Linn Klimax DS renew vs WiiM pro + Rega dac R - sound quality comparison
- Thread starter Musician
- Start date
Yes.
krenzler
pfm Member
I cannot wait.
Toaster
pfm Member
Any details on the design, particularly the bass loading method?
The Klimax DS/0 renew is a very good streamer, maybe one of the worlds best sounding source at 2007 when it came out.
But so apparently is a very cheap one?
WiiM pro on the digital part is bit correct and has a very good digital volumecontrol through spdif with true 24 bit resolution and no sample rate conversion. At least if we trust the many measurements made on the WiiM forum and audiosciencereview. We havent seen this in many devices before, at such low price.
There are probably still a lot of bad streamers in the market, that dont have good digital volume control through spdif, that do sample rate conversion with every material and so on…
You need a separate dac for the WiiM pro, the internal dac dont sound anywhere near as good as a Klimax.
linnfomaniac83
I bet you can’t wheelie a unicycle!
I always thought the Rega DAC was a class leading product… class beating even, it’s a wonderful DAC for the money. However, I had an Akurate DS/0, shortly followed by a Klimax DS/0 “back in the day” along with a Rega DAC which I had for decent TV/Movie sound primarily but did do some comparisons… I had to use a Sneaky DS to feed the Rega DAC because neither the Akurate nor Klimax units had a digital output. The Rega held its own well, sounding different rather than better or worse than the DAC in the Sneaky… the Akurate and Klimax were notably better in turn. It’s hard to quantify the differences without banging on with a load of audiophile cliches… but I’m essence, the Akurate and Klimax units just drew you deeper into the music, the level of separation is just incredible on the Klimax, you can hear all the detail and texture of each individual instrument and drums are rendered with a kind of visceral impact that isn’t often heard outside of a live environment (obviously this depends on the capability of your amplification and speakers). The next generation Klimax, which is what I’m using now just builds on the above. It’s been my primary source for a long time and for a good reason, I just can’t fault it on any area, especially for the £1200 I paid.
One thing I noticed is that the WiiM pro:s app controlling the digital volume regulation sounds slightly better than using TIDALs own volume regulation in the TIDAL app . Is this something that others has recognized ? Is ROON volume regulation sounding better than using the volume control in TIDALs own app ?
A very worthwhile improvement for Linn DS owners is probably to invest in a utopik power supply - very big differences, much bigger than between WiiM pro/Rega Dac R vs Linn klimax DS/0 in this review, at least in my opinion.
So this expensive Linn streamer needs another grand and a half spent on a power supply to make it work properly?
The price is ridiculus high , but it makes a real difference in the sound quality. It would be interesting If a Klimax DS/0 with utopik supply sound better than a Klimax DSM/2 with dynamik. If thats the case, maybe the price seems more reasonable.
Mozart
pfm Member
That’s technically not the case. Asynchronous can and often is bit perfect. The tests have been done with bit checking software.
Fanboy is rather a pejorative term and as explained there, the WiiM devices have been proven to be bit perfect.
TheDecameron
Unicorns fart glitter.
This is what I’d expect to hear. Often when people say they can’t hear much difference between a high end state of the art DAC and a budget one it’s because downstream system components are themselves not good enough. It would be the same with a really fine cartridge- I’ve been there myself. Ultimately though it’s your ears that are the judge and jury, if it doesn’t float your boat trust them and save your hard earned,
linnfomaniac83
I bet you can’t wheelie a unicycle!
To be honest, the Klimax Renew units are pretty excellent value for money now, and you don’t get caught on an upgrade treadmill because there is no upgrade path without replacing the entire unit… you just plug it in and enjoy it for what it is, because what it is a simple but fantastic sounding source.
Fourlegs
Trade: WAVE High Fidelity digital cables
But of course being bit perfect is only part of the story and many other bit perfect devices mostly sound different to each other.
To continue this review, I have managed to get slightly better sound from the WiiM pro used as a digital bridge with a LPS, using a LT1084 regulator . This makes the sound slightly better than using the IPad charger from 2012 as power supply. The difference is very small. Like going from 95% sound quality ( iPad charger ) to 97%. But I prefere the LPS at longtherm listening.
With the stock power supply for the WiiM using the coaxial spdif output , the sound quality goes down to about 90% and the Klimax DS/0 reneew is slightly better soundvise.
Read more here, theres also pictures of the power supply.
forum.wiimhome.com
With the stock power supply for the WiiM using the coaxial spdif output , the sound quality goes down to about 90% and the Klimax DS/0 reneew is slightly better soundvise.
Read more here, theres also pictures of the power supply.
Test WIIM pro+ with different power supplies
This forum is not ASR . Here, I want as accurate sound as possible, i.e I will not trust my ears, because sometimes what I can hear is dominated by impressions made by my brain. Better not to have a brain, ehi? :ROFLMAO:
forum.wiimhome.com
JezmondTutu
pfm Member
I definitely need to compare Wiim Mini to my modified Node2i.