WiiM Mini Review (Streamer)

[Brantome]

I don't think the proprietary service Roon should be considered. The streamer doesn't support MQA either (i think, didn't see it so far), is that another reason to not recommend it?

To me this seems to be the device i recommend to friends that don't want to fiddle with a RPi and have a free Toslink input on their amp.

Post in thread 'WiiM Mini Streamer'
https://audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/wiim-mini-streamer.31182/post-1147516

 

[Smitty2k1]

I can't believe this got a "not recommended". It's a fantastic product in the market segment.

 

[Brantome]

I can't believe this got a "not recommended". It's a fantastic product in the market segment

“Personally not recommended“ due to lack of Roon support - as a non Roon user, so what?

No mention of the services it does support, its upcoming support of Amazon Music HD (which I don’t see Roon ever supporting), its multi room capabilities, its integration with Alexa etc etc.

Like you, I think it does well at its price point and has great potential

 

[Glades]

Thanks for this review. It verified what I experienced, using it (only) as a simple bitperfect transport for my DAC. It seems WiiM support is also doing a fine job, which may add to its value, imo.

 

[MoStyles]

I’m a little disappointed in this lackluster review. Seems more focus on personal bias, rather than science.

 

[Saponetto]

Thanks a lot @amirm for this detailed test.
I was still doubtful about the real performances these little things could actually put within our ears.
Roon or not, it seems that I should give a try to it...

 

[welder]

How?

I believe it was Amazon's error like someone forgot about currency conversion. My local currency is PLN, whis is usually in 1 to 4 ratio with Euro. Thus instead paying 400 PLN (~100€), it was listed for 100 PLN.

 

[VMAT4]

I’m a little disappointed in this lackluster review. Seems more focus on personal bias, rather than science.

Looks as if the community does not value Roon as much as Amir. Might be interesting to take a poll in an effort to determine percent Roon users in our community.

 

[MaxBuck]

This thing looks like it could be a pretty good solution for a lot of people. But it's certainly nothing exceptional. So I have no problem with Amir's review.

 

[Saponetto]

Looks as if the community does not value Roon as much as Amir. Might be interesting to take a poll in an effort to determine percent Roon users in our community.

You got the point.

 

[gfx_1]

The IOTAVX NP3 player uses the WiiM app for streaming, it got some updates along the way which improved things like switching to the stream input when it previously was on something else. With Tidal they added the hifi option a while ago.

 

[Brantome]

Given I got the WiiM mini on the basis of its upcoming support for Amazon Music HD, Roon compatibility means nothing to me as Roon are extremely unlikely to ever support Amazon Music HD (or Apple Music for that matter) due to their expectation that the streaming service will furnish them with daily catalog updates. The big streaming services will say “Roon? Who are they?” and likely ignore them. It would be a different matter if Roon put up the cash for the resource to do that, but I don’t see that happening either. I expect others in a similar situation will feel the same…

 

[dsnyder0cnn]

An interesting product. Looks like it has an analog input and ADC…if I'm understanding the specs correctly. I wonder what the intended applications are for this input. @amirm , did you test the analog input? Looks like it accepts up to 1V. I can imagine folks using a pair of these to "beam" vinyl playback to the patio over Wi-Fi.

 

[mateolo2]

„If you use the App and Toslink output, you basically have a transparent wireless link to your stereo.”

I dont understand @amirm . In wiim app you can only listen to radio etc. When you want to listen Spotify you can do it only by Spotify Connect. Then its not transparent?

 

[Purité Audio]

If you use their app and toslink output it is fine, otherwise not so great.
Keith

 

[Brantome]

An interesting product. Looks like it has an analog input and ADC…if I'm understanding the specs correctly. I wonder what the intended applications are for this input. @amirm , did you test the analog input? Looks like it accepts up to 1V. I can imagine folks using a pair of these to "beam" vinyl playback to the patio over Wi-Fi.

Indeed : “It also has the analog audio input so you could connect your audio device and listen it on multiple devices”

Overview - WiiM Mini - WiiM

wiimhome.com

 

[gfx_1]

„If you use the App and Toslink output, you basically have a transparent wireless link to your stereo.”

I dont understand @amirm . In wiim app you can only listen to radio etc. When you want to listen Spotify you can do it only by Spotify Connect. Then its not transparent?

WiiM has support for Spotify see screenshot.

 

[sarumbear]

Once there, the app was reliable and gave me the option of configuring Toslink output for bit exact and its maximum sample rate which I appreciated. It also updated the device on first connection.

WiiM Mini Measurements
My first tests were using Aiplay 2.0 as initiated by my Roon player. As usual, Airplay itself becomes the bottleneck as we see with Toslink digital out:
View attachment 200173

Not sure if Airplay forced the sample rate to change