WiiM Ultra

[Burnside]

I thought the pro plus also had usb for a usb drive?

No, just the Amp and Ultra so far - I’d guess the imminent Amp Pro and the next model reputed to be a marriage of the Amp Pro and Ultra (the WiiM Amp Ultra??) will have usb support as well.

 

[GiBo61]

Last week I received the Wiim Ultra as an upgrade from my Wiim Pro Plus. The Pro Plus was set to fixed volume and connected to the Sabaj A30a full-digital amplifier (200+200 w on 4 ohm, a little jem) via Toslink. In the new setup the Wiim Ultra acts as a preamp (variable volume), is conneced to the Sabaj via Coax, and I keep the Sabaj volume fixed at 80 (as if it were a power amp). The Martin Logan Dynamo 700w subwoofer is connected to the Wiim Ultra with a crossover frequency of 40-50 Hz (I'm still playing with that). When playing music with the other pair of speakers I have, the Elac Vela BS403, I find a sub crossover frequency of 70 Hz to be OK. Overall I am very happy with both the Sabaj A30a and the Wiim Ultra, obviously the Ultra being the new "toy" I think it sounds better than the Wiim Pro Plus but I am fully aware that is just my imagination. For around €/$ 800 the Sabaj A30a/Wiim Ultra combo is VERY hard to beat. My only concern is leaving the Sabaj with the volume set to 80, if something goes wrong with the Wiim volume when I turn it on I could risk blowing my speakers.

 

[Joffy1780]

Last week I received the Wiim Ultra as an upgrade from my Wiim Pro Plus. The Pro Plus was set to fixed volume and connected to the Sabaj A30a full-digital amplifier (200+200w on 4 Ohm, a little jem) via Toslink. In the new setup the Wiim Ultra acts as a preamp (variable volume), is conneced to the Sabaj via Coax, and I keep the Sabaj volume fixed at 80 (as if it were a power amp). The Martin Logan Dynamo 700w subwoofer is connected to the Wiim Ultra with a crossover frequency of 40-50 Hz (I'm still playing with that). When playing music with the other pair of speakers I have, the Elac Vela BS403, I find a sub crossover frequency of 70Hz to be OK. Overall I am very happy with both the Sabaj A30a and the Wiim Ultra, obviously the Ultra being the new "toy" I think it sounds better than the Wiim Pro Plus but I am fully aware that is just my imagination. For around €/$ 800 the Sabaj A30a/Wiim Ultra combo is VERY hard to beat. My only concern is leaving the Sabaj with the volume set to 80, if something goes wrong with the Wiim volume when I turn it on I could risk blowing my speakers.

View attachment 388934

You can set a max volume limit on your Ultra and give yourself a little peace of mind.

 

[Brian Hall]

If may ask, how did you format your SSD (NTFS, FAT32,...)?
Do you have AIFF music files by any chance?
I'm asking because this is one of the main features for me to consider upgrading from the Pro Plus to the Ultra.
Cheers!

I formatted it as FAT32 on one of my Linux PCs before I copied my ripped CD collection to it. Then just plugged it into the USB port on the Wiim Ultra. When the USB input is selected, there is an option to scan it for new files. The messages make it seem like it completes the scan almost immediately, but it continues scanning for a while.

 

[CT Man]

I have been chromecasting Youtube Music to the Ultra for the past hour with no issues. Not an album, just a long playlist, but no issues. What is crashing? The app or the Ultra?

I'm chromecasting from the Android Youtube Music app. The disadvantage of chromecast is that the album cover/what is playing is not displayed, but the music sounds good.

Before that I was trying out Bluetooth to the Ultra. No issues and it sounded great to me and also displayed the album cover and what is playing. I don't know which codec it was using. Used Youtube Music, Amazon HD, Spotify and Tidal.

I don't think I would be able to tell if I was listening to chromecast, AlexaCast, Spotify Connect or Tidal Connect, or Bluetooth from my phone.They all sound great.

Edited for a correction: Chromecast is showing the album cover and what is playing. I guess there was a delay before it updates.
Edited again: Album display/what is playing is not consistent. Shows for some, not for others.

I can't answer whether Chromecast playback has been crashing since Ultra's release or if it began later with a firmware update. It's been a problem for me since I set up my Ultra. It happens casting from both Roon and Qobuz, perhaps a bit less with Qobuz but that's hard to tell because playback time before crashing varies widely.

As I wrote in my original post, it's Ultra playback that crashes with a transient disconnection. Roon displays "Select an audio zone" for just a moment, then shows the Ultra endpoint again paused mid-track. I assume it's the same disconnect sequence when casting from the Qobuz app but I wasn't watching the app when it happened. Less often in the middle of playback Ultra skips to the next track. I think that most likely also begins as a transient disconnection but I can't confirm.

