Advance Paris WTX MicroStream € 149 network player

For reviewing the Multiroom facilities the Advance Paris WTC StreamPro I reviewed last week, the Dutch distributor Servi-Q lent me a very affordable little streamer, the WTX MicroStream. Initially I had no intention of reviewing it….. Now, don’t expect the sound quality of a € 500 streamer, but it’s such a cute, handy device that adds streaming from internet sources and from your own computer or NAS in a breeze. And it costs a lot less money than a ticket for hands-on calling in the car. At least, in my country. The unit plugs directly into a line input on your amplifier.

00:47 - Line inputs are all inputs on your amp with the exception of the Phono input. Let’s see how it works. WTX MicroStream is to be plugged into a line input on the rear of your stereo. Using the free downloadable iOS or Android app you can connect the WTX MicroStream to your Wifi base station. You now can play music from internet radio stations or one or more streaming services you are subscribed to. If you have music stored on your computer or NAS and have a DLNA or UPnP AV server program running, you can play from there too, provided the computer or NAS is switched on.

01:31 - Selecting music and setting volume is done using a smartphone or tablet. This nice picture by Advance Paris shows the WTX MicroStream from all sides. You might notice that it still carries the ‘old’ name: Advance Acoustics’ since this product stems from the period before the renaming to Advance Paris, or Advance Paris since it is a French company. It measures 75 by 95 by14 mm and weighs only 35 grams. When the WTX Microstream is plugged in, you still need 95 mm depth for the power connector.

02:13 - If that space is not available, a simple RCA extension cord can be used. The distance between the RCA’s matches the standard distance you find on almost all audio equipment, with the exception of very costly equipment that doesn’t use standard RCA socket modules. On the side a WPS button for easy coupling to your wifi base station. Behind it a bright blue LED that indicates the device status. Blinking means ‘switched on but no Wifi contact’, steady blue means ‘switched on and on-line’.

02:48 - On the opposite side from the RCA’s we find the DC power input. The matching switch mode power supply comes with the unit. Opening the the tiny plastic housing was not possible without breaking it. So the only thing I can tell about the inside is that it uses the Wolfson WM8740 DAC chip, the same as in the WTX StreamPro. It also does the same audio formats: PCM file format up to 24 bit 192 kHz using the following file formats: WAV, AIFF, FLAC, Apple Lossless, AAC, AAC+, APE, RealAudio, MP3, WMA and OGG.

03:35 - You can stream music synchronised to all Advance Paris streaming products present in your network, which makes it a nice product for large houses and other venues where music has to be distributed over multiple rooms. Simply use a mesh Wifi network exclusively for this application and you can distribute audio to many rooms without installing any cabling. Standard operation is as DLNA renderer but it also works as Airplay renderer. As Airplay renderer the sending device, for instance an iPhone, sends a music stream to the WXT MicroStream that performs the decrypting and plays it back over the analog or digital outputs. Airplay is an Apple protocol that uses lossless compression to keep the load in the wifi network as low as possible and encrypting to avoid problems with copyright owners that otherwise might consider it to be broadcasting.

04:33 - It is good to realise that both work without any damage to the audio bits. The only limitation is that 48 kHz is the highest sampling rate that is supported by Airplay. DLNA works differently. Here a program on a computer or NAS indexes the music and offers several lists of metadata to the ‘controller’. Nowadays the controller usually is a smartphone or tablet but there have been dedicated devices as well that still would work. Depending on the server program used and its settings the number and kinds of lists can vary.

05:12 - Limited server software only offers lists of artists, albums, tracks and genre. This is often the case with DLNA server programs that also do video and photos. For music we might also want lists of composers, directors, release dates and so on. These lists can be found with the better DLNA server programs. I like MinimServer, which only does music, so no video nor photos. It already offers lists like ‘director’ and you can add or alter list types if you’re a bit handy with computers. After the DLNA server has indexed all music files, the ‘controller’ - being the app on your smartphone - reads in these lists and then you choose a list, for instance ‘album names’ to browse to the music you want. If you then select a track or album, the server sends the audio data plus some of the metadata to the DNLA renderer. In this case that is the WTX Microstream. It doesn’t have a display, which to me is no problem since the same info is shown on the smartphone or tablet you use as controller. When you open the app it searches for Advance Paris streaming products and when found, it checks for updates.

06:32 - If an update is available, you will be asked if it should be installed. If not you are presented with the Advance Paris streamers in your network. I also borrowed the WTX StreamPro, I reviewed last week. I select the WTX MicroStream after which the play screen appears. Let’s go to the input screen where we see the available sources. Here you can choose from the sources I mentioned earlier. The app is in portrait mode only which is fine on an iPhone but often not on an iPad. Let’s first see how to access the music on a computer or NAS and select Home Music Share. Let’s go to Syn8T, the simple Synology DS119J NAS that runs MinimServer. Let’s go for albums and select Mudlark by Leo Kottke.

07:26 - From here I can play all tracks or any track. Let’s get back to the input menu and go for high-res streaming service Tidal, select ‘my music’, go to ‘artists’ and select my favourite rock singer Anouk. After selecting Michel from the album Urban Solitude the track starts playing en the play screen appears showing a rather slow revolving vinyl record with label. Tapping the playlist button shows what music will be played next. Let’s show you the streaming services you can add.

08:01 - As you can see I have most services active, only Ximalaya and QQFM are switched off. Normal users, as in non reviewers - will have only two or three services active, for instance iHearRadio, vTuner and Tidal. It’s not the most impressive app but it gets the job done and will suffice for most users. By the way, sometimes the term UPnP AV is used in documentation. It stands for Universal Plug & Play Audio Visual. In practice it works exactly the same as DLNA. So you can use a UPnP AV server program as well. For this money the WTX MicroStream sound very good. It has almost the same wide and deep stereo image the WTX StreamPro I reviewed last week has. It has somewhat less detail overall and sibilance is less well controlled, but for my setup 3 there remains more than enough quality left to enjoy music.

09:07 - There is no harshness as we know from the begin days of digital audio, especially voices are more realistic. Forgive me that I once again point you to the enormous progression digital audio has made, especially over the last 10 years. The WTX MicroStream uses DLNA as standard, like most main stream brands and many speciality brands do. So if you have a high end Linn, Naim, Marantz or Yamaha stereo in the living, the MicroStream can be used to stream to the old stereo in the study or garage and fully integrate into your networked setup. But it’s also a very attractive device if you’re short on budget and want to add streaming to your stereo.

09:57 - Don’t make the mistake I made, this is a nice device that offers more than it’s appearance promises. It certainly outperforms a complete Raspberry Pi setup with proper DAC board, housing and power supply, costing the same. Being a fan of the Asterix comic books I would say “Ils ne sont pas fous, ces Gauloises.’ That brings us to the end of this video. There will be a new video next Friday, if all goes well at 5 pm central European time. Since you don’t want to miss that, subscribe to this channel or follow me on the social media so you will be informed when new videos are out.

10:38 - If you liked this video, give it a thumbs up. Many thanks to those viewers that support this channel financially, it keeps me independent and thus trustworthy. If you like to support my work too, the links are in the comments below this video on Youtube. I am Hans Beekhuyzen, thank you for watching and see you in the next show or on theHBproject.com. And whatever you do, enjoy the music. And keep safe. .