I have been using a Mede8eter 500X for around 6 years now and have been looking to get a newer model of the same brand for the longest time simply because I am very happy with its PQ and SQ. Being a long time user of the brand, I can easily dtermine differences when I get the chance to use other brands Recently, a good friend handed over his seldomly used Xiaomi MI android player so I had the chance to compare.
Earlier this morning, stickfighter paid me a visit bringing with him the Wetek Hub he is currently reviewing. This player is really small but thie size is the only thing small about this. Please allow me to share impressions I had with this android player but bear with me as I can only share simple assesments less the technicalities using Wetek soley as a media player as I lack a good internet speed to test streamings and its other features.
Ease of navigation
Im not sure if this is the appropriate term but this player is so damn fast. I can easily navigate from one interface to another making the navigation a breeze. It reads files quickly so this player will serve well impatient users like me. The default player is KODI but there is another KODI player though it says alpha version.(pardon me if I dont get it right)
Movie and music tests
Unfortunately, Wetek was only only able to read two out of the three hard drives attached to my USB hub, one 1 tb and one 2 tb. When we were watching 13 hours, the signal got dropped. We were thinking this maybe beacuse two hard drives were attached so we removed one and everything thrown at it plays at ease afterwards. We tested DTS HD MA materials and after a few exchange of text messages with eHome, we were able to play Band of Brothers without issue. It is different though with Dolby True HD as there is no audio, we surely is missing something in the setting up of audio. We did not bother to test it back as we proceeded testing music files.
We were able to play flac, ape and mp3 without issues. The default KODI music player looks nice as the background comes with bars of different colors in 3D animation. There were files though that we were not able to play but we are not sure what type, probably wav. This might be more of user error than issue internal to Wetek.
Picture and Audio Quality
This is the biggest strength of Wetek. I have been with Mede8eter for so long a time becasue of PQ and SQ but Wetek would put this to shame. I couldn't count the number of times Stickfighter remarked how excellent the PQ is and I couldnt help but agree. I am using a 60 inch Samsung 60H5000(plasma) and I swear I haven't seen it that good until I used Wetek. Colors are really vivid and lively. Xiaomi Mi is not even close.
Sound quality is also better than my Mede8eter.. As to how better, lets just simply say it is really better.
Others
After sveral hours of use, Wetek is just warm and has not gone hot unlike the other players I used. Im not sure if there is value to the temperature feedback but I wanted to share anyway. While the unit is very smal, it looks and feels very sturdy.. Stickfigther showed me a cellphone app that allows him to browse through his movie files using his cellphone but I think this feature is present in other android players as well.
Overall we had a great time assessing the Wetek. My around 4 hours of wtaching and listening experience can make me say this will be the andoid player for me. Time to save P 5,500 and head to EHome soon. I strongly encourage fellow HT enthusiasts to head to EHome for a personal experience of Wetek's performance but make sure you have your 5.5k with you already as you will surely want to take home one.
