Wiim announce WiiM Amp Ultra

[Matt_Holland]

A feature that is close to free is unlikely to be state of the art.

What I can say is it agrees with HouseCurve about the points needing correction. I’m using an iPhone 12.
I cannot hear the top octave, but I can tell if voices are natural, and whether there’s an annoying resonance below 100 Hz.

My preferred test material is spoken words, recorded outdoors.

The first attempt at correction removed the DJ hump in the bass. If a voice sounds natural, music is likely to follow.

Have you noticed how the iPhone 12 mic is grossly inaccurate above 2KHz? Not a problem if you are limiting the correction to frequencies below this, but worth noting. The error causes frequencies above 2KHz to be increasingly elevated.

About a year ago I contacted the developer of House Curve about it and they concurred. Enabling mic correction in House Curve doesn’t fix it. I haven’t tested the Wiim auto EQ for a while but the measurements previously were close to House Curve.

 

[john61ct]

To me the absolute key for this unit is the power output.

And the key comparison benchmark is against 3e A7, driving my OG LS50s to (clean & safe) max SPL via the ability to maintain both voltage and CURRENT against the variable load

with the same HP filtering in both cases

If the Wiim Amp Ultra internal PSU / heat issues significantly limit the PBTL dual TPA3255 + PFFB then the 3e A7 is the way to go for power amplification,

and the (non-amp) Wiim Ultra will be a fine streamer source / DAC / pre-amp / DSP

If not, and this amp does match the 3e A7, then WOW the choices

1 All in one, just this + LS50s audiophile boom box

2 As a component, just like Wiim Ultra (streamer source / DAC / pre-amp / DSP) in a more complex system

3 As a plain powerful power amp fed by other sources

4 including in a multi-room whole-house scenario, fed by a Wiim source elsewhere

fantastic value for incredible flexibility

 

[BillG]

I've ordered one due to arrive on Friday, 29 August.

Someone performed some measurements over on the WiiM community forum, for those who not read them yet, and the objective performance looks very good.

I'll be accessing the Amp Ultra via Lyrion Music Server (fka Logitech Media Server) and I don't anticipate any problems doing so, but we shall see.

 

[Alexx]

Excuse me, is this Wiim Amp Ultra more powerful than the Wiim Vibelink?

Is it the same size as the Wiim Ultra?


I could trade in the Wiim Ultra streamer and Wiim Vibelink and get this system in one piece.
Thanks.

 

[BillG]

Excuse me, is this Wiim Amp Ultra more powerful than the Wiim Vibelink?

Is it the same size as the Wiim Ultra?


I could trade in the Wiim Ultra streamer and Wiim Vibelink and get this system in one piece.
Thanks.

In terms of power, they're listed as identical: 2x100 at 8 Ohms/2x200 at 4 Ohms.

As for size, according to Google’s AI overview:

"the WiiM Vibelink Amp measures 200 x 200 x 63 mm (7.9 x 7.9 x 2.58 in), while the WiiM Amp Ultra is larger at 7.9 x 8.4 x 2.6 inches (200 x 212.5 x 66 mm)."

 

[dominikz]

These are the dimensions listed on the product pages:

• WiiM Ultra: 211 mm x 200 mm x 72 mm
• WiiM Amp Ultra: 211 x 200 x 76.2 mm

So it is the same footprint, but the Amp Pro is 4,2mm taller.

Power of the WiiM Vibelink Amp (review link) and the WiiM Amp Ultra (review link) is rated the same, which seems to also be confirmed by Erin's measurements of both amps.

From his measurements we can see that continuous max power and CEA-2006 max burst power @ 1kHz, 1.0% THD of these amps are:

• Vibelink Amp:
  • 4Ω: 207 W / 213 W
  • 8Ω: 113 W/ 114 W
• Amp Ultra:
  • 4Ω: 219 W / 222 W
  • 8Ω: 112 W/ 114 W

However, note that the Amp Ultra has two TPA3255 chips, whereas the Vibelink Amp has only one. This means the Amp Ultra should be able to produce more current (it is why it is officially specified as suitable for loudspeaker with impedances down to 2Ω).

IMHO it is a pretty capable amplifier, not to even mention all of the extra functionality built-in!

