WiiM Ultra Streamer Preamp Review

[JoshK]

Yes, I'll admit I wasted my money if my saying so vindicates your opinion.

In fact I generally use the WiiM Ultra to access my 'popular' i.e. non-classical, music files. I may subscribe to a streaming service at some point in the medium term in which case I'll likely use the Ultra.

I will qualify my statement by first saying, I just bought a WiiM Ultra but haven't used it yet due to my system needing some repairs to the CDs...but will soon.

Previously, I used my PS Audio DirectStream DAC with the Bridge II. I have my collection of >5,000 albums on my NAS (which was recently damaged...that is another story). But I had a UPnP server running on the NAS and I used LUMIN for control. I like some classical, but most of my collection is not.

Since WiiM is UPnP compatible, could you use that type of interface, e.g. Lumin to control the playback? Generally asking, as I haven't confirmed yet. I am going to be disappointed if it can't as I was assuming it could.

For myself, I don't want a computer in my living room. My NAS is in my office and so I need an Ethernet > Digital output "bridge" which is a streamer for me. However, I do subscribe to Spotify and use it a lot because I am an avid listener of new music, listening to ~100 new albums a year at minimum and only a portion of these will I ever buy, so it is very useful in this case. Also my SO uses Spotify a lot as well.

 

[Soniclife]

Yes, a fool and his money, right?

I'll conclude by saying that the WiiM Ultra and "streamers" in general for all but the most causal listeners are not a great deal. Most of us would be better off with a cheap Windows computer or a Raspberry Pi plus an inexpensive DAC than a streamer at any price.

Did you try LMS, which wiim supports?

Beginner's Guide to classical music on LMS - Lyrion Music Server

lyrion.org

 

[Gorgonzola]

Did you try LMS, which wiim supports?

Beginner's Guide to classical music on LMS - Lyrion Music Server

lyrion.org

Thank you. LMS looks interesting and I will check it at an early opportunity. That's true based on the comments on page you linked for me. I'd been off to a good start given my Classical library is already meticulously tagged.

Does LMS run on the WiiM Ultra itself? THIS page implies that it does but it's not absolutely clear. I have a Synology NAS but I'm told that the LMS not longer runs on the later Synology OSs. I guess "Lyrion Music Server" is a direct descendent of Logitech Media Server.

 

[Gorgonzola]

I believe this is a statement which absolutely requires the attachment of “in my opinion”.

Apart from anything else, your main gripe was with it not including a search for composers for classical music. The majority of people never stream classical music, so I’m not sure you can just wave them away as being only casual listeners.

Does it really need to be said more clearly? Of course it's "in my opinion".

I apologized to WiiM enthusiasts. It seems my comments have generated a lot of hate (or at least distain) from them and I'm sorry about that.

 

[Soniclife]

I'm assuming the LMS (server) runs on the Ultra itself based on the the assertion on THIS page. I guess "Lyrion Music Server" is a direct descendent of Logitech Media Server.

I don't use LMS so I might be wrong, but I think it runs on a PC, you use that PC or a smart phone app to select music that's then pushed over the network to the Wiim.

Getting Started with LMS - Lyrion Music Server

lyrion.org

 

[mlsstl]

Thank you. LMS looks interesting and I will check it at an early opportunity. That's true based on the comments on page you linked for me. I'd been off to a good start given my Classical library is already meticulously tagged.

Does LMS run on the WiiM Ultra itself? THIS page implies that it does but it's not absolutely clear. I have a Synology NAS but I'm told that the LMS not longer runs on the later Synology OSs. I guess "Lyrion Music Server" is a direct descendent of Logitech Media Server.

I've used LMS for about 20 years now.

LMS is basically divided into two parts -- the server portion and the player portion, the later which is normally called Squeezelite. The Wiim players do not function as an LMS server, but they can run as a player. So, you'd need a computer on which to run the LMS server. This can run as a program on any standard PC or laptop -- there are LMS server programs available for Windows, Apple and Linux.

A popular option is to set up a Raspberry Pi board as a dedicated LMS server, using the piCorePlayer OS. The pCP software can be setup three ways -- server only, player only, or both. The Pro, Pro+ and Ultra WiiMs can all be used as Squeezelite players with any LMS server setup. The LMS setup has a somewhat more sophisticated music management system than the WiiM app.