I hear huge differences casting at 44/16 compared to Bluetooth and Spotify. I think the difference would be obvious to most anyone with well recorded symphonic music on decent speakers. I use my WiiM Pro as a Chromecast endpoint in Roon in a different location and I had the same expectation with Ultra. With Chromecast other users can cast their own music from their own streaming accounts. Just saying use Roon Ready on Ultra until Google responds isn't very comforting without knowing when or if the fix happens. If the Google SDK issue is specific to Ultra the fix could be very low on Google's to-do list.

 

[Brian Hall]

If may ask, how did you format your SSD (NTFS, FAT32,...)?
Do you have AIFF music files by any chance?
I'm asking because this is one of the main features for me to consider upgrading from the Pro Plus to the Ultra.
Cheers!

Forgot to answer the AIFF question. No AIFF files. Everything is FLAC.

 

[Yorkshire Mouth]

Last week I received the Wiim Ultra as an upgrade from my Wiim Pro Plus. The Pro Plus was set to fixed volume and connected to the Sabaj A30a full-digital amplifier (200+200 w on 4 ohm, a little jem) via Toslink. In the new setup the Wiim Ultra acts as a preamp (variable volume), is conneced to the Sabaj via Coax, and I keep the Sabaj volume fixed at 80 (as if it were a power amp). The Martin Logan Dynamo 700w subwoofer is connected to the Wiim Ultra with a crossover frequency of 40-50 Hz (I'm still playing with that). When playing music with the other pair of speakers I have, the Elac Vela BS403, I find a sub crossover frequency of 70 Hz to be OK. Overall I am very happy with both the Sabaj A30a and the Wiim Ultra, obviously the Ultra being the new "toy" I think it sounds better than the Wiim Pro Plus but I am fully aware that is just my imagination. For around €/$ 800 the Sabaj A30a/Wiim Ultra combo is VERY hard to beat. My only concern is leaving the Sabaj with the volume set to 80, if something goes wrong with the Wiim volume when I turn it on I could risk blowing my speakers.

View attachment 388934

After experimenting, I set my PA5ii amp to c.50%, which leaves me running the Ultra at 80-90%. So even if I accidentally moved the Ultra to 100%, whilst it’d be ‘too loud’ (for listening) it’d not be loud enough to damage the speakers.

 

[JaccoW]

How would you set up the WiiM in a setup with a PC over USB and a DAC?

I have a Topping E50 DAC that can play all my local music bit-perfect over ASIO but I would like to be able to use the WiiM as well.

So far I see two options:


So either I do:

1. A: PC > DAC > Streamer > Active Speakers
   • RCA to WiiM
   • RCA to Speakers
2. B: Streamer + PC > DAC > Active Speakers
   • Toslink to DAC
   • RCA to Speakers

One advantage of using the WiiM in the middle is room correction of course but it would mean I have to turn on the device even when I am just watching Youtube.
Phono stage is another question of course. The ones built into the speaker are pretty good for a €500 pair but no idea how the WiiM sounds just yet.

Other devices potentially in the chain are:

• Turntable (Active speakers or WiiM)
• 4K Blu-ray player (Coax or HDMI)
• CD player (Coax or TOSlink)

Ended up going with option B as it turns out EQ also works when sending it to the DAC over coax.

So far it sounds great, though I didn't entirely realize how freaking big this thing is. Turntable is connected to the WiiM but maybe I should try a separate phono preamp some time.

The big updates I am still waiting for is PlexAmp support, room correction for Android and DSD playback. For now the Plex server is in DLNA mode and streams my SA-CDs in PCM as a 16-bit 48 kHz or 24-bit 48kHz file. I need to check if I have any silly DSD 512 files but honestly, those file sizes are way too big for my taste.

For some reason I do not have the VU meter as an option and the rainbow spectrum is a silly animation that does not reflect the music itself (it keeps looping even when playback has stopped).

EDIT: Room correction for Android is already available. Need to do some more testing to figure out which microphone it is using.
VU is still kind of meh, it's basically just jumping in the right most quarter. Maybe because I played DSD files first and the ultrasonic noise is an issue?

 

[Deleted member 71304]

I formatted it as FAT32 on one of my Linux PCs before I copied my ripped CD collection to it. Then just plugged it into the USB port on the Wiim Ultra. When the USB input is selected, there is an option to scan it for new files. The messages make it seem like it completes the scan almost immediately, but it continues scanning for a while.

Thanks a lot!!

 

[uofmtiger]

I saw a thread on Facebook showing the Ultra would work with an iPod via USB. I got my old 160GB iPod out and tried it. Works great, but the album art is mostly a miss. The Ultra can put up album art on some songs, so I don't know if the lack of it with most of my music is the size of the artwork or something else. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see it work.

