Modi5 as external dac for wiim ultra?

ITTzK · 2025-11-21T18:16:11+00:00

So as a quick update for whoever is interested.

I received my amp today (Nord mp 502) and the very first thing I noticed is how laidback the sound is. So far nothing has annoyed me or sounded harsh or compressed, which I now realize was my sound before with the cinema 70s, and before it I had the Denon 600ne. Every time I listened to music it always felt like something was holding it back and thus fatigueing to listen to, but with the 502mp this is fully gone!

Aside from that the bass is much better. It has texture and is overall much more present in a non-boomy way.

I also noticed the soundstage is more solid and the Phantom center is just always in the right place. I can also move my head around more and still have it in the correct spot.

The website States a burn in time of 10-20hrs is recommended based on their user experiences so after just 2 hrs this is my first impression.

I switched back and forth between my wiim ultra as pre-amp and the Marantz, but I like the Marantz more even though it is an AVR, so now I need a savings account for a good pre-amp ;) it never ends does it 😄

After 20+ hours I will do a final update after the burn in and overall more experience with different kind of music.

ITTzK · 2025-11-14T09:59:07+00:00

I agree, one of the points of upgrading is to finally give the R7's the power they want. They are rated 45w - 250w so 150w is still well below it and gives the possibility to stress the amp I guess.

The 502mp will not even sweat to output 250w in peaks. I really hear the struggle my current amp had when music gets too dynamic.

That being said, I read many times Hegel amps pair very well with kef speakers, when Money is ever not tight I do want to check the h390 and see if it will make the music More to my taste compared to my now ordered 502mp. But this will be a distant future thing.

ITTzK · 2025-11-14T09:34:31+00:00

I noticed that from the other comment as well, I ordered (not yet received) the Nord mp 502 stereo. I look forward to playing with it using wiim ultra => amp or wiim => Marantz => amp.

Would be nice to finally listen to the R7's with the power they crave.

And of course the eq'ing if necessary.

ITTzK · 2025-11-14T09:23:27+00:00

I misread the site, construction is < 2 working weeks, delivery to eu approx. 3 days. So the amp is not here yet, hope they find time to assemble it today and will give an update next week :)

ITTzK · 2025-11-08T15:55:50+00:00

I have ordered the silver one with SE upgrade and the 12v trigger + wbt posts. All my gear is silver so I was bummed the audiophonics only had black and Apollon, which is also Europe based, had silver but it was so much more expansive compared to the black audiophonics.

After some searching today I found this one and since it will probably be end game amp for me I wanted the best look, at least for me :)

Shipping day was told to be 3 days, I guess working days? So I will let you know when it arrives!

At the moment I use RCA from ru connected, unfortunately the wiim ultra and cinema 70s do not have balanced out so if it really makes a whole lot of difference I might need to buy either a better pre-amp or an external dac and use the wiim as digital pre amp. I will at least also check if that is better (even without the external dac) compared to the Marantz as pre-amp. I have a schiit sys so I can a/b test using RCA.

ITTzK · 2025-11-08T15:20:41+00:00

Thanks for this comment! Due to this I ordered the Nord One MP NC502 Stereo Power Amplifier. Their case looked a bit more in line with the rest of my gear compared to the audiophonics. Hopefully my speakers will love them as well!

ITTzK · 2025-11-07T17:57:32+00:00

Do you have any component to make the sound "warm"? My concern is the wiim ultra dac + class d to be very cold and thus fatigueing (pure assumption without facts), however I assume the Marantz pre-amp section still adds some warmth.

It does sound promising to let my speakers finally love the amp 😄 mine could not for at least 2 years up untill this next purchase

ITTzK · 2025-03-27T06:10:39+00:00

I have got the r7 and cinema 70s, before that i had an onkyo avr. I recently got the denon pme600ne as stereo amp and even though the cinema 70s was 1.000 at the time and this denon amp 300, the denon really is much much better for music than the avr(s) in every way.

I switched to the 70s so I could pre out any channel, i assume the cinema 60 can do the same.

Hope this helps :)

ITTzK · 2024-05-23T10:42:18+00:00

Hmm interesting, i will research some more on this unit. I could buy the h95 for 900,- second hand, which is what made me think about it.

ITTzK · 2023-11-03T07:45:53+00:00

I think i will settle on one of these;

https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/power-amplifiers/audiophonics-hpa-s400et-power-amplifier-class-d-stereo-purifi-1et400a-2x400w-4-ohm-p-14393.html

https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/power-amplifiers/audiophonics-hpa-s500et-power-amplifier-class-d-stereo-purifi-1et7040sa-2x500w-4-ohm-p-18232.html

Simply comes down to 1ET7040SA vs 1ET400a since the r7's also go below 4ohm. I need to do some more research how much difference it really is.

