WiiM Ultra Streamer Preamp Review

[mlsstl]

I'd prefer them to skip phono inputs - anyone that's halfway serious about vinyl would get a dedicated preamp instead of using these ho-hum implementations, I'd expect (caveat: I abandoned vinyl in the late 90s). I'd rather see that useless $ in development going towards a better headphone amp.

I agree that anyone who is still a "serious" vinyl addict these days would have a far more dedicated turntable/phono preamp setup. However...

I've had my Ultra for over two months now and have not used either the phono or line inputs, but I certainly don't mind them being there. I have an old Dual turntable in the basement with an Ortofon cartridge and it's nice to know that I can pull it out and plug it straight into the Ultra with minimal hassle. In fact, next time my almost 7 year old grandson is over, I might do that to show him the "high-tech" we had when I was a youngster. Same thing with having the line level input which means I can quickly tack on a tuner, CD player or tape deck without having to move a bunch of stuff around and reorganizing the whole setup.

I put the Ultra's headphone output in the same category as the phone/line inputs -- a convenient addition for those one-off situations but not a replacement for a dedicated listening station. I have my Schiit Midgard in one room and a Hifiman EF499 in another for my serious headphone sessions.

 

[rccarguy]

Yeah, I was all set to buy 3 of these for all our listening through the house, really wanted ability to see/select what was playing without being chained to a screen. I actually was first post suggesting the Ultra name and asking for the feature set over on Wiim....but dang:

1) Lack of airplay 2 is killer...I was really hoping for a switch to force Airplay 1 lossless codec but now they've gone backwards
2) Screen is toooooooo small
3) No balanced out
4) No coax out

I was really expecting all of above for around $500. Without at least Airplay and a larger screen, no reason to upgrade from the Pro. I applaud that they're focused on <$400 devices, I guess I need to move up to the $800 range Eversolo.

It does have coaxial out

 

[rccarguy]

I'd prefer them to skip phono inputs - anyone that's halfway serious about vinyl would get a dedicated preamp instead of using these ho-hum implementations, I'd expect (caveat: I abandoned vinyl in the late 90s). I'd rather see that useless $ in development going towards a better headphone amp.

I'd also prefer a coax analog input, rather than a coax digital output (I guess that's what the coax out it).

That said, for a bit over $300 this is an awesome list of features and very good performance as a preamp-streamer.

Yeah I said the same about phono stage, what's the point? Anyone with a budget TT has one built in, anyone serious will have dedicated. It would have been better to have two line inputs, than one line and one phono.

Agree it's good but I think should have

1) better quality headphone stage, and with 6.5mm connector
2) Larger screen
3) Remove phono stage
4) Sort out the scratchy volume control

 

[Gremlins]

If this is of paramount importance, I recommend that you install a music server. Some examples are Roon, Plex or Lyrion. My personal favorite is Lyrion, formerly Logitech Media Server.

Question, where do you install a music serveur as Plex? On the wiim?

 

[morillon]

I agree that anyone who is still a "serious" vinyl addict these days would have a far more dedicated turntable/phono preamp setup. However...

I've had my Ultra for over two months now and have not used either the phono or line inputs, but I certainly don't mind them being there. I have an old Dual turntable in the basement with an Ortofon cartridge and it's nice to know that I can pull it out and plug it straight into the Ultra with minimal hassle. In fact, next time my almost 7 year old grandson is over, I might do that to show him the "high-tech" we had when I was a youngster. Same thing with having the line level input which means I can quickly tack on a tuner, CD player or tape deck without having to move a bunch of stuff around and reorganizing the whole setup.

I put the Ultra's headphone output in the same category as the phone/line inputs -- a convenient addition for those one-off situations but not a replacement for a dedicated listening station. I have my Schiit Midgard in one room and a Hifiman EF499 in another for my serious headphone sessions.

hi...
I think there is just a small mistake...
wiim linkplay is gradually discovering audio... if the modest ana inputs or " headphone" output 'a convenient addition' would really have had their place on the small all-in-one a pro amp/amp and the little ti amplification, wouldn't have been so shocking... it's the slightly pretentious aspect, the fantasized expectation, of the """ultra""""" and the feeling of a solution announced as hdg-ambitious "a cheap", complete preamp, which can only create a little regret and disappointment.....
(and to be frank, it was very predictable...)

but the disappearance of airplay seems to many to be the real little psychodrama...

;-)

 

[rccarguy]

Question, where do you install a music serveur as Plex? On the wiim?

On a NAS, PC, or raspberry Pi. I have picoreplayer on a Pi5, so my squeezeboxes (and a wiim, if I had one) would connect to that, the Wiims support softsqueeze.

 

[harkpabst]

I'd prefer them to skip phono inputs - anyone that's halfway serious about vinyl would get a dedicated preamp instead of using these ho-hum implementations, I'd expect (caveat: I abandoned vinyl in the late 90s). I'd rather see that useless $ in development going towards a better headphone amp.

I can assure you that there are still those 5/8 way serious about vinyl using older turntables who are really happy about the built-in phono input. Quality in MM mode might not be superior but is actually very usable.