 

[JaccoW]

Why does Wiim think having a mode that offers fake FR lights would be desired or helpful? It makes me wonder what other technology under the hood is poorly designed and fake. The RME ADI-2 FS DAC gives you the real thing. Maybe they wanted that flavor but didn't know how? So they fake it? Is the VU meter activity also fake. Wiim Motto: FAKE IT UNTIL YOU CAN MAKE IT?

If i can get the VU meter to show up i can tell you soon enough. I have several analog and digital VU devices.

 

[uofmtiger]

If i can get the VU meter to show up i can tell you soon enough. I have several analog and digital VU devices.

I just push the screen to the right to get the VU Meter.

It seems to work, but I wish they would drop the input name from the top of it.

 

[JaccoW]

I just push the screen to the right to get the VU Meter.

It seems to work, but I wish they would drop the input name from the top of it.

Found the issue.

I couldn't understand why I couldn't really change all that many settings. Then I read a line in the release notes:
"It's important to note that the device's firmware version is distinct from the WiiM Home App version"
The same goes for the settings menu.

Sigh... You need to go to Device > Settings (gear icon) and only then do you get the settings of the device itself.

Seems to work fairly well.




Auditool - Pink Noise from Genelec. Shoul

I should try again with another pink noise sample, because this one is cut off as it is an mp3.

 

[p.trianon]

I ran the WiiM RC on my phone and did notice an improvement. This is a problematic room. For those who have used the Umik-1 with your phone how do you do that? Plug it in via USB c and then change something in phone settings to allow it to record with that? I am using android.

 

[antcollinet]

No, just the Amp and Ultra so far

Right you are. It was the amp I'd seen it on.

 

[Owis]

Last week I received the Wiim Ultra as an upgrade from my Wiim Pro Plus. The Pro Plus was set to fixed volume and connected to the Sabaj A30a full-digital amplifier (200+200 w on 4 ohm, a little jem) via Toslink. In the new setup the Wiim Ultra acts as a preamp (variable volume), is conneced to the Sabaj via Coax, and I keep the Sabaj volume fixed at 80 (as if it were a power amp). The Martin Logan Dynamo 700w subwoofer is connected to the Wiim Ultra with a crossover frequency of 40-50 Hz (I'm still playing with that). When playing music with the other pair of speakers I have, the Elac Vela BS403, I find a sub crossover frequency of 70 Hz to be OK. Overall I am very happy with both the Sabaj A30a and the Wiim Ultra, obviously the Ultra being the new "toy" I think it sounds better than the Wiim Pro Plus but I am fully aware that is just my imagination. For around €/$ 800 the Sabaj A30a/Wiim Ultra combo is VERY hard to beat. My only concern is leaving the Sabaj with the volume set to 80, if something goes wrong with the Wiim volume when I turn it on I could risk blowing my speakers.

View attachment 388934

Interesting that you ‘think’ it sounds better than the Pro Plus using digital out. Have you tried using rca out of the WiiM(s) and comparing the DACs?

 

[Abdo]

Interesting that you ‘think’ it sounds better than the Pro Plus using digital out. Have you tried using rca out of the WiiM(s) and comparing the DACs?

this is an interesting discussion.. i dont have the plus.. so i cant say for sure.. but the Ultra when compared to my Cambridge CXN v2 the Camdrigde seems to sound a bit better.. but i have my reservations because the Cambridge processes the file at 384... and its not possible to turn it off and leave both with the same situation. I tried this using Roon.. but it didnt work... so for me.. there is no difference.....

 

[Mort]

I have a Wiim ultra and a SMSL AO300 for my desktop 2.1. The AO300 basically has no subwoofer management.

Can I use the Wiim subwoofer line instead and get the high pass and crossover I want without any timing or other issues with the LR speakers coming out downstream?

 

[Xibal]

this is an interesting discussion.. i dont have the plus.. so i cant say for sure.. but the Ultra when compared to my Cambridge CXN v2 the Camdrigde seems to sound a bit better.. but i have my reservations because the Cambridge processes the file at 384... and its not possible to turn it off and leave both with the same situation. I tried this using Roon.. but it didnt work... so for me.. there is no difference.....

Did you check if it is possible on Wiim Ultra to select a similar upsampling process?

 

[GiBo61]

I have a Wiim ultra and a SMSL AO300 for my desktop 2.1. The AO300 basically has no subwoofer management.

Can I use the Wiim subwoofer line instead and get the high pass and crossover I want without any timing or other issues with the LR speakers coming out downstream?

Yes, please see my previous post (n.1850).