I've just replaced my Rpi with Volumio with a Wiim Mini for better usage of Tidal Connect, which was horrible on Volumio. It works a treat, hooked up to my Cambridge Audio CXA60 with Mission M70 speakers via Toslink, but I was wondering if I could get more out of it. The measurements for the Wiim DAC were rather terrible and the Wolfson WM8740 in my amplifier is already quite and old chip and I have read that it tends to colour the sound. So I was wondering if an external DAC like the SMSL SU-1 would make an (big) audible difference and would be recommended. Would this be an upgrade or would it not make any difference to the WM8740?
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Wiim Mini DAC upgrade (SMSL SU-1)?
- Thread starter ErikRM
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RandomEar
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The Stereophile results for the Wiim Mini look acceptable. Not the best DAC you can get, but not broken or anything. I don't think there's much to gain by adding another external DAC to your system. From what I could find, competent implementations of the WM8740 just clear audio CD levels of THD+N. That should also be sufficient for normal listening. I think I wouldn't worry about this too much - speakers and room will determine the sound and the noise floor is limited by your amp and not the DAC.
JeremyFife
Major Contributor
Be careful with interpreting those measurements, including the ASR ones: https://audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/wiim-mini-review-streamer.33099/
Technically not a great DAC (or ADC) ... but the issues are unlikely to be audible. This is a case of: measures poorly, but you can't hear that.
I wouldn't worry about an external DAC, and I'd probably just use the DAC in your Amp (WiiM connected digitally) as that will also be just fine.
Technically not a great DAC (or ADC) ... but the issues are unlikely to be audible. This is a case of: measures poorly, but you can't hear that.
I wouldn't worry about an external DAC, and I'd probably just use the DAC in your Amp (WiiM connected digitally) as that will also be just fine.
