WiiM Ultra streaming preamp

The WiiM platform features extensive support for streaming services—essentially everything except Apple Music—and includes a commendable internet radio function along with Chromecast compatibility. Standard WiiM highlights, such as the ability to utilise your phone’s microphone for EQ adjustments and an excellent Amazon Alexa integration, are also maintained. 

The Ultra is only getting started, though. It is a fully functional preamp that boasts an optical and analogue input, like the Pro and Pro+. The Ultra then sets about adding to this functionality. First up is an HDMI ARC connection for straightforward TV integration. This first appeared on the WiiM Amp, but the implementation here seems considerably more responsive and stable. 

The Vinyl Frontier?

A notably unusual addition is the arrival of a phono stage. This supports both moving magnet and moving coil cartridges, elevating the Ultra to a distinctive product category compared to anything else in a similar price range. In terms of pure functionality (streaming, analogue and digital inputs, on-board EQ), the closest match for the WiiM is the NAD M66, priced at over ten times more. While I won’t claim that everything they do is executed at the same level, it is nonetheless immensely impressive. 

The Ultra also benefits from enhanced casework compared to the smaller Pro and Pro+ models. It shares a similar shape with the WiiM Amp, but represents another step forward. The glossy front with a metal top plate is appealing, and the addition of a touchscreen display is genuinely useful here. It is sufficiently large to serve as a viable point of interaction with the unit, allowing you to adjust functionality on the fly. This is complemented by a physical volume knob, making the Ultra less daunting to use as a preamp than relying solely on a software volume slider. The RCA stereo output is accompanied by a dedicated sub-out, featuring adjustable crossover and EQ settings. Additionally, the Ultra can also function as a streaming transport via optical, coaxial, and USB outputs. 

This offers an extraordinary amount of functionality for the asking price. While I don’t believe the WiiM app is as appealing as some competitors for browsing and interacting with a large music collection, it has demonstrated consistent stability in testing and day-to-day use.

I initially connected the Ultra up to a Cyrus 40 AMP via the RCA outputs to get a handle on the on board decoding. Like a few pieces of affordable digital I have tested in recent times, I found myself making criticisms and then realising that they are being applied to a device that, while pricier than most nights out, has still only reached the level of ‘pleasant weekend away.’ Listening to the Ultra power its way through The Greatest Love, the latest offering from London Grammar [Ministry of Sound], the effect, more than anything else, is to question why you would ‘need’ to spend more. 

With the opening ‘House’, the Ultra showcases the drum and bass-adjacent lower registers with sufficient control, texture, and speed to keep them engaging while ensuring that Hannah Reid’s vocals above it possess the space, clarity, and tonal realism required to capture your attention and anchor the track. It’s not overly flashy; there’s no prioritisation of any part of the frequency response over another, and if you revert decoding back to the Cyrus, there is a noticeable jump in the three-dimensional space, but it remains very listenable. 

Ultra Roon

If you disconnect the RCA connection and ask the WiiM to communicate with the Cyrus via USB, the differences between it and the Roon Nucleus—previously performing the same function—fade into the long grass of subjectivity. This is particularly true once you start using the Ultra as a Roon endpoint. While listening to Hayden Thorpe’s gloriously odd Ness [Domino], one could convincingly argue that the Nucleus exhibits a slightly lower noise floor than the Ultra, which extracts a bit more nuance from this curious collection of tone poems. However, the difference is minimal. It’s unfortunate that the USB output’s addition hasn’t been accompanied by the formidable sample rate handling of the Pro+, but for most available recorded music, the Ultra will serve as an excellent means of connecting those digital input-equipped devices to the outside world. 

You can connect a turntable to it. In this case, I conducted most of the testing with a Pro-Ject Debut Evo2 that was available at the time, and listening to Labi Siffre’s Remember My Song [Mr Bongo] proves it isn’t just ‘good for a streamer digitising the signal on the fly’; it’s a genuinely enjoyable listening experience. Noise levels are impressively low, ensuring that fine details are released from the record, making it sound altogether more dynamic and believable. Connecting a Vertere MG-1 MkII and switching to the moving coil function outperforms expectations. It might be fair to say that high-end phono stage manufacturers needn’t concern themselves quite yet, but equally, if you had told me at the start of the year that I’d be testing a £350 streamer with moving coil cartridge support, I would have thought you were joking; perhaps they don’t have as long as they think they do. 

Evolutionary Leap

What the Ultra does rather well is serve as another evolutionary leap in affordable audio, achieved without burning any bridges. If you seek a line-level streamer to connect to an amplifier, it still leaves most conventional rivals appearing somewhat feature-light. As a USB transport, it operates flawlessly too, providing the type of flexible front end for DACs and digital input boards that users are likely to find extremely easy to live with. 

Finally, there’s the intriguing nature of the next step. When connected to a power amplifier or a pair of active speakers, the WiiM can collate your likely existing inputs, such as a TV and a turntable, and manage them sufficiently well to prompt more than a few people to ask if they truly need anything more. WiiM’s relentless pursuit of affordable digital has expanded into a broader challenge against the entire entry-level audio market, and given the level of performance on display here, it’s very difficult to see them being halted anytime soon. 

Specs & Pricing

Type: Streaming preamp
Analogue Inputs: RCA Stereo pair (line), RCA Stereo pair (phono)
Digital inputs: HDMI ARC, USB-B, Toslink optical S/PDIF, RJ45 Ethernet
Analogue outputs: RCA Stereo pair, subwoofer RCA, 12V trigger
Digital outputs: Coaxial and Toslink optical S/PDIF
Supported Streaming Services: Spotify Connect, Tidal, Qobuz, Amazon Music, Deezer and SoundCloud,
Smart home support: Chromecast Audio, Google, Siri and Alexa,
Internet radio support: TuneIn, iHeartRadio, vTuner and Radio Paradise
Roon Ready
Audio Codecs Supported: MP3, AAC, ALAC, APE, FLAC, WAV, WMA, AIFF, OGG
Analogue Input (ADC): Fixed 192k, 24bit
Memory: 512MB Flash + DRAM
Tone Control:  Adaptive EQ and Graphic Equaliser built-in
Bluetooth Version: Bluetooth 5.3
DAC Chip: Dual ES9038Q2M
App Control WiiM Home
Dimensions (W x H x D): 205 x 205 x 73 mm
Weight: 1.3 kg
Price: £349, $329, €399

Manufacturer WiiM
www.wiimhome.com