WiiM Ultra Streamer Preamp Review

[EddNog]

I asked this question because with the Wiim Pro Plus the preamp section is not good, I had to use a passive preamp

I’m afraid ASR is the wrong place to discuss this. Everyone here will tell you that digital volume control is superior/fully transparent due to better objective measurement/perfect channel balance.

-Ed

 

[antcollinet]

I asked this question because with the Wiim Pro Plus the preamp section is not good, I had to use a passive preamp

In what way do you think it is not good?

 

[nerone]

In what way do you think it is not good?

I hear a sound like there is a blanket in front of the speakers

 

[Matt_Holland]

I hear a sound like there is a blanket in front of the speakers

I strongly suggest that the problem is the direction of your interconnect cables. Plug them in the other way round and I am sure you’ll find the veil (blanket) will be lifted.

Sorry. Couldn’t resist.

 

[nerone]

I strongly suggest that the problem is the direction of your interconnect cables. Plug them in the other way round and I am sure you’ll find the veil (blanket) will be lifted.

Sorry. Couldn’t resist.

I already did these tests before asking the question about the Wiim Pro Plus, which is why I was asking if the Wiim ultra was superior since I don't own it

 

[holbob]

The wiim will only lift the veil if you agree to marry it. Eventually though, the tweeters will drop into the flabby midrange.

 

[kyuu]

There's no difference in the "preamp section" of the Wiim Ultra vs. the Pro Plus, as far as I'm aware, so there's no reason to expect it to sound any different. Of course, there's also no plausible mechanism whereby either could be doing anything to the sound for it to sound muffled as you describe, presuming you have made sure there isn't any processing going on that might explain it (EQ settings, errant Room Correction feature). Also, I'm assuming you've tried varying the volume settings between the source, the Wiim, and the amp to make sure you don't have a gain staging issue or a device being driven to severe distortion in the chain.

 

[murielpeak]

Unfortunately, I have to take back my comments about WiiM customer support. After an initial promising interaction where they offered to replace my WiiM Ultra due to defective coax/optical out, it’s now been one month and I have not received a new unit and they stopped responding to my inquiries 3 weeks ago. Radio silence. So I guess I’m stuck with a WiiM Ultra with unusable coax/optical out. Instead I’m using the usb out to a dac (for the xlr connection on the dac), which means i cannot connect my usb music library. Bummer, not what I was expecting.

I stand corrected. Just a day or two after writing this post, WiiM customer support contacted me to say the replacement unit has been shipped (I guess patience is a virtue). It arrived yesterday and the digital out is working normally- problem resolved. I’ll post again if I have any future issues.

 

[murielpeak]

Try posting your WiiM ticket number in the WiiM forum (https://forum.wiimhome.com/) for the attention of the admin team (RyanwithWiim, WiiM Team, WiiM Support) and see if that jolts them into action. I presume your ticket gave details of where you bought the unit etc.

You can simply add a small usb hub like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0CQRN5CB9/ and you can use the Ultra’s USB out as well as connecting your USB library - I and many others already do that.

Good suggestion, but as a matter of principle, I think all the outputs should be working normally and as advertised. I just posted that after a month wait they did replace the unit. So all good now!

 

[murielpeak]

Is this common.
Are there many cases of defective digital connections.
Is there a dedicated thread for this anywhere?

I would think probably not - I haven’t found any threads on the topic. My unit was working fine until suddenly it wasn’t, so I’m not really sure what happened.

 

[Romario]

I asked this question because with the Wiim Pro Plus the preamp section is not good, I had to use a passive preamp

Many people, including myself, use the Wiim products as streamer only connected to a pre amp. It's just trial and error.

 

[antcollinet]

I hear a sound like there is a blanket in front of the speakers

Then there is something wrong with your test setup, or you are hearing the result of your (very human) perceptive biases.

The Pro Plus internal DAC is fully transparent, and differences between it and any other well performing DAC are too small to be heard by any human.

 

[Romario]

Then there is something wrong with your test setup, or you are hearing the result of your (very human) perceptive biases.

The Pro Plus internal DAC is fully transparent, and differences between it and any other well performing DAC are too small to be heard by any human.

I use the Wiim DAC connected to the line in of the pre amp. All the extra electronics degrade the sound probably which gives a slightly different sound signature.

 

[Pritaudio]

does the ultra allow for the app volume control to be disabled. I would rather use the physical volume knob on the unit.
This is so it doesn’t get accidentally swiped in the app.

Also, can I disable the touchscreen display, I don’t want it on.

 

[EddNog]

does the ultra allow for the app volume control to be disabled. I would rather use the physical volume knob on the unit.
This is so it doesn’t get accidentally swiped in the app.

Also, can I disable the touchscreen display, I don’t want it on.

Display can be disabled.

Sorry, not sure if the soft volume slider can be disabled without also disabling the volume control at the dial.

-Ed

 

[Romario]

The issue with the volume is that the Ultra only sleeps and thus the volume you left it with is the one you start with. To bypass that, I first wake m up and adjust the volume before playing a tune.

 

[Pritaudio]

Is there any problem with toslink cable lengths on the Wiim.
Such as optical in or optical out.
I tried to connect my tv 4-5m away via toslink and I get problems with the signal.
I know I can use hdmi, but I had this problem with the Wiim pro model before.

 

[EddNog]

Is there any problem with toslink cable lengths on the Wiim.
Such as optical in or optical out.
I tried to connect my tv 4-5m away via toslink and I get problems with the signal.
I know I can use hdmi, but I had this problem with the Wiim pro model before.

Have you tried coax? Or a different optical cable?

-Ed

 

[Good Vibes]

I recently received and am impressed by the Ultra however, when I bought it, I didn’t realise the USB port could not be used to connect a laptop. Connecting a laptop via USB is an important feature to me, is there perhaps something I can buy and connect to the WiiM to give me this connectivity? I am hoping there will be a relatively cheap yet competent solution.

 

[EddNog]

I recently received and am impressed by the Ultra however, when I bought it, I didn’t realise the USB port could not be used to connect a laptop. Connecting a laptop via USB is an important feature to me, is there perhaps something I can buy and connect to the WiiM to give me this connectivity? I am hoping there will be a relatively cheap yet competent solution.

Any way to give your laptop a USB to TOSLink adapter? Something like the SMSL PO100 or Douk U2 might work.

-Ed