It is compatible.
The Ultra comes with a detachable ground plug.See e.g. here (the link takes you straight to the important bit):
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WiiM Ultra Streamer Preamp Review
- Thread starter amirm
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The Ultra comes with a detachable ground plug.See e.g. here (the link takes you straight to the important bit):
It's the single best feature of the WiiM Ultra, a single human being on planet earth seems to believe.
It's cool, anyway.
Miser_Audioman
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It is fine, but see no compelling reason to swap out my wiim puck smsl su-1 combo as far as sound quality. Compactness and bass management are impressive, but I don’t care enough to replace my avr.
I've now had this just under a day, so not enough time to investigate it completely. But I wanted to mention a simple - yet brilliant - User Experience feature that has made me smile a LOT.
My wife has never really forgiven me for abandoning physical media. She used to have her pile of favourite CDs and would pop one into the CD player when she wanted to listen to some music. She has never taken to playlists on her phone and the need to "cast" music to a specific endpoint just to listen to something. Having tried to explain this to her multiple times, I've also learned to appreciate how non-intuitive it all is if you're not "into tech".
Within an hour of unboxing my Ultra, I discovered - without looking for it - that I could assign a (Tidal) playlist I had made for her to Button Number 1 on the remote control.
Now, all she has to do to listen to her favourite music is pick up the remote and press button number 1. She can skip forward and backward through the playlist and turn the volume up and down all with the other buttons on the remote. And all irrespective of whether the Ultra was on or off - or what input was selected - before she pressed button 1.
It "just works", to coin a phrase.
Absolute genius! Someone in WiiM is really thinking hard about usability.
I've just ordered a WiiM mini to see if I can configure a multi-room setup with the mini driving a Sonos 5 (nobody in the family apart from me ever got on with the Sonos either!). I'll report back on how this works - or if it doesn't - once I know.
Previously, in my main system, I had a Raspberry Pi running a Roon endpoint feeding a MOTU Ultralight 5 which then fed a pair of Hypex monoblocks which drove my Kef Reference 3 Meta speakers.
The speakers cost a lot - and I'm more than willing to spend a lot on my Hifi where necessary. But as far as the electronics are concerned, I just don't think it IS necessary- especially with devices such as this WiiM.
I've replaced the Pi/MOTU with this Ultra - and the Hypex Monoblocks with a pair of Fosi V3 Monos. There has been no reduction in sound quality that I can hear - but the improvement in usability is night and day!
I'm now seriously considering whether I need Roon - given the metadata available in Tidal, and the features and flexibility of the WiiM environment. I haven't made my mind up yet - but the fact I'm considering it has surprised me.
My wife has never really forgiven me for abandoning physical media. She used to have her pile of favourite CDs and would pop one into the CD player when she wanted to listen to some music. She has never taken to playlists on her phone and the need to "cast" music to a specific endpoint just to listen to something. Having tried to explain this to her multiple times, I've also learned to appreciate how non-intuitive it all is if you're not "into tech".
Within an hour of unboxing my Ultra, I discovered - without looking for it - that I could assign a (Tidal) playlist I had made for her to Button Number 1 on the remote control.
Now, all she has to do to listen to her favourite music is pick up the remote and press button number 1. She can skip forward and backward through the playlist and turn the volume up and down all with the other buttons on the remote. And all irrespective of whether the Ultra was on or off - or what input was selected - before she pressed button 1.
It "just works", to coin a phrase.
Absolute genius! Someone in WiiM is really thinking hard about usability.
I've just ordered a WiiM mini to see if I can configure a multi-room setup with the mini driving a Sonos 5 (nobody in the family apart from me ever got on with the Sonos either!). I'll report back on how this works - or if it doesn't - once I know.
Previously, in my main system, I had a Raspberry Pi running a Roon endpoint feeding a MOTU Ultralight 5 which then fed a pair of Hypex monoblocks which drove my Kef Reference 3 Meta speakers.
The speakers cost a lot - and I'm more than willing to spend a lot on my Hifi where necessary. But as far as the electronics are concerned, I just don't think it IS necessary- especially with devices such as this WiiM.
I've replaced the Pi/MOTU with this Ultra - and the Hypex Monoblocks with a pair of Fosi V3 Monos. There has been no reduction in sound quality that I can hear - but the improvement in usability is night and day!
I'm now seriously considering whether I need Roon - given the metadata available in Tidal, and the features and flexibility of the WiiM environment. I haven't made my mind up yet - but the fact I'm considering it has surprised me.
The button for voice control with Amazon Music is pretty fool proof, as well. Just pick up the remote hit a button “play the Beatles” and they have the music they want.
Like any other wiim products, you can add an external HDD or USB stick to any device connected to your network, like a tablet, to browse the local music folders. The advantage of the Ultra is that you don't need to disconnect it every time. The default track order is alfabetic and needs to be changed to track number ( once).
I took time to try out the WiiM Ultra room correction. I was surprised how well it worked in comparison to my REW corrections.
Orange - original response.
Red - REW corrected 80hz-10khz and used 3 filters.
Blue- WiiM corrected 80hz-10khz and used 10 filters with Harmon curve (Android phone removed from case).
-Var smoothing-
The graph verified my subs are too loud.
The peak at 66hz was removed with a MiniDSP running the subs (MiniDSP is doing 80hz LPF, WiiM "Subwoofer Bypass Mode" on).
The dip at 82hz room mode or sub crossover issue?
The dips at 95hz and 157hz room modes?
Orange - original response.
Red - REW corrected 80hz-10khz and used 3 filters.
Blue- WiiM corrected 80hz-10khz and used 10 filters with Harmon curve (Android phone removed from case).
