophonics 2x250 is on the list,

but as far as the streamer WiiM Ultra is concerned,
I am still hesitating after reading these
comparisons and reviews between the Eversolo,
Cambridge and Holo Audio Red.

I know that WiiM has a lots of features, but will I use them ?

Automatic room correction, yes, excellent, but I will learn nothing about
how to do these corrections since it is automatic, but on the same time
I do not want to use a PC because too complicated for me with all the softwares.

So the WiiM seems to be a good deal,
EXCEPT if the sound for about 1000€
is really much better elsewhere ?

 

[staticV3]

I read a blind test between streamers WiiM and Cambridge
showing that most people did hear a better sound.

Any blind test report that does not include confidence scores, measured dead time, precise test procedure, and residual level difference after matching is frankly worthless.

Don't be tricked into the DAC and Amp mythos by pseudoscience.

 

[RaymondFromThePyrénéés]

Thank you StaticV3. Perhaps even, like when drinking wine, our ears change the way we receive sound after having heard one sound and after having heard and compared sounds for an entire evening, one's ears might become saturated. A microphone does not have that problem

 

[rjp]

Dear Dtaylo1066.

I am also "probably" ? going to buy the WiiM streamer
but I see quite a lot of people saying that the sound is not really
quite so good comparing it to an Eversolo, Holo Audio Red or the
Cambridge CXN 100.

I understand that way more important is
the choice of speakers,
placing of the speakers
and the room itself
than the differences between amps and streamers, but still ?

I read a blind test between streamers WiiM and Cambridge
showing that most people did hear a better sound.
Cheapaudioman on youtube says the same
thing, markedly better sound with the Camebridge compared to the
WiiM and as far as the price difference, as cheapaudioman says, if you
end up adding a clock and DAC to your WiiM streamer, the WiiM will
cost you more than the Cambridge.

Another blind test using the WiiM Ultra with a DAC, but this time
it was less convincing.

I have not yet bought anything,
but a Ncore Hypex at Audiophonics 2x250 is on the list,

but as far as the streamer WiiM Ultra is concerned,
I am still hesitating after reading these
comparisons and reviews between the Eversolo,
Cambridge and Holo Audio Red.

I know that WiiM has a lots of features, but will I use them ?

Automatic room correction, yes, excellent, but I will learn nothing about
how to do these corrections since it is automatic, but on the same time
I do not want to use a PC because too complicated for me with all the softwares.

So the WiiM seems to be a good deal,
EXCEPT if the sound for about 1000€
is really much better elsewhere ?

Maybe my experience can help here. I recently bought the WiiM Ultra. I also own the Cambridge Audio CNX v2. I tried very closely to compare the Ultra's DAC to the CNX v2 DAC and could hear no significant difference. The WiiM is excellent, and has a hugely better UI, dsp, and sub integration.

Specifically, the setups compared were as follows after carefully matching the avg SPL to pink noise test signal:

(1) Ultra -> rca -> Audiolab 9000p -> Dynaudio SP40
(2) Ultra -> coax/usb -> CNX -> Audiolab 9000p -> Dynaudio SP40

 

[RaymondFromThePyrénéés]

Thank you.
I am no longer buying the wiim because I increased my budget and Paul777 told me about his Danish Lyngdorf Tdal 1200. All the tests I have read since raves about the room correction software that is the same in this model as all Lyngdorf's models with free upgrades online. The comparing tests say that wiim is richer in features where the 1200 is definitely better sounding after room corrections applied. Also, the 1200 accepts 2x stereo subs and has a good vinyl input that I will not use. Of course, it is 5 times more expensive, 2000€ àd the WiiM is also very good. What I was looking for is a stereo sub for my DIY line array's wîth only mediums and tweeters. Thank you.