Wintal DAB22COM FM/DAB+/BT/Internet Radio/Network player

surprisetech · July 12

I currently have a Sangean WFT-1D Plus in the home office. As much as I think it's a classic in the DAB+/Internet Radio space, it has come to a point where it's showing its age.

Most of the music on my NAS is in FLAC format which the WFT-1D doesn't support and I'm also finding that I can't listen to some internet radio stations which only broadcast via newer streaming formats.

I have a WFT-3D+ in another system which does not have these shortcomings. While I'm still very happy with it, it's also getting a bit long in the tooth and lacking some of the features found in the current crop of component FM/DAB+/Internet Radio/Network players.

So I've taken the plunge and ordered a Wintal DAB22COM as it seems to tick all the boxes for me as a home office player and is currently being offered at a heavily discounted price.

Doing a bit of research, apart from some minor aesthetic differences, the Wintal unit appears to be identical to the Redback A-2696A and the Ocean Digital WR-10.

If anyone has any experience with any of these models, I'd be interested to hear your views.

Also curious to know what people think of the Lenco DIR-250BK if anyone has tried it.

Otherwise, stand by and I'll be posting my observations and some pics when the new box arrives.

surprisetech · July 14

Quick postage! It arrived today.

Power is an external plug pack, so no transformer or SMPS inside the case. Just the 2 PCBs, one behind the front panel and the other at the rear of the case. Good to see plenty of breathing space between the various circuit segments on the main board. Lots of spare real estate inside the case, but that's how the technology is these days.

Construction and soldering all looks very good. Two tapped steel standoffs on the base for the main board plus 4 screws from the rear panel. Two going into tapped metal brackets on the board and two self tappers into the plastic connector housings. Very neat and solid design. It's an all-metal case and weighs about the same as the WFT-1D, so doesn't slide around when you push a button.

DAC is a Nuvoton 24bit/192kHz device. Nothing fancy, but probably appropriate for this product.

The chip includes the line output and headphone drivers and this is where I found a bit of a weakness.

Line output is fine, it's feeding the line input on a pair of Alesis powered mini-monitors.

But when I plugged my vintage Yamaha YH-2 headphones in, I had to set the volume to maximum to get a decent level from them. The B&W P3s were better, but still needed a very high setting.

So any headphones used with this machine need to be very efficient.

It's a pity, because the Nuvoton chip also includes a 1W stereo amp which is unused in this product. With the addition of a couple of series resistors these outputs could have provided a very capable headphone output.

Can't identify the RF module, but reception is very good and actually slightly more sensitive than the WFT-1D on both FM & DAB+.

Setup was nice and easy. Instruction manual is good and clear.

The player is quite easy to use from the front panel or remote. The display is small, but clear and easy to read. Brightness is adjustable.

Storing internet radio stations is a bit different and I don't mind it at all. It's done via SkyTune, which rather than being an internet radio provider service, is a webpage page built into the product.

There is a Skytune website, but it is only used to search for stations via various entry parameters, then when you select a station you want to save, it loads the data into the device. Stations that can't be found via the search engine can be manually entered once you've found the URL. I used https://streamurl.link and found all the stations I wanted that weren't already found via the skytune webpage.
The upside is, that if the skytune website is ever discontinued, you can still store and backup your saved stations using the internal wepage via any browser.

Bluetooth and network streaming both work fine. Navigation is easy and there are no problems with file formats.

Another nice touch is the ability to tailor the line output. There is 'preamp gain' setting, 10 EQ presets, a 5-band equalizer and a 15-step '3D depth' setting which the manual does not elaborate on but appears to widen the soundstage and add some surround-type effects.

I'll leave it at that for now, but overall very happy with it as a very versatile source for the home office. Doing a decent bit of prior homework paid off.