I’m just going to lay all my cards on the table: it feels awkward to me that, nearly five years into my tenure with SoundStage! Access, I’ve never reviewed a bit of WiiM gear. It feels a bit akin to running a publication about affordable Belgian-style saisons without ever mentioning Hennepin Farmhouse Ale, or about the best e-readers without talking about Kobo. For a while now, I’ve almost felt like doing my first WiiM review at this point would make things more awkward by shining a light on my negligence to date. But at some point, you have to stop letting awkwardness be justification for continued awkwardness and just do the thing. And the new WiiM Amp Ultra (US$529, CA$749, £499, €599) seems as good a motivation as any for finally ripping off the adhesive bandage.
Of course, despite this being my first hands-on experience with WiiM gear, I’m not going in uninformed or unbiased. A lot of people whose opinions I respect love the company’s stuff. I’ve seen the measurements of the previous amps in the lineup and know WiiM delivers incredible bang for the buck. That doesn’t mean there were no surprises to be had during the unboxing experience. And the first was just how classy the packaging is for the Amp Ultra.
Classy and informative. I like the fact that in addition to the alphabet soup of streaming service logos, the box also clearly spells out what this thing is, what it does, what connections it has, and what formats it supports. It’s proof that you don’t have to dumb things down for general audiences, nor do you have to skimp on niceties when delivering a product at a super-attainable price.
WiiM even maintains the swanky look and feel inside the box, presenting the Amp Ultra almost more like a phone or tablet than a hi-fi device. That means, of course, there’s not as much utilitarian-looking padding. No EPE or EPS foam anywhere to be seen. But then again, at 2.45kg (5.4 pounds), this little amp doesn’t need a whole lot of shock absorption around it. And the slight scuffing you see as a result of the top of the amp rubbing against the top of the carton in transit only mars the protective plastic wrap around the amp, not the unit itself.
As you might have guessed from the emblems, the two boxes flanking the Amp Ultra are packed with accessories. The one on the left contains a really nice HDMI cable, beefy RCA interconnects, and a TosLink cable that’s simultaneously thick and flexible.
The box on the right contains the fully featured and voice-capable remote, the charging cable for said remote, a three-pronged power cord, and four banana-plug adapter/binding posts, in case your speaker cables aren’t already terminated with nanners. That does shine a light on the fact that speakers and speaker cables are really the only things you need to bring to the party to get the Ultra up and running.
Underneath the amp itself, there’s a chunky instruction manual, although its girth is a little deceptive, since the complete instructions are repeated tenfold in as many different languages (English, French, Spanish, German, Japanese, Korean, Finnish, Swedish, Italian, and Polish), with each language getting only 14 pages of text, and that includes all the regulatory stuff.
Granted, that’s all you really need, even if I wish WiiM had dedicated a couple fewer pages to specifications and a couple more to things like how the optional binding posts work and why you might want to use them, if only to prepare the uninitiated.
Out of its plastic wrapping, the WiiM Amp Ultra is a striking little piece of kit, especially with its glossy screen and matte space-gray top finish. It doesn’t look too dissimilar from other compact amps I’ve reviewed recently, such as the Marantz Model M1 and NAD C 700 V2. At first glance, at least, it seems every bit as well-built and well-designed despite costing significantly less than either of those.
The back panel is just as nice, and is delightfully economical and thoughtful in its layout. So far, I’m super-impressed. And you can see here how those binding-post adapters slot into the built-in banana ports, should you need them.
Here’s a closer look from a different angle, in which you can also see the USB-C charging port on the bottom of the voice-capable remote. I’m not sure if the internal rechargeable battery is replaceable—and note to self: research that before digging into the full review. I hope it is, because I hate e-waste with all my heart, and I’m a big proponent of right to repair.
But so far, that’s my only concern. I’m itching to get this thing hooked up and put it through its paces, because if it performs as well as it looks, and if it lives up to the company’s reputation, this thing is a serious threat to the old guard in this space. And there are few things in this world I love more than legitimate threats to existing power structures.
. . . Dennis Burger
dennisb@soundstagenetwork.com
