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WiiM Ultra Streamer Preamp Review

Rate this streamer/DAC/Preamp:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 5 1.2%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 43 10.3%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 161 38.6%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 208 49.9%

  • Total voters
    417
Again - that can be quite normal. If you have class II (non grounded equipment), then any leakage (normally capacitive) of noise (including noise from the mains supply) goes to the chassis and has no-where to drain to. It can be quite a significant ac voltage, but very high impedance, so all it can do is tingle. There is no current capability behind. it.

Though it can be particularly strong when you have a bunch of class II devices connected together, and you get the combined leakage current of them together. My AV System with TV, AVR, Settop box, DVD player - all connected together, would be quite uncomfortable when I unplugged the antenna cable with a metal plug. In the day's when I had an antenna cable. You only need one class I (grounded) device in the mix, and you never see it. Everything drains to earth through that.

EG:
Thanks, I guessed that was because of the 2 pin plug (class II) but was not sure.

I don’t know if is due to leaking or something else, but my WiiM doesn’t sound good even connected by proper RCA to XLR cable, so I use my audio interface.

It has the advantage of reducing signal with its attenuator (analogue), so the volume of the WiiM remote can be nicely smoothed (normally goes on 32-33 steps from 0 to 100 but 8030C are so sensitive that was confined between 20 and 40 on many tracks).
 
there were serious problems of this type with the very first amp ( with machine reboots in case of discharge) (and strange ones with the pre-series of the ultra power supply) while class2... not normal...
seems to have been rather resolved afterwards... is your wiim from the very beginning of marketing?
Was purchased a month after releasing, but don’t find any issue apart from some minor quality sound with respect to my audio interface, but maybe due to interference or leakage, better match of signal voltage…

In my house there are a lot of static charge, I don’t know why. At work I didn’t feel electric little discharges, only at home but are just surprising and not at all alarming.

My question was made just by curiosity, I thought was due to some class I electric components because almost all electronic stuff in my clinic are grounded.
 
Hope you've also banned microwave ovens from your home - also mobile (cell) phones. :p
Yes, indeed, definitely no microwave. Mobile phone only with a wired earpiece or over the speaker and using a stylus, not my fingers, and keeping it as far from my body as possible. This may sound like a joke but after using a good radiation meter I think differently now ...
 
but after using a good radiation meter I think differently now ...
You understand the difference between ionising and non ionising radiation?

You realise you are bathed with EM radiation all the time. Whether that is TV or Radio signals, WIFI or bluetooth, a load of stuff from the sun. Every light source on the planet. Fields from all the power wiring in. your house, Stray electromagnetic emissions from the computer and monitor you're using to chat here.

And radio signals from your phone are just as strong as from your wifi router. If it is safe a few inches from your body, then so is your wifi router at the other end of the room.
 
You understand the difference between ionising and non ionising radiation?

You realise you are bathed with EM radiation all the time. Whether that is TV or Radio signals, WIFI or bluetooth, a load of stuff from the sun. Every light source on the planet. Fields from all the power wiring in. your house, Stray electromagnetic emissions from the computer and monitor you're using to chat here.

And radio signals from your phone are just as strong as from your wifi router. If it is safe a few inches from your body, then so is your wifi router at the other end of the room.
Even ionizing radiation are all around: natural (radon from air, cosmic rays from space and Earth’s radionuclides) and human made (medical, commercial, industrial…).
 
You understand the difference between ionising and non ionising radiation?

You realise you are bathed with EM radiation all the time. Whether that is TV or Radio signals, WIFI or bluetooth, a load of stuff from the sun. Every light source on the planet. Fields from all the power wiring in. your house, Stray electromagnetic emissions from the computer and monitor you're using to chat here.

And radio signals from your phone are just as strong as from your wifi router. If it is safe a few inches from your body, then so is your wifi router at the other end of the room.
I think there are so called "radiation meters" on sale to fool people ,sadly .
EM radiation is only realy dangerous as X-rays or gamma ie ionising and UV for the skin .

If you micro are unshielded you may cook yourself :) then its dangerous .

I should be dead otherwise I've been in EM fields of such magnitudes that you cant use crt monitors ( the picture collapses ) and in magnetic fields such as you can feel in your hand tools , the screwdriver want to orientate in a certain direction :) ( 50 to 120kA of DC does that. )

There is subset of the population that think they have "Electrical allergy" or what you may call it in English . Proper lab tests have shown that these people are only affected when they know that there is electricity around "sighted testing" as we call it on ASR . Otherwise they can be submitted to any kind of field without symptoms .
 
I should be dead otherwise I've been in EM fields of such magnitudes that you cant use crt monitors ( the picture collapses ) and in magnetic fields such as you can feel in your hand tools , the screwdriver want to orientate in a certain direction :) ( 50 to 120kA of DC does that. )
In which environment you have 50 to 120kA direct current? Hydroelectric stations?
 
You have vTuner on the menu, can access to local and by location radios (I always find any radio station I want no matter the continent). Also can access to flash drive audio files via USB.
In addition to vTuner, there is TuneIn, iHeartRadio, and the ability to open a network stream to play stations.
 
Can someone please measure the diameter of the Wiim ultra phono plug as my mates son appears to have lost/misplaced the plug and I want to try and find a suitable replacement, ta very much
 
Can someone please measure the diameter of the Wiim ultra phono plug as my mates son appears to have lost/misplaced the plug and I want to try and find a suitable replacement, ta very much
Not sure what you mean. The phono input is standard RCA - but that doesn't make any sense as something "loseable"
 
Double post
 
Not sure what you mean. The phono input is standard RCA - but that doesn't make any sense as something "loseable"
If you’re referring to the supplied cable then you can order a replacement from Amazon such as: https://amzn.eu/d/gwSCKWX


It’s the little phono ground plug that you attach the phono ground lead to, then insert into the rear of the ultra that he’s misplaced/lost/thrown out in the packaging
 
It’s the little phono ground plug that you attach the phono ground lead to, then insert into the rear of the ultra that he’s misplaced/lost/thrown out in the packaging
OK - that makes more sense.

Consensus on this thread seems to be that it is a 4mm banan plug.

 
OK - that makes more sense.

Consensus on this thread seems to be that it is a 4mm banan plug.


I’ve gave him a Neutrik 4mm banana plug to try and it doesn’t seem to fit, he sent me a pic of it as he tried to plug it in and it does appear to be too big as the securing sleeves on the plug seem to be flaring out.

54264867810_f8f3971a62_c.jpg
 
I’ve gave him a Neutrik 4mm banana plug to try and it doesn’t seem to fit, he sent me a pic of it as he tried to plug it in and it does appear to be too big as the securing sleeves on the plug seem to be flaring out.

54264867810_f8f3971a62_c.jpg
There are some other suggestions on that thread that might be worth a look.
 
I have a Wiim Ultra paired with my Onkyo TX-8150 receiver with RCA and Monitor Audio Silver 1 speakers.
Is there any point in buying an external dac for the Wiim ultra for better sound quality?
 
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