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My main listening system is in my basement and I have a decent digital source in my Innous Zenith music server and BorderPatrole DAC. Most of the time I do use this digital source because it gives me pleasure and less hassle that the analog side. I used to say the analog hassle was worth it because of the lack of musicality of the digital products until I heard the BP DAC.
I my living room I have a little system just for background music and casual listening. I built this based on a RaspPi music server. It was good enough when it worked but it crashed often I found it a pain. If I was more Linux proficient maybe I would feel different. It was frustrating because every time it turned it on I said a little prayer and hoped it would boot. More times than not I would have to reburn a chip and reconfigure the opsys. I did this so often that I got used to making up a few chips so I would have one ready if the RasPi crashed.

So I started looking a low cost alternatives and the WiiM company stood out. I mentioned this to a friend of my who was looking to get into streaming music. Well one day last week he showed up with the Ultra for me as a gift. I was blown away by this because I was looking at the WiiM mini which is less than $100 now The Ultra is so much more than the Mini. I cost around $300 depending if you catch a sale or not.
Youtube reviewers have been exalting this unit for about a year now. Is is a Swiss Army knife of a product. A preamp, phono stage, DAC and streamer all in one box with a touch screen and remote.
Frist good sign was the packaging, amazing for a product at this price point. The unit feels great in the hands, smooth rounded corners and some heft. It will not flop around with heavy cables attached to it.
I am not going into much details here. I do not care one bit about specs or chip brands or types . I only care about what it sounds like. It has to be musical and sound real. If interested just google or youtube "WiiM Ultra" and you will find hours of bobbing heads hawking its virtues.

All I am going to say its child's play to get it up and running. It has a remote app for iOS and android and can connect to many online music services. I was connected to Qobus with a couple clicks and entering my creds. Internet radio is there which is great fun with the capability to listen to anywhere in the world with thousands of choices.
My only problem so far is connecting with my NAS music library (there is a USB port to use a external USB drive and that is easy to connect to). There is not much help with getting it to work with my NAS. Both the Zenith and the Raspi were simple, just a browse function, drop down menu and type in creds. The Ultra is another story. The web site mentions this capability but there is no mention of this in the manual. There is a forum and most of the threads say forget it and use a USB drive. Well this doesn't work for me because I have over 10TB of music on my NAS. 400k tracks. When I did a deep dive it was mentioned to "Just use Plex" but no further help and I have Plex loaded on my NAS and scanned the files with no problem but I do not where to go from there.

How does it should you ask? If I did not compare it to the Zenith/BP DAC I would say great. Not glassy or edgy at all. I could not say that about the majority of the digital sources I heard a CAF or as a matter of fact anywhere. This is a very good digital source with so many bells and whistles to keep a tinkerer busy for quite a while. I am having fun with a unit that just work great!

Paul,

I picked up a Wiim Ultra on the Black Friday sale, so have been playing with it a bit since the beginning of December. It is a decent little unit, it works fine by itself, but I am basically using it as a streamer/digital preamp feeding USB Audio into a Chord Qutest for my basement (test) system.

My experience is using it with Roon, where it works seamlessly. However, I can access my NAS running MinumServer that contains my library. This is running "OpenHome/UPNP/DLNA" protocal, which I believe is the same protocol that is used by Innous. On the Android app (and I am sure the iPhone app), under "Browse" there should be a "My Library" section at the top, with a button labled "Home Music Share". This will list all the Media Server on your network, and you should be able to find your library. If your music library is a network share, you may be able to connect directly leaving the Wiim Ultra to manage it (though the library size may be a little large).

David

Followup question, are use using anything on your NAS to serve up music files (like MinimServer, for example). It is usually an app you can install on the NAS and provides the functionality you need for devices to connect to using OpenHome/UPNP/DLNA protocol. If all you are using the NAS for is sharing out a directory to other devices, you may run problems trying to integrate it with other streaming devices that do not function as a server per se.

David

I helps if I read through your email in more detail. If you have Plex running and setup to serve your local files, means you likely are running the necessary protocol, so you may want to browse on the Wiim app as I originally mentioned.

There is also Squeezebox support if you can setup LMS (Lyrion Media Server) on your NAS.

David

Thanks for the info:
Here is where I am at:
I gave up on Plex...too big too complex and I do not need all the bells and stuff.
I do have something called DLNA Server up and running pointing to the share where the music is.
How do I get the WiiM to find it.

Paul,

Use your Android/iPhone WiiM app and select Browse at the bottom of the screen. You should have at the top of the screen "My Library". Select "Home Music Share" and it should provide a list of Media Servers. Just select your DLNA Server and you should have list of options sorting by albums, tracks, playlists, Artists, etc. that provide access to your music.

But first make sure your DLNA server is setup pointing to your music directory.

David

David:
With your instruction I found the library(after a reboot of the WiiM. It was probably there all along but I just did not know where to look).
.....And there is a "but"
Under "Home Music Share" which lists the WiiM, Innous Zenith, and "Music_store"
I found the Library by going through the Zenith, which is ok and I can select an album or artist, etc, and it plays fine as well as Qobuz and tracks on the USB drive.
"Music_store" is the name I gave my NAS when I built it ages ago.
I can live with this as is, but I would rather have the library as a separate container for the WiiM.
Music_store shows up as a network device on my PC but the folder is empty.

Thanks so much for your help, you are a jewel among men

Paul,

Glad you got it working! The WiiM Ultra really is a nice unit. I am listening to it now in my basement refuge (my wife is working from home today due to the snow, so I can give her some quiet time).

Unless you are using specialized hats, I do not see much advantage of using an Raspberry Pi with the Wiim Ultra being available. I have heard of people modding the unit by bypassing the onboard 12V switching power supply with an external DC input for a linear supply, but it works just fine as is.

David

As I said in my first post the Ultra is a good unit that does more stuff than most people need. It will keep tinkerers busy wasting their time putting a silk purse on a sows ear.
I did not want to discuss musicality but I do not think its for hi definition systems. Sound quality is very subjective but this unit will not be in my main system and is relegated to a small powered speaker system in my living room for background music while reading or casual discourse with company.

I will still plug away at getting it to see my music library directly from the NAS and not through my Innous Zenith streamer.

Paul,

Agree with you, the WiiM Ultra is a good starter streamer, the DAC is actually the weak spot, but for most people it works fine, particularly as you are using it.

Why not just use the Innous Zenith? It serves up the music library to any other DLNA devices. With your library size, you really need to have a Music server that contains the database so your connecting streamer just acts as an endpoint. I am not sure the WiiM Ultra has the horsepower to maintain a large database of shared files residing across the network. It can certainly access them.

David