Seems unlikely, as they've noted there would be beta testing of the unit.I wonder if May 9 will also available for purchase at Amazon.
Seems unlikely, as they've noted there would be beta testing of the unit.I wonder if May 9 will also available for purchase at Amazon.
Wouldn't producing multiple versions of the Ultra effect costs as well?Wiim should have multiple version of this device to cater to those who want it and don’t want. Every features get added it drives the cost. Display which in my case I won’t use since I’m 15 feet away and 3.5 inch screen is tiny. Analog input, I don’t use those since I’m using nothing but digital. Only matters digital in/out usb and sub out.
AVR has those bass management feature. What I want to see is a sophisticated bass management similar setting on mini dsp. Mini dsp has heaven of tweaking you can use with many choice of such as butterworth, linkwitz Riley among other thing, delay, gain and separate high and low pass. This where I am willing to pay extra.
I'm excited for this and it was only a few months ago I was saying to someone that if wiim make a sreamer with a screen like the top dogs do I will100% buy it. Aslong as they can stick to their philosophy of keeping price down and quality/features up thats why i voted £349. I love my wiim pro and it's one of the best purchases I've made for my hifi.
Plus if you go back to old posts since the mini where people have been asking for new features, I’d say USB out and a screen have been the most common requests. So WiiM are reacting to the community rather than merely matching competitorsI think the main reason for having a screen is that the top competitors tend to have one. It’s saying “We can do as well as them at half the price!” and removed the possibility of the competition saying “Yeah, but there’s doesn’t have a screen” as an excuse for charging double.
At 5500 it's not really a competitorHere’s the competition at Munich.
How much? Scroll down for price.
NAD Announces Masters M66 BluOS Streaming DAC-Preamplifier
Ahead of the High End Munich show in Germany (May 18-21) and of its retail launch, NAD Electronics announced the Masters M66 BluOS Streaming DAC-Preamplifier, a new no-compromise flagship component, so advanced, it represents an entirely new category of hi-fi separates. The M66 offers...audioxpress.com
That was last yearHere’s the competition at Munich.
How much? Scroll down for price.
NAD Announces Masters M66 BluOS Streaming DAC-Preamplifier
Ahead of the High End Munich show in Germany (May 18-21) and of its retail launch, NAD Electronics announced the Masters M66 BluOS Streaming DAC-Preamplifier, a new no-compromise flagship component, so advanced, it represents an entirely new category of hi-fi separates. The M66 offers...audioxpress.com
A really old hatThat was last year
Looking and comparing in the price segment up to twice the price will eventually make sense. Bringing devices which sell for 10 times the price is nonsense and populistic. In audio there never was a linear relation that 10 times the price equals 10 times "better". Quite sure many people will be glad with the NAD from last year in between. All the WiiMs perform great within and even a bit above their market segment. They are not build and not able to compete with high end.
And for certain people: History learned us Guerilla tactics are successful for a while. At the end of the day all failed ;-)
"not build and not able to complete with high end" ...Looking and comparing in the price segment up to twice the price will eventually make sense. Bringing devices which sell for 10 times the price is nonsense and populistic. In audio there never was a linear relation that 10 times the price equals 10 times "better". Quite sure many people will be glad with the NAD from last year in between. All the WiiMs perform great within and even a bit above their market segment. They are not build and not able to compete with high end.
And for certain people: History learned us Guerilla tactics are successful for a while. At the end of the day all failed ;-)
I fundamentally disagree. We’ve had this discussion before, but I’d challenge anyone to do a controlled double blind test between that pre amp (sorry I didn’t notice the year) and the Ultra (I accept I’m making presumptions with the latter, though not unreasonable ones).
This is an example of cheaper kit apparently ‘not competing’ with the high end.
What I will concede, the NADs of this world may feel more prestige (nothing wrong with that), and may be more robust - though at the prices we’re discussing, you could probably go through three Ultras and still have plenty of spare change.
Truth is, once in situ, and you’re just used to how something looks, it’s down to sound quality.
Just my opinion.
No chance bringing me on one of the sides, neither the objectivistic nor the surrealistic ;-) The objectivists however seem to be a little bit more under arms.
My approach is clear for me and I accept both sides. But no camp will ever get an endorsement. (I leave that for campaigns in US elections) There is no valid one or the other. Remember, I'm in between.
Totally agree what you say about differences in DACs. Even the "poor" internal in my Pro was good enough. The internal in my new digital is not audible better (connected to the Pro) and so was it with the quite expensive RS2 connected with an amp some people would rank expensive.I take your point.
But ultimately, there’s a clear binary choice. Either you can hear a difference between two transparent DACs or you can’t. There’s no inbetween, no third option.
But yes, ultimately it’s not about one ‘side’ ‘winning’. I know what I know, I’ve tried, I’ve tested (self-performed double blind) between several DACs, and the theories about what constitute transparency are born out by that, and I’ve never seen them contradicted by another controlled test.
So, I’m happy to go with that. And if others aren’t, that’s up to them.
Best wishes.
I'm sure Wiim know what they are doing.If your referring to the dac chip that is no indication on how any unit will sound, what creates a good sounding dac is the power supply and the how they did the output stage. A dac chip from 20yrs ago can sound better than a current one If those two things are done correctly. Don't be fooled by thinking the latest dac chip will sound great. Its power supply and its output stage are more important. Hopefully WIIM considered this rather than just throwing in the latest chip.