Well, each case is different. The A8 doesn't have a phono, it has a beautiful screen. The final point I think, and since you have both, you can say, is that there is no difference in sound quality. That's already won my day. Because I've been reading a lot about the A8 and I always had doubts about the sound quality. And now you're saying that you don't see any difference. So the WiiM suits me very well and has a phono and costs... simply 6x less.... I think the A8 is beautiful. If it had a phono input, I'd even be tempted to pay for one...
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WiiM Ultra
- Thread starter MKR
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The question was what more they could do and I offered an opinion on my own use case. It still had enough that I bought it.
The issue for me is that I have the optical input being tied up with an Airplay device, so if I want to connect a computer digitally, I have to use a switch box on top of an adapter. A USB input is, for me, is the one thing that is noticeably missing (outside of Airplay). That being said, I found workarounds via outboard DACs, preamp, etc. (luckily, I had everything already in the house, so it didn't cost me anything extra to make it compatible with all the stuff in my office)
As I said, for a lot of people, the number of ports in it now are overkill. If I used this as a headphone setup in the living room, I would only need Amazon Music, a pair of headphones, and the Ultra and be perfectly happy.
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Saponetto
Active Member
Just dropped to 327 Eur on AMZ...
No.
Yes, but why? - surely if your source is a laptop, you don't need a streamer.
Oh, and if you do bear in mind the Wiim doesn't have USB input, so you will need to go in on the optical input. If you don't have optical out on your laptop, then you'd want a USB to optical converter <£$30.
BrooklynNick
Active Member
I hear no difference at all between the Ultra and the Pro Plus.
A pentacon (4.4mm) headphone output would be handy. They are becoming very common. Having a low/medium/high gain setting for the headphone output would also be useful. I'm assuming that the headphone output already measures to be transparent, but if not, that would be nice too.
A pentacon (4.4mm) headphone output would be handy. They are becoming very common. Having a low/medium/high gain setting for the headphone output would also be useful. I'm assuming that the headphone output already measures to be transparent, but if not, that would be nice too.
This is more than a steamer. A WiiM Mini is more of a streamer, this one has a lot of other use cases.
Jkdjedi
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I'm so stoked over this thing I ordered a amp (Emotiva) to complement the thing. It will replace the integrated (Denon ) receiver.
sealpin
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simply because I use my KH120 on my Laptop as sound device for business with a scarlett solo USB interface.
And if I want to take advantage of all streaming stuff and my music on my NAS I cannot do so on my business laptop - limitations of my business laptop (our IT dept. is quite restrictive - no private use allowed).
So if I could use the WiiM Ultra as interface for Laptop audio plus I could switch to my music on the WiiM using the same speakers (they are privat owned so is the scrarlett) it would be a small use case ...
USB A.
What does it do, that a laptop (Plus a DAC) cant?
(EDIT : assuming the laptop is not a locked down device belonging to someone else
)
Got it. Makes sense in this case.
input for a phono, input for other analog you might want to send it (Radio),input for optical in (CD player). It also comes with a remote for just telling it what you want to hear on services like Amazon/Spotify. No fan noise (which some laptops are known for).What does it do, that a laptop (Plus a DAC) cant?
(EDIT : assuming the laptop is not a locked down device belonging to someone else
There are also issues with some apps sending out hi res from a computer. The Ultra has a digital or analog input for your phone/iPad that allows hi res from a source like Apple Music. I believe Amazon had that same issue (no hi res) on the Mac and no bit rate switching on the fly. No such issue on the Ultra. Not sure about Windows. I have an Alienware laptop with loud fans, so would not use if for audio.
The use case discussed was having the laptop as the source.
We interpreted it differently . He asked if he could use it with a laptop. I didn't see where that was his only source. I use mine with a computer, but its not my only source.
As an unrelated side note, I connected the Ultra to my TV via HDMI. Since the TV has Airplay built in, I can stream to it and get Airplay to the Ultra via ARC. It sends out 24/48, so I am not sure if that is what it is being sent or if it is converting it (my guess is that it believes the TV is an AppleTV, so sending out 24/48, but no way for me to check). The TV will show album art, so that could make up for the lack of it on the Ultra.
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staticV3
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The Ultra does not support eARC, so sould only be able to receive 16bit audio via HDMI.
somebodyelse
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That's not an ARC limitation, and I'd be surprised if the Ultra failed to announce the capability for higher sample rates and bit depths. Do you have a source for this?
staticV3
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My LG OLED E7N outputs 24bit audio via Toslink, but truncated 16bit audio via ARC.
From what I can tell, the ARC specification does not specify bit depths higher than 16bit.
The read out on the Ultra shows 24/48.
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