WiiM Ultra Streamer Preamp Review

[Yorkshire Mouth]

"People"? Say "Sokel" I won't take it hard
And,who's complaining?I'm just laughing by the decades old practice who found its way to 2025.

Would it be so surprising that someone shamelessly combined 1:1 Apple looks with the long time audiophile prejudices?
I don't think so.

(if you want to see what complains are like wait till I get it in my hands and test it the "Sokel" way )

Just laughing? I thought you said embarrassing. That’s a pretty serious damning criticism, not a joke.

Maybe lay off the coffee for a bit.

 

[Sokel]

That’s a pretty serious damning criticism

The exact same with the old CDP's,other gear,etc all this years across forums.
And of course this kind of practice was always suitable for both,laugh and criticism.

(and I will never,ever lay off of my Ristretto's,they're good for the soul )

((don't take it so serious,I'm sure that the Wiim's fox who brought it back to life is laughing too)

 

[StevenSGT98]

As an add on, the phono sounds great streaming to other Wiim’s in the house.

 

[Yorkshire Mouth]

(and I will never,ever lay off of my Ristretto's,they're good for the soul )

On this point, I'm going to have to agree.

 

[Yorkshire Mouth]

Excellent updates from WiiM over the past few months.

Room correction, now in stereo, so that's10-band PEQ in stereo (10 bands per channel).

They're regularly updating the display.

And now we also have 'smart presets'. You can assign each preset (up to 12) for input, output, custom PEQ profile, and sub on/off. So I have Preset 1 turning on Wi-Fi input, PEQ for my speakers/room, sub on, output over line out to my Topping PA5 ii amp. Whilst Preset 2 in Wi-Fi in, PEQ for my Sennheiser HD600s, optical out to my Topping EX5 DAC/HP amp, sub off. One click on ether the remote, the app, or the Ultra's screen takes care of everything.

Absolute powerhouse of a piece of kit.

It has to be said, I'm a big fan of Topping, but we begged and pleaded for years for the to bring out a DAC with PEQ, and when they finally managed that last April, it was about as vanilla as you could get. In comparison the Ultra's functionality is full double scoop of rocky road + mint choc chip, with an extra portion of rum 'n' raisin thrown in for good measure.

Forget the streamer part, this is the best-specced/featured transparent DAC you can buy for less than...well, hold on, for any money, isn't it? I mean I know you can buy miniDSP, and do all sorts on a PC, but as a standalone consumer DAC, plug and play, is there anything out there at any price that does transparent DAC, stereo 10-band PEQ, and sub out with bass management? Even if you'll never use this streamer as a streamer, it's an astonishing DAC/pre amp for any money.

 

[GXAlan]

I mean I know you can buy miniDSP, and do all sorts on a PC, but as a standalone consumer DAC, plug and play, is there anything out there at any price that does transparent DAC, stereo 10-band PEQ, and sub out with bass management?

Yup. Stereo.de published their measurements showing it beating the Pro Plus with their test suite.

WiiM Ultra im Test: Top-Streamer mit niedrigem Preis?

Der Netzwerkplayer WiiM Ultra soll zum günstigen Preis abolute Hochleistung bieten, funktional und klanglich – wie schlägt er sich im Test?

www.stereo.de

The closest competitor is the Bluesound Node Icon. No one knows how transparent the DAC will be (it’s in Amir’s hands) and Dirac is an extra cost, but it is the closest feature competitor.

 

[pogo]

The closest competitor is the Bluesound Node Icon.

Why should it be the Icon when the N132 is slightly ahead in terms of sound quality at STEREO
And we're not talking about Dirac Live yet.

 

[darth]

Yup. Stereo.de published their measurements showing it beating the Pro Plus with their test suite.

WiiM Ultra im Test: Top-Streamer mit niedrigem Preis?

Der Netzwerkplayer WiiM Ultra soll zum günstigen Preis abolute Hochleistung bieten, funktional und klanglich – wie schlägt er sich im Test?

www.stereo.de

The closest competitor is the Bluesound Node Icon. No one knows how transparent the DAC will be (it’s in Amir’s hands) and Dirac is an extra cost, but it is the closest feature competitor.

I thought I would regret giving up the node icon but have been pleasantly surprised by the WiiM:

- A more feature rich app with just some no-brainer things like choosing your output
- More accessible on-device controls
- USB out with volume control (icon could not control volume for the 2 devices I tried to connect)
- A super rich community with their forums with loads of help
- Good customer support experience, they pushed a beta firmware to my device to fix an issue with 48hrs of informing them of a regression during a patch update
- a lot cheaper

The biggest thing now I would love from them would be multi channel/atmos audio decoding and output over USB (or a new device that can output over Ethernet using AES67/Dante). Which would essentially eat up a large portion of the AVR market and all these unnecessarily high and expensive audio processor manufacturers will get disrupted. Adding Dirac support could also be next upgrade in their device catalog.

 

[Romario]

Orrŕ...leave it like this and enjoy the music ( I'm just kidding)

 

[Audionaut]

I ordered the Dayton iMM-6C not only, but also because of the Wiim Ultra Auto room calibration.

According to the calibration file, it only has an error of + or - 0.5db in the range from 40 to 16000 Hz, i.e. a total of 1db max.
I specified the correction range from 150 to 15 khz.