 

[DazST]

I've ordered one due to arrive on Friday, 29 August.

Someone performed some measurements over on the WiiM community forum, for those who not read them yet, and the objective performance looks very good.

I'll be accessing the Amp Ultra via Lyrion Music Server (fka Logitech Media Server) and I don't anticipate any problems doing so, but we shall see.

View attachment 472092

Mine arrived today. Set it up and now playing some tunes to test it out. Sounds pretty great straight out of the box and seems to have ample power (though I haven't pushed it past about 30 volume yet).

 

[dominikz]

Someone performed some measurements over on the WiiM community forum, for those who not read them yet, and the objective performance looks very good.

In case anyone is interested, apart from the measurements linked above, I also did some comparative listening tests and prepared audio clips with both the WiiM Amp Pro and WiiM Amp Ultra - this is documented in this thread on the WiiM community forum.

 

[BillG]

Mine arrived today. Set it up and now playing some tunes to test it out. Sounds pretty great straight out of the box and seems to have ample power (though I haven't pushed it past about 30 volume yet).

Groovy! I received a notification at noon today (NZST) that my order has shipped. So I may very well have it before Friday.

I'd expect it to sound good straight out of the box as well, based on the analysis that @dominikz so kindly performed.

I've got my measurement microphone here waiting and I'm looking forward to experiencing what RoomFit has to offer.

 

[Alexx]

Excellent.

Thank you so much for all the explanations.

 

[somebodyelse]

I'll be accessing the Amp Ultra via Lyrion Music Server (fka Logitech Media Server) and I don't anticipate any problems doing so, but we shall see.

LMS 'Just Works' with the Wiim Ultra so I don't think you'll have any problems on that front.

 

[Burnside]

LMS 'Just Works' with the Wiim Ultra so I don't think you'll have any problems on that front.

Agreed, it just appears as a player in LMS as soon as it’s switched on and detected.

 

[john61ct]

Excuse me, is this Wiim Amp Ultra more powerful than the Wiim Vibelink?

Absolutely yes. But nothing you would notice, unless you really are trying to get max (safe) SPL AND

A. your speakers are hard to drive

B. with varying impedance, e.g. rated 8ohm nominal but in reality go down to 3-4ohm

big drops can cause current overload / overheating and create distortion even if watts are OK, voltage drops when the amp can't deliver enough CURRENT

Most people will not be dealing with all of these edge case conditions at the same time, but for those that do,

the dual-mono 1-chip per channel Parallel Bridge-Tied Load (PBTL) architecture combined with Post-Filter Feedback (PFFB) feature

may very well make an audible difference.

 

[ScottySmallsMom]

how bad is the latency on the Amp Ultra? I read it's around 50ms, which would be really bad in regards to lip sync and gaming

 

[kyuu]

how bad is the latency on the Amp Ultra? I read it's around 50ms, which would be really bad in regards to lip sync and gaming

Will likely depend on the input. I would advise against using Bluetooth. With my Wiim Amp, I notice no lip sync issues when using it with eARC from a TV. I haven't attempted gaming on it but I would guess it's a non-issue.

 

[BillG]

Agreed, it just appears as a player in LMS as soon as it’s switched on and detected.

Given the experience I've had with LMS over the last several years when dealing with a mixture of Google Cast, UPnP-DLNA, and SlimProto devices, I expect the Amp Ultra to appear on the player list once it's connected to my LAN.

Thanks for the verification...

 

[BillG]

Mine arrived today. Set it up and now playing some tunes to test it out. Sounds pretty great straight out of the box and seems to have ample power (though I haven't pushed it past about 30 volume yet).

I just got an update from my country's postal service and should have mine this afternoon.

 

[BillG]

Well, here it is. I've absolutely no complaints about its initial configuration or performance after about an hour spent with it. My foray into RoomFit is going to be tomorrow as I'd rather relax for the remainder of my evening.

My only complaint is about not being able to disable it as a DLNA media renderer. I've no love for the protocol and don't ever want to see one on my LAN. But, here we are. Anyway, I opened a feedback ticket from within the home app and hopefully WiiM will address the issue in a firmware update.

 

[DazST]

I gave mine a good spin last night and I'm very happy with the sound.

 

[Alexx]

Nice product.

The new metal remote control is also very nice.