The nice thing for me is that LMS and the WiiM app can operate side-by-side. If you are building a play queue that requires some sophistication, LMS works great. Then my wife walks in and wants to use the WiiM voice remote to play her music and she doesn't have to undo anything I've done -- just pick up the remote, punch the voice button and tell WiiM what she wants and it's there. You get the best of both systems.

 

[JoshK]

I used to run LMS ages ago when I had a bunch of Squeezeboxes, then I went to UPnP. Basically, it works the same way AFAIK. You have the Server and the player. In my case, I had the UPnP server running on my NAS where my music is and the player (LUMIN in this case) I setup a few places including an android tablet (again resisting computer in LR).

LMS was pretty nice actually and UPnP had a slightly higher learning curve, but I switched because more devices were going to UPnP at the time when Logitech quit the biz.

 

[rgruber]

No this simply isn't true.

I've used a Raspberry Pi for years before buying a WiiM ultra. It's fine and a fun project but it takes a certain level of technical sophistication that most people don't have and the experience while good is no match for a polished product like the WiiM.

It seems like " the most casual listeners" is doing a lot of work in your sentence.

What exactly distinguishes the "casual listener" from a presumably "serious" listener? Is it the genre of music they listen to? If the files are are stored or streamed? How much time they spend listening? Some combination of these?

Can't help but hear a bit of music snobbery in your assessment.

I think most people are actually quite well served by a WiiM. Better in fact than much more expensive options due to entirely competent tech specs and really well done software. You aren't tied to your computer and something like the Ultra can live in a livingroom home stereo setup comfortably and be used by less sophisticated members of the household who just want to play some music. To say nothing of the room correction and PEQ which make more of a difference in actual sound coming from the speakers than much pricier, esoteric and dubious audiophile improvements.

The people who aren't well served by WiiM have very distinct needs and likely know who they are.

They either want a more robust feature set or better electronics (if these would be audible is debatable) and they would be better served by a more sophisticated and likely custom solution.

Yes, a fool and his money, right?

I'll conclude by saying that the WiiM Ultra and "streamers" in general for all but the most causal listeners are not a great deal. Most of us would be better off with a cheap Windows computer or a Raspberry Pi plus an inexpensive DAC than a streamer at any price.

 

[Sokel]

No this simply isn't true.

I've used a Raspberry Pi for years before buying a WiiM ultra. It's fine and a fun project but it takes a certain level of technical sophistication that most people don't have and the experience while good is no match for a polished product like the WiiM.

It seems like " the most casual listeners" is doing a lot of work in your sentence.

What exactly distinguishes the "casual listener" from a presumably "serious" listener? Is it the genre of music they listen to? If the files are are stored or streamed? How much time they spend listening? Some combination of these?

Can't help but hear a bit of music snobbery in your assessment.

I think most people are actually quite well served by a WiiM. Better in fact than much more expensive options due to entirely competent tech specs and really well done software. You aren't tied to your computer and something like the Ultra can live in a livingroom home stereo setup comfortably and be used by less sophisticated members of the household who just want to play some music. To say nothing of the room correction and PEQ which make more of a difference in actual sound coming from the speakers than much pricier, esoteric and dubious audiophile improvements.

The people who aren't well served by WiiM have very distinct needs and likely know who they are.

They either want a more robust feature set or better electronics (if these would be audible is debatable) and they would be better served by a more sophisticated and likely custom solution.

Instead of an answer have a look at a simple search at ONE playlist just for Verdi :

No one invalidates streamers, is just the sheer volume that makes them incapable.
And then is this:

There's nothing like the "instant" .

About cost, a headless 10 yo win machine configured nicely and hidden away will do, the rest you can do by your tablet, phone, etc at direct com through wi-fi, etc with the addition of couple of components.
All that is so personal that debates makes no sense.

 

[Gorgonzola]

I've used LMS for about 20 years now.

LMS is basically divided into two parts -- the server portion and the player portion, the later which is normally called Squeezelite. The Wiim players do not function as an LMS server, but they can run as a player. So, you'd need a computer on which to run the LMS server. This can run as a program on any standard PC or laptop -- there are LMS server programs available for Windows, Apple and Linux.

A popular option is to set up a Raspberry Pi board as a dedicated LMS server, using the piCorePlayer OS. The pCP software can be setup three ways -- server only, player only, or both. The Pro, Pro+ and Ultra WiiMs can all be used as Squeezelite players with any LMS server setup. The LMS setup has a somewhat more sophisticated music management system than the WiiM app.