The autocorrection is clearly better than with the built-in micro of the Google Pixel 8 Pro, but still not as optimal as with other programs. But it is very useful as a basis for further adjustment, whereby I find Flat the most useful, because B&K and Harman Curve get a small belly from the autocorrection, which is omitted with Flat.

 

[DTTOM37]

I ordered the Dayton iMM-6C not only, but also because of the Wiim Ultra Auto room calibration.

View attachment 424565
According to the calibration file, it only has an error of + or - 0.5db in the range from 40 to 16000 Hz, i.e. a total of 1db max.
I specified the correction range from 150 to 15 khz.

The autocorrection is clearly better than with the built-in micro of the Google Pixel 8 Pro, but still not as optimal as with other programs. But it is very useful as a basis for further adjustment, whereby I find Flat the most useful, because B&K and Harman Curve get a small belly from the autocorrection, which is omitted with Flat.

Nice!
Excuse my question, but is that "belly" something you hear or something you see in the graphs ?
IOW, is that deviation from flat, something you can identify without looking on the graph ? Perhaps it is just a preference ?
I remember that kind of "belly" called ESS-Hump, which - afaik - also had been not clearly identified as audible, but most people prefer to have not.
edit - missing letters ;-)

 

[DTTOM37]

I have had a discussion last night with a friend, who does Audio(phile) fora for more than 3 decades, and sees himself as a scientiest (does have a PHD and is a self-declared lab rat). He told me that, in the USA (where he lives), the WIIM ULTRA is marketed as "audiophile" and as another hot cake like Tesla earlier, and no-one cares about their history as OEM manufacturer and their organic growth into a people's favorite toy through reasonable customer interaction and technical performance evolution on an acceptable budget for audio lovers.
As someone from Europe, following WIIM's way since I noticed the "mini " almost 3 years ago, I feel kind of surprised to hear that kind of reception?
Is that a resasonable anaylysis of the marketing/media thing in the US, or rather a less informed opinion ? Can't judge that for myself ...

 

[Audionaut]

Excuse my question, but is that "belly" something you her or somthing you see in the graphs ?

Both
You can see it very well, you can hear it even better.

 

[EddNog]

Both
You can see it very well, you can hear it even better.

What does it look like on the graph?

-Ed

 

[EddNog]

… no-one cares about their history as OEM manufacturer and their organic growth into a people's favorite toy through reasonable customer interaction and technical performance evolution on an acceptable budget for audio lovers.…

As opposed to what, sitting and waiting out for confirmation of something? Or buying from, “better established,” competitors? The competition either costs a lot more money (for example Eversolo) and/or already has an established reputation for poor service/customer service (for example BlueSound or Sonos).

-Ed

 

[Audionaut]

What does it look like on the graph?

-Ed

Flat

Harman

B&K

 

[DTTOM37]

As opposed to what, sitting and waiting out for confirmation of something? Or buying from, “better established,” competitors? The competition either costs a lot more money (for example Eversolo) and/or already has an established reputation for poor service/customer service (for example BlueSound or Sonos).

-Ed

Thanks @EddNog for asking ;-)
... opposed to the next hot thing like Tesla (and in my opion that is more markting than value - in an economic/ecologic sense for the buyer).
This would translate in performace/value for the audio lover.

 

[EddNog]

Flat
View attachment 424588

Harman
View attachment 424589

B&K
View attachment 424590

So are you talking about the attempted boost around ~180Hz that is likely a room null/wave cancellation and it is attempting to (and failing) to compensate for?

-Ed

 

[StevenSGT98]

As opposed to what, sitting and waiting out for confirmation of something? Or buying from, “better established,” competitors? The competition either costs a lot more money (for example Eversolo) and/or already has an established reputation for poor service/customer service (for example BlueSound or Sonos).

-Ed

It works as advertised. It just does what it supposed to do and sounds great doing it. I keep looking for the catch. I haven’t found any. I’ve had mine around 2 months and there have been a good half a dozen updates, making small, but meaningful improvements to its core functionality. That speaks to a mindset that is driven to continue to innovate.

It is well made for what it is. The case is not bespoke with exotic materials. If others want to pay for one that is carved out of platinum and sprinkled with fairy dust, let them.

In the meantime my quest for streaming devices is currently satisfied.

I’m enjoying the music.

 

[EddNog]

It works as advertised. It just does what it supposed to do and sounds great doing it. I keep looking for the catch. I haven’t found any. I’ve had mine around 2 months and there have been a good half a dozen updates, making small, but meaningful improvements to its core functionality. That speaks to a mindset that is driven to continue to innovate.

It is well made for what it is. The case is not bespoke with exotic materials. If others want to pay for one that is carved out of platinum and sprinkled with fairy dust, let them.

In the meantime my quest for streaming devices is currently satisfied.

I’m enjoying the music.

For the most part, I am the same. I wish it were capable of outputting DSD natively, but I totally understand that it is too much of a hassle to deal with because it would completely bypass all DSP processing including digital volume control, so it is WAY easier for them to just convert it to PCM and call it a day. I also wish the room correction were more advanced (more advanced filtering that compensates for time/phase issues, a toggle to disable attempts to boost nulls).

But for the price, I'm not expecting those things.

-Ed