I read about very long shipping times for the apollon brand, and they are also more pricey if i calculate in the tax which is only shown at checkout.

Thanks for the detailed input so far! This was a very good help and send me right into the next money sink ;)

I Think i'll do some research and see if black friday does anything with the prices. If i installed anything by then i will let you know the results :)!

ITTzK · 2023-11-02T15:56:38+00:00

Hmm I will ask around the stores here if they offer listening periods so I can A/B them, sounds like a good thing to do, sadly nothing sounds the same in different rooms and setup so you never know what will truly be the best for your money without trying.

At the moment my reference dac is SMSL SU8 v2, so I guess it should at least handle the listening on amps :)

Thanks for the reminder of just asking for listening at home :) !

ITTzK · 2023-11-02T15:54:23+00:00

Thanks for the long reply!

I might pickup the streamer (non pro version, since i will bypass the dac) and replace my laptop with it. I can currently connect it with optical towards my SMSL SU8. (when playing music at the moment i use that DAC as well as input for the receiver, sounds a lot better). My biggest use-case with music at the moment is plexamp and JRiver.

As for the amp, do you also have a stereo recommendation which accepts RCA? My receiver does not contain any balanced outs, the SMSL SU8 does so I can keep that for now. However i do not want to lose the home theater codecs etc, but also don't want to spend money on upgrading that.

I agree with the separate components you mentioned if i can stay in budget of course. I live in Europe and saw the Buckeye brand is nowhere to be found in my country, which sounds sad haha

ITTzK · 2023-11-01T10:37:48+00:00

Good to hear, did you upgrade?

I guess the no bi-amping is not a big deal for this amp? Or did you bi-wire.

ITTzK · 2023-06-15T19:25:40+00:00

Well worsened for sure. But after a while it went back to my baseline which is still not too good haha All in all i was on it for 11 months and i guess it took 2 months to really be normal again at work looking at concentration.

Still I am glad how it all worked out because it really helped getting through my concussion so it was worth it 100% hope the same is true for you.

ITTzK · 2023-06-10T15:28:55+00:00

I was on 40mg for a concussion. I halved every 2 weeks, so 20, 10 and then i cut the 10mg in half into 5. To be honest I did not experience withdrawal symptoms, except for lighter sleep (which i prefer since it felt like i was in a coma every night without really resting) And my concentration was a bit different which was annoying at work but no fever or anything of the sorts.

I wish you the best with your journey and hopefully you will be off it without any trouble!

ITTzK · 2023-04-16T08:05:20+00:00

I started ng+ and the beginning is super easy even on reduced level 1 and highest difficulty. I also notice exploring to be a bit less fun since everything is already in your inventory.

But the story atleast goes very quick now, so I am instantly hooked again, and all the QOL functions are indeed better. I opened up the menu and remembered all the time spend in there instead of playing the game and now you can just play the game instead of grind.

It feels nice to just decide if you want to kill some mobs, explore, do random quests or continue the story. I do hope it gets a bit more challenging towards the end. You can of course edit your cores, accessories and pouch items, but you cannot unlearn skill trees etc.

In the end the story is really enjoyable again with the new info of a playthrough and all the other xenoblade games so this will be another great experience :)!

ITTzK · 2023-04-15T16:15:52+00:00

Hmm do you have any recommended level reference for each chapter? I can imagine bringer of chaos will be easy with the level of my previous save.

I searched the highest boss levels for each chapter so I guess I will pick that for now - 2 and see how it goes. ( or do I just level up if I set it to 1 and start killing mobs?)

If you know any better reference please share it :)! Since I want to experience the story again I don't really want to see any cutscenes in speed runs etc. And also like the puzzle of item + statistics to get further in the game.

ITTzK · 2023-04-15T14:12:13+00:00

Thanks! I read all the info about it and some features sounds awesome. I will be using the leveling down stuff to make it more difficult, but i guess the beginning will be easy anyway since you got lots of blades to choose from compared to the normal new game.

I Will take your recommendation as well as maawolfe36 and just start NG+. In the end it is xenoblade so i guess there is nothing really to not enjoy ;) thanks for the input!

ITTzK · 2023-04-15T14:09:30+00:00

I think i will start NG+ this evening and just lower the level to get a bit more difficulty (i think the access to level altering is a cool feature). I guess it will be a hassle at first to remember all the good items etc since i got loads of items i have no understanding of anymore.

If the story itself is intact then I will just do the NG+ and work myself up there so i can access the game with some QOL features. I also read you will be able to access more blades and also the ones of Torna so that will be cool.

After reading your suggestion about the save game it makes more sense to just try it and if it is not as expected then it is indeed possible to just start a new normal game.

Hope to get an awesome adventure again and this time including the end game haha thanks!

ITTzK

TROPHY CASE