Admittedly, if the Amp.or Amp.Pro had come with a phono input it probably would have been the preferred platform for this usecase.

 

[rccarguy]

I can assure you that there are still those 5/8 way serious about vinyl using older turntables who are really happy about the built-in phono input. Quality in MM mode might not be superior but is actually very usable.

Admittedly, if the Amp.or Amp.Pro had come with a phono input it probably would have been the preferred platform for this usecase.

Also the phono stage will be digitised. This is a big no no to any serious record person and his brain would explode by the sheer notion of digitised records. Then vomit.

So totally pointless for the higher end vinyl people.

 

[harkpabst]

Also the phono stage will be digitised. This is a big no no to any serious record person and his brain would explode by the sheer notion of digitised records. Then vomit.

So totally pointless for the higher end vinyl people.

$329

This is not a device for people who would have their brain explode because of their lack of understanding of digital audio.

 

[Gremlins]

I read some people reporting connecting a hard drive on the USB at the black of the wiim, my friend reported it doesnt work for him and do not have a USB input to select. He has ethernet, Line in, digital in,bluetooth,TV,phono only
He connected a 300go HD but nothing happen

 

[Emlin]

Yeah I said the same about phono stage, what's the point? Anyone with a budget TT has one built in, anyone serious will have dedicated. It would have been better to have two line inputs, than one line and one phono.

Agree it's good but I think should have

1) better quality headphone stage, and with 6.5mm connector
2) Larger screen
3) Remove phono stage
4) Sort out the scratchy volume control

There are no problems with the volume control on mine. The other things are matters of personal priority, and you can't please all the people all of the time.

 

[harkpabst]

I read some people reporting connecting a hard drive on the USB at the black of the wiim, my friend reported it doesnt work for him and do not have a USB input to select. He has ethernet, Line in, digital in,bluetooth,TV,phono only
He connected a 300go HD but nothing happen

Your friend should send feedback through the WiiM Home App then so WiiM Support can analyze the logs of his Ultra.

Maximum supply current is 1.7 A. Any harddrive needing more that that (in particular at startup) won't work. Better to have a classic MBR partition scheme, not GPT. I have a 512 MB and a 1 GB thumb drive, which are both working fine.

 

[rccarguy]

I read some people reporting connecting a hard drive on the USB at the black of the wiim, my friend reported it doesnt work for him and do not have a USB input to select. He has ethernet, Line in, digital in,bluetooth,TV,phono only
He connected a 300go HD but nothing happen

What partition system?

 

[D700]

...still pondering how badly Logitech messed up their purchase of SlimDevices...who had all this figured out 20+ years ago.

If I were Wiim, I'd have gone with a head unit approach of large screen, digital output only, skip all the analog for $199, plug right into the Wiim Amps, then an Eversolo type product at similar price point for other systems. There's too many compromises with this product.

 

[Gremlins]

Your friend should send feedback through the WiiM Home App then so WiiM Support can analyze the logs of his Ultra.

Maximum supply current is 1.7 A. Any harddrive needing more that that (in particular at startup) won't work. Better to have a classic MBR partition scheme, not GPT. I have a 512 MB and a 1 GB thumb drive, which are both working fine.

Thanks, will let him know
He talked about a regular hard disk of 300go, couple of years already i guess

Some Say they connect 2to HD...

Still, no USB input can be selected he mentioned

 

[Gremlins]

What partition system?

What IS a partition system ?

 

[rccarguy]

Thanks, will let him know
He talked about a regular hard disk of 300go, couple of years already i guess

Some Say they connect 2to HD...

Still, no USB input can be selected he mentioned

You could use a powered USB hub, on my kodi box it doesn't have the juice to power a 2.5" platter HDD, but it works fine once the wall wart to the USB is switched on.

 

[rccarguy]

What IS a partition system ?

NTFS, FAT, FAT32, EXT2/3, BTFS, Exfat

Disk partitioning - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[mlsstl]

hi...
I think there is just a small mistake...
wiim linkplay is gradually discovering audio... if the modest ana inputs or " headphone" output 'a convenient addition' would really have had their place on the small all-in-one a pro amp/amp and the little ti amplification, wouldn't have been so shocking... it's the slightly pretentious aspect, the fantasized expectation, of the """ultra""""" and the feeling of a solution announced as hdg-ambitious "a cheap", complete preamp, which can only create a little regret and disappointment.....
(and to be frank, it was very predictable...)

but the disappearance of airplay seems to many to be the real little psychodrama...

;-)

I read quite a few of the audio forums and I've not seen any of the really serious "audiophile" types give a hoot about the Ultra. It simply doesn't cost enough nor sufficiently exclusive or fancy. Those fellows are all sticking by their exotic and pricey brands. For example, I just did a quick search over on Audiogon for "Wiim Ultra" and only found a handful of posts. No one over there was giving it any serious consideration. Same thing over on Audio Asylum.

 

[Burnside]

Also the phono stage will be digitised. This is a big no no to any serious record person and his brain would explode by the sheer notion of digitised records. Then vomit.

So totally pointless for the higher end vinyl people.

Really? Better tell that to users of Linn kit which also digitise analog input, even their hallowed LP12 turntables. It matters how it’s done…