Hi-Fi: in praise of WiiM.

[raleighnut]

I didn't realise production had been switched to China. 🥲

Yep from 1995 when Peters son Ross Walker sold off the company to what eventually became IAG along with Mission and Wharfdale, My 44 Pre was one of the last products made in Huntingdon
International Audio Group also own Leak, Audiolab, Luxman, Castle, and many other companies names/products..............All made in China.

 

[laurentian]

Thanks. I hadn't realised that.

Tidal worth looking at as well for the same money

 

[Electric_Andy]

it has various streaming options, including Spotify

Out of interest, how does one browse through spotify without a screen? I mean, I use it on my phone which obviously has quite a big screen. but I've seen some streaming players with a tiny screen, surely you don't look at that and connect to e.g. a PC?

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Out of interest, how does one browse through spotify without a screen? I mean, I use it on my phone which obviously has quite a big screen. but I've seen some streaming players with a tiny screen, surely you don't look at that and connect to e.g. a PC?

Are they controlled by dial, I wonder?

 

[Drago]

Can you not talk to it like Amazon Music?

 

[Dadam]

Spotify Lossless is really very good and a bit of a step up from 320kbps. Guzzles data so probably not good for other than listening via WiFi.

Genuine question with no agenda. Can you tell the difference? I'm curious.

On occasion I (tell myself that I) can discern between my my normal rip of 256kbps variable bitrate MP3 and FLAC, or between Apple's normal quality and their Lossless, but personally I wouldn't bet my house on it. When I dived into MP3 in a big way around the y2k, I read about a double blind study that said the vast majority of folks could not tell the difference when listening on $10K worth of kit, between 256kbps constant bitrate and CD.

 

[albion]

There are some quite good budget speakers with amp, dac and wifi bluetooth.
At my age, my ears are less discerning.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Genuine question with no agenda. Can you tell the difference? I'm curious.

On occasion I (tell myself that I) can discern between my my normal rip of 256kbps variable bitrate MP3 and FLAC, or between Apple's normal quality and their Lossless, but personally I wouldn't bet my house on it. When I dived into MP3 in a big way around the y2k, I read about a double blind study that said the vast majority of folks could not tell the difference when listening on $10K worth of kit, between 256kbps constant bitrate and CD.

Yes, I can, but...

A bit (no pun intended!) surprised tbh, as I was very sceptical plus my 69 year old ears are not what they used to be.

We listen to contemporary pop, pop-dance and edm.

I listened to a number of favourites from each genre and some exhibited a number of small musical sounds & vocal noises that I had not noticed before. NB: I am not overly focussed on sound quality in an obsessive way, I just listen to the music. The extra sounds etc, were noticed 'naturally' and were mainly in the mid and higher range.

Was the difference night and day? No. Would it be worth paying extra for? Depends how much for such a marginal difference. It wouldn't bother me switching back to 320kbps, tbh.

With Spotify Premium there is no extra cost, so why not have it?

 

[albion]

Years ago I bought my first CD player for its high quality Dac. But when I bought Pink Floyds dsotm my overplayed vinyl version sounded so much better.

 

[FishFright]

Yes, I can, but...

A bit (no pun intended!) surprised tbh, as I was very sceptical plus my 69 year old ears are not what they used to be.

We listen to contemporary pop, pop-dance and edm.

I listened to a number of favourites from each genre and some exhibited a number of small musical sounds & vocal noises that I had not noticed before. NB: I am not overly focussed on sound quality in an obsessive way, I just listen to the music. The extra sounds etc, were noticed 'naturally' and were mainly in the mid and higher range.

Was the difference night and day? No. Would it be worth paying extra for? Depends how much for such a marginal difference. It wouldn't bother me switching back to 320kbps, tbh.

With Spotify Premium there is no extra cost, so why not have it?

The majority of those styles have been through the volume maximiser path and lose all the dynamic range and sound much the same what ever the format. See The Volume Wars for what happened

For example dynamic range intact vs volume max'd

The Nick Cave track AB'd MP3 vs Flac is night and day different but the modern style EDM is much harder to tell apart.

 

[FishFright]

Years ago I bought my first CD pkayer for its high quality Dac. But when I bought Pink Floyds dsotm my overplayed vinyl version sounded so much better.

Music of that era was mixed for the character of vinyl so tend to sound nicer off vinyl .

As an aside the remaster for modern digital equipment sounds dreadful to me on the louder and/or more dense tracks

 

[Profpointy]

Genuine question with no agenda. Can you tell the difference? I'm curious.

On occasion I (tell myself that I) can discern between my my normal rip of 256kbps variable bitrate MP3 and FLAC, or between Apple's normal quality and their Lossless, but personally I wouldn't bet my house on it. When I dived into MP3 in a big way around the y2k, I read about a double blind study that said the vast majority of folks could not tell the difference when listening on $10K worth of kit, between 256kbps constant bitrate and CD.

I was once given a demo of MP3 vs CD quality, versus studio master quality, all streamed from a hard drive via a very very expensive set up. I think the amps alone were £60k of Naim kit. OK I can't vouch for exactly matched levels done with instruments - which matters a lot - but my impressions was being surprised how good the lossy and much maligned MP3 was, even though CD quality was noticeably better. I was also surprised how small the gap was between CD standard and studio master standard. Yes I could tell, but it was by no means a big difference.

 

[albion]

Music of that era was mixed for the character of vinyl so tend to sound nicer off vinyl .

Well, considering digital back then used the analogue master tape, the losses involved look massive.
I sense 'character' these digital days thus has to be a compensation for 'loss'.

 

[raleighnut]

The majority of those styles have been through the volume maximiser path and lose all the dynamic range and sound much the same what ever the format. See The Volume Wars for what happened

For example dynamic range intact vs volume max'd

The Nick Cave track AB'd MP3 vs Flac is night and day different but the modern style EDM is much harder to tell apart.

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View attachment 797645

Yeah it is a shame when a format that has a vast dynamic range is not utilised correctly, about the only artist I like/listen to/own is Roger Waters who does use quiet passages. There is a guy in America who 're-masters' old Analogue recordings called Gus Skinas but he converts everything to DSD* then can digitally convert that to CD getting a much better sound and a friend/business partner (Paul McGowan of PS audio) makes a D/A converter that digitally converts CD/Streaming audio to DSD before then converting that to an audio signal.............pricey though.

DSD is a development of Sony's SACD format that ultimately failed, it is simply a different way of digitally storing audio signals that is much closer to analogue signal.

 

[laurentian]

Out of interest, how does one browse through spotify without a screen? I mean, I use it on my phone which obviously has quite a big screen. but I've seen some streaming players with a tiny screen, surely you don't look at that and connect to e.g. a PC?

You still use your phone or tablet as you would with Spotify (or Qobuz or Tidal etc etc.) Rather than streaming via bluetooth, the phone is connected to the streamer via WiFi