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WiiM Ultra Streamer Preamp Review

Rate this streamer/DAC/Preamp:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 4 1.3%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 36 11.4%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 130 41.0%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 147 46.4%

  • Total voters
    317
Spit balling. Given that many on this forum have spare DACs and amplifiers, connect a cheap DAC to the USB output, wire the signal wires from each channel to a mono to stereo passive adapter and experiment with Hafler surround sound. Good enough for the living room environments where the Wiim is most likely to be used?

P.S. Not responsible for any damage to your components. Seriously, doing this with electronics with outputs that do not share a common ground can burn out your equipment.
 
Spit balling. Given that many on this forum have spare DACs and amplifiers, connect a cheap DAC to the USB output, wire the signal wires from each channel to a mono to stereo passive adapter and experiment with Hafler surround sound. Good enough for the living room environments where the Wiim is most likely to be used?

P.S. Not responsible for any damage to your components. Seriously, doing this with electronics with outputs that do not share a common ground can burn out your equipment.
This idea doesn't come from the Right member.
:p
 
Hi all,

I got my new Wiim Ultra from Amazon, yesterday.
It replaces my recent stacks in my living room

a) WIIM Pro => Topping DX3pro+ => AUDIOPHONICS HPA-S400ET => DIY speaker 7"+7"+1"
b) Amazon TV (HDMI ARC) => SMSL A50pro => DIY speaker 7"+1"

with a single stack
c) Amazon TV => WIIM ULTRA => AUDIOPHONICS HPA-S400ET => DIY speaker 7"+7"+1"

All the music comes from a DLNA server on my DIY NAS and from Radio Paradise :cool:

Looks very tidy and a lot of cables also disapear.
The installation tooks 15min (including 8min for WIIM update)
The Ultra and the Amp are connected with a trigger cable.

Wow, everything works fine:
Auto-Sensing on source change works perfect.
Volume control by Wiim Remote, TV-Remote, IPad buttons, Wiim buttons and Apps. Amazing.
Room correction with Ipad, yep.
The sound is really great ( but I think this comes also from my positve brain bias (FUN))

I like this new HIFI gear very much. Modern hardware and software driven features as it best.

Some years ago, I used the Yamaha MusicCast eco-system. I was happy with it then. But, it had only poor
developments in software and also some version breaks. And very big and heavy devices.
No forums or customer contact, poor.

So, now I'm very happy and I have to find new jobs for the remaining devices :)

Have a nice day, Josef
 
Hi all,

I got my new Wiim Ultra from Amazon, yesterday.
It replaces my recent stacks in my living room
:cool:

Looks very tidy and a lot of cables also disapear.

Wow, everything works fine:

The sound is really great ( but I think this comes also from my positive brain bias (FUN))

So, now I'm very happy and I have to find new jobs for the remaining devices :)

Have a nice day, Josef
I think that all of these are important but the MOST important is POSITIVE BRAIN BIAS.
When I was in Singapore & Thailand (with the same Thai girlfriend), sometimes she would ask me the rhetorical question:
Are we having fun?
If the answer from me was "No",
she would ask "Then why are we doing this?"
 
It’s definitely the HDMI . Happens even when TV is unplugged. So could possibly be from the satellite coax cable , but none of my other setups do it and they’re all using HDMI ARC and all are on same Dish system. Didn’t have this problem when a AVR was in use .
It could definitely be the satellite coax. That will definitely run through the TV’s HDMI. Had this happen at my dad’s house. Super loud, but hilariously my dad has a fancy home theater but he’s so deaf he couldn’t hear it!

Easy way to check is just unscrew the coax from the wall.
 
A little disappointed with the screen saver options, it either shows a simple time with cheesey slideshow pictures behind it or a bulbous pink and purple time. I wish there was a more understated clock option. Anyone know if this is on the roadmap?
 
A little disappointed with the screen saver options, it either shows a simple time with cheesey slideshow pictures behind it or a bulbous pink and purple time. I wish there was a more understated clock option. Anyone know if this is on the roadmap?
 
Looking at the roadmap, it's pretty incredible how much they have added in the past year and how much more they plan on unveiling in the near future.
I'm with everyone complaining about the clock and UI displays, but when I check the roadmap I'm sympathetic to their priorities for the most part. Adding Plex integration has to be more valuable in user base acquisition than UI refinements.

Whenever I see a bunch of "Fixing XXX and YYY music service issues" in the release notes, same thing. It's no good if it looks pretty but doesn't play.
 
I'm with everyone complaining about the clock and UI displays, but when I check the roadmap I'm sympathetic to their priorities for the most part. Adding Plex integration has to be more valuable in user base acquisition than UI refinements.

Whenever I see a bunch of "Fixing XXX and YYY music service issues" in the release notes, same thing. It's no good if it looks pretty but doesn't play.
I’m so old I can remember when Parasound cancelled an AVR project after the hardware was ready, because they couldn’t get the software right. At the time, I thought that was silly. Since then I find that getting software right is a big deal.
 
I’m so old I can remember when Parasound cancelled an AVR project after the hardware was ready, because they couldn’t get the software right. At the time, I thought that was silly. Since then I find that getting software right is a big deal.
What were the issues?
 
What were the issues?
They hired a software company for the project and they never produced an acceptable product. Lots of money wasted.

This was some time ago, ten or 15 years.
 
This was some time ago, ten or 15 years.
We call that "recently" or "the other day" ... ;)

Too bad, they are not yet thinking about integrating Dirac Live.
Being mainly a software driven company I don't see how licensing 3rd party software would fit WiiM's/Linkplay's business plan.

Also the majority of customers (leaving out us nerdy geeks hanging around in HiFi forums) wouldn't even consider spending another $200 for a software license and more money on a microphone and stand for a $329 device that comes with some kind of room correction, for free.

So no, I don't think this is ever going to happen.
 
Not exactly like this, I hope. ;)
Well, most of those people do seem to have gotten over it.
They seem to be ones that had family on both sides of the conflict.
Having family fights is one thing, having armies to do it with is another.
 
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