-Var smoothing-
The graph verified my subs are too loud.
The peak at 66hz was removed with a MiniDSP running the subs (MiniDSP is doing 80hz LPF, WiiM "Subwoofer Bypass Mode" on).
The dip at 82hz room mode or sub crossover issue?
The dips at 95hz and 157hz room modes?
Why the additional MiniDSP instead of just using the Ultra's low pass filter? Are you using asymmetrical filters for HP and LP on purpose?
This here ...
... does not look right. Around 8 kHz the level is more than 12 dB down compared to what it was before. That's not just the result of applying the Harman curve.
The majority of all Android phones I have seen so far register an enormous hump right around 8 kHz, which isn't really there. WiiM RC thinks that there's way too much SPL and "corrects" for it.
In the end it's all just about what you like. But personally I would strictly limit the frequency range for RC to 4 kHz unless you can obtain a much better USB mic. And I hope that WiiM will implement the import of mic calibration files soon.
Any particular reason for not only replacing the front end (I can see the much improved convenience) but also the Hypex monoblocks?
I had bought them and tested them previously - and honestly couldn't tell the difference in sound to the Hypex amps. However, they are much smaller - and they have the ability to switch on/off with 12v triggers or music detection (convenience feature again). I do worry a little about the few reports I have seen of them burning out. The thought of presenting 40v-50v DC to the speaker terminals on my KEFs is scary. However, most of these reports seem to have been after testing with much more "strenuous" Volts and Amps than I would ever use when listening. And anyway - I have a box of blown Hypex modules in my basement.... I'm considering getting a Benchmark AHB2, simply for the peace of mind. But it's a lot of money for something that may never happen....
Only because I'm experimenting with some temporary DIY subs and I'm playing with filters. I've got two 8" "bucket" subs. The MiniDSP is applying a Linkwitz Transform filter and a HPF below 20hz to protect the drivers and amp. I use the 80hz LPF on the Mini DSP just so I could try out the sub bypass mode on the Wiim. I was curious about the cause of the high frequency drop off.
I agree -- not only is the WiiM a great sounding player, but it is the first music source I've had in my system for ages that my wife has found easy to use. With the 12 volt trigger controlling the power amp, she doesn't even have to use a single on/off switch. I added an Amazon music subscription and she can play pretty much anything she wants using the voice remote.
Linkplay is a systems integrator, most of these features are developed for brands they work with, then they release a low-price system under their own brand (Wiim) undercutting their own customers.. Of course it's cheaper when your competitors pay for most of the development. Is this illegal? No, and the brands made a mistake trusting Linkplay. But it's definitely a gray zone.
Then there is their agressive sales, often promising prices, features and quality that they can not meet, knowing that when a project is 75% in you can not move to a different platform and the brands are now dependent on them.
And then they hack in some features (Airplay..) without permission from service providers and sell a product, suddenly it has to be removed.. This is definitely not OK.
(Full disclosure, I work for another SI..)
Perhaps you have insider information that I don't. But it seems to me that, if they developed expertise in developing for OEMs - and the OEMs contracted with them for a specific product, then the OEMs have no rights over anything LinkPlay do in future.
Of course, as you say, OEMs may now reconsider whether to work with Linksys in future, now that they have to compete with WiiM. But surely that's an issue for the OEM - not for us end users? I'll purchase what is best for me. I have no loyalty to one manufacturer or another.
As for the Airplay issue - I'm not sure your characterisation of this is fully supported by the facts - at least as I understand them. I suspect this was an issue around a specific issue of licensing that LinkPlay misunderstood.Perhaps around the MFI (I believe it stands for "made for iPod" - showing you how long it's been around) chip that has long been a requirement for certain levels of Apple licensing.
Of course, you are entirely within your rights to buy or not buy from any vendor - especially as you clearly feel strongly about it.
But I can't see that some of your statements are backed by the facts I am aware of. If you have other information that is not in the public domain, then fair enough. I just don't know what it is...
A number of years ago, when I was dealing with running sound (and sometimes recording) for some regional bands and the local 60 piece community band (a volunteer subsidiary of the local Charleston, SC; USA), I was warned by one of the sound engineers (who also worked at a local for profit radio station, as well as a local Public Broadcasting Station) to beware of dealing with a company named Linkplay for the exact same reasons TSB stated.
Now, I never actually saw any Linkplay gear or ran into any of their people that I know of.
And, in fact, I thought that they had folded as a company (since I never heard or saw the name again), until I read what TSB stated.
Then that jogged my memory about this one time I was told basically the same thing years ago about a company named Linkplay.
While I was working in that industry, true or not, I have heard of this, too.
My unit sound quite bad at RCA outputs, I was convinced that were ground loops on the monitor side, but once connected by usb to an Ifi Zen DAC, it sound ok by RCA again (same voltage output, 2 Vrms)
Can be a software issue or should I contact the reseller to a replacement?
Can be a software issue or should I contact the reseller to a replacement?
Ground loops will cause a very specific 50Hz/100Hz (in Spain) humming, or buzzing. Was that what you were hearing when it sounded "quite bad"?
If so, then yes, it probably was a grounding issue. I'm assuming that "sound ok by RCA again" means the RCA outputs of the wifi Zen?
If not, then you might have a bad unit - mine is entirely transparent via RCA Out.
Hmmm, no, more on the side “hiss” and a lot of distortion on highs: definitely not transparent at all.
Yes, the RCA outputs on the Ifi Zen sound correct. It has also XLR outputs but I tried RCA to replicate same voltage.
I will contact the dealer, thanks!
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