The nice thing for me is that LMS and the WiiM app can operate side-by-side. If you are building a play queue that requires some sophistication, LMS works great. Then my wife walks in and wants to use the WiiM voice remote to play her music and she doesn't have to undo anything I've done -- just pick up the remote, punch the voice button and tell WiiM what she wants and it's there. You get the best of both systems.

Thank you, this is interesting and helpful. It so happens I have both a Raspberry Pi4 and a box with Linux ... great to have options. Perhaps I'll fool around and get some thing working.

 

[Gorgonzola]

No this simply isn't true.

I've used a Raspberry Pi for years before buying a WiiM ultra. It's fine and a fun project but it takes a certain level of technical sophistication that most people don't have and the experience while good is no match for a polished product like the WiiM.

It seems like " the most casual listeners" is doing a lot of work in your sentence.

What exactly distinguishes the "casual listener" from a presumably "serious" listener? Is it the genre of music they listen to? If the files are are stored or streamed? How much time they spend listening? Some combination of these?

Can't help but hear a bit of music snobbery in your assessment.

I think most people are actually quite well served by a WiiM. Better in fact than much more expensive options due to entirely competent tech specs and really well done software. You aren't tied to your computer and something like the Ultra can live in a livingroom home stereo setup comfortably and be used by less sophisticated members of the household who just want to play some music. To say nothing of the room correction and PEQ which make more of a difference in actual sound coming from the speakers than much pricier, esoteric and dubious audiophile improvements.

The people who aren't well served by WiiM have very distinct needs and likely know who they are.

They either want a more robust feature set or better electronics (if these would be audible is debatable) and they would be better served by a more sophisticated and likely custom solution.

Golly! Some folks seem to read in a lot to what other people say. Apology if I sounded snobbish or condescending, it wasn't my intention.

But then what you say supports the idea that Wiim is useful on account of its simplicity to a wider range of people ... not so different from what I was implying.

 

[harkpabst]

Golly! Some folks seem to read in a lot to what other people say. Apology if I sounded snobbish or condescending, it wasn't my intention.

But then what you say supports the idea that Wiim is useful on account of its simplicity to a wider range of people ... not so different from what I was implying.

That doesn't sound like an apology at all. It still sounds patronizing and condescending.

And please, don't tell me it does not. I'm just telling you how you come across to others, not how you feel or how you intend to be seen.

 

[pieterv1]

I have a Synology NAS but I'm told that the LMS not longer runs on the later Synology OSs.

Who is telling you? You should be able to run the latest version with Docker on your NAS

It so happens I have both a Raspberry Pi4 and a box with Linux

No need for the Raspberry Pi as the Ultra should be picked up as an endpoint by the LMS server.

 

[Yorkshire Mouth]

Does it really need to be said more clearly? Of course it's "in my opinion".

In this case, yes absolutely. Because you went on to discuss the proportion of potential owners for which your comments were relevant. Incorrectly.

It’s not a case of upsetting WiiM owners. I don’t if you like or dislike what I own.

It’s the misinformation that’s causing the problem.

 

[Gorgonzola]

Who is telling you? You should be able to run the latest version with Docker on your NAS

No need for the Raspberry Pi as the Ultra should be picked up as an endpoint by the LMS server.

I'll check again about running LMS on my Synology NAS. Two or three years ago I was told by member on another forum that LMS was no longer support by the Synology OS but that situation might have changed.

 

[Gorgonzola]

In this case, yes absolutely. Because you went on to discuss the proportion of potential owners for which your comments were relevant. Incorrectly.

It’s not a case of upsetting WiiM owners. I don’t if you like or dislike what I own.

It’s the misinformation that’s causing the problem.

The whole situation vis-à-vis my original post has gotten out of hand IMO. In the post I described my circumstance and I thought I had made it clear the I was speaking specifically for my circumstances, in particular as a mainly Classical music listener. It was & remains always just my opinion.

It turns out that various WiiM proponents took my comments in the worst possible way and seem pretty butt-sore about them. I have offer an apology which some at least have rejected. Sorry, but that's on them, not me.

 

[Yorkshire Mouth]

The whole situation vis-à-vis my original post has gotten out of hand IMO. In the post I described my circumstance and I thought I had made it clear the I was speaking specifically for my circumstances, in particular as a mainly Classical music listener. It was & remains always just my opinion.

It turns out that various WiiM proponents took my comments in the worst possible way and seem pretty butt-sore about them. I have offer an apology which some at least have rejected. Sorry, but that's on them, not me.

Again, you've ignored the point. I don't care if you hate or love WiiM. No skin off my nose.

But this is audio science review, and you should expect to be pulled up if you're factually inaccurate.

I don't accept your apology for upsetting me 'as a WiiM fan', for the simple reason that, as such, no apology is necessary.

However, if you want to apologise for inaccurately saying that the issues with composer tags only affects 'casual listeners', when most people aren't streaming classical music, then I'll gladly and graciously accept that.

For what it's worth, I think it'd be great if WiiM could incorporate more tags, such as composer, to broaden the usage base.

 

[Gorgonzola]

However, if you want to apologise for inaccurately saying that the issues with composer tags only affects 'casual listeners', when most people aren't streaming classical music, then I'll gladly and graciously accept that.

For what it's worth, I think it'd be great if WiiM could incorporate more tags, such as composer, to broaden the usage base.Fine then: I wil1apologize for saying the lack of 'Composer' tags handling affects only "casual listeners".

Fine: I very glad to apologize for referring to "casual listener", a bad choice of words on my part.

My fundamental complaint is the lack of flexibility of the 'Browse' function of the WiiM Home app, (including the lack of 'Composer'). Come that, the same lack flexibility is common to most streaming services as well. Thus my basis for preferring a player such as Foobar2000 that provides much more browse flexibility. Foobar2000 doesn't run on WiiM Ultra so I personally prefer PC and recommend it for listeners -- casual or otherwise -- who want more browse flexibility.

I regret being the cause of such acrimony and this is the end of it for me.

 

[JoshK]

....

For what it's worth, I think it'd be great if WiiM could incorporate more tags, such as composer, to broaden the usage base.

Tags would be good.

 

[Yorkshire Mouth]

Fine: I very glad to apologize for referring to "casual listener", a bad choice of words on my part.

Very gracious of you, accepted in full.

My fundamental complaint is the lack of flexibility of the 'Browse' function of the WiiM Home app, (including the lack of 'Composer'). Come that, the same lack flexibility is common to most streaming services as well. Thus my basis for preferring a player such as Foobar2000 that provides much more browse flexibility. Foobar2000 doesn't run on WiiM Ultra so I personally prefer PC and recommend it for listeners -- casual or otherwise -- who want more browse flexibility.

I regret being the cause of such acrimony and this is the end of it for me.

Not at all, you're well within your rights to bring that up. Whilst classical listening is a minority, it's a sizeable minority, and it should be addressed.

Have you considered raising a ticket.

I'll tell you a true story. A while ago I noticed a very slight glitch in the library search. If you insteted an apostrophe (example, searching for the track I Won't Let You Down Again), WiiM's search engine offered no results. It would show results up to including the point where you'd typed in I Won, and I Won't Let You Down Again was there. But as soon as you hit the apostrophe, everything disappeared.

I raised a ticket, and within 10 days:

Please review the app update release notes below. If you encounter any issues, feel free to reach out to us.

App Release Version
v3.1.3

The Android version has been released. The iOS version is currently under review by the App Store. Stay tuned for updates!

What's New:

1. Per-Source Group Audio Delay: Each input source now supports separate group audio delay adjustments in the Audio Input Settings.
2. External Microphone Calibration File: Calibration files can be imported to improve Room Correction accuracy.
3. Fixed Volume Prompt: A prompt has been added to help prevent sudden, unexpected volume changes.

Bug Fixes:

1. QNAP Indexing Issue: Addressed an issue that prevented indexing all music files on QNAP Music Server.
2. Custom URL Playback Issue: Corrected playback problems caused by URLs containing spaces.
3. Queue Playback Issue: Fixed a bug that stopped tracks from playing after being reordered in the queue.
4. [iOS] USB Search Issue: Resolved a problem where searches using the single quote (') character returned no results.
5. [Android] Track Highlight Issue: Improved stability of the playing track highlight to eliminate flashing.
6. General Fixes: Various performance improvements and bug fixes.

WiiM Home App v3.1.3 Update - Feb 17, 2025

Please review the app update release notes below. If you encounter any issues, feel free to reach out to us. App Release Version v3.1.3 The Android version has been released. The iOS version is currently under review by the App Store. Stay tuned for updates! What's New: 1. Per-Source Group...

forum.wiimhome.com

So it's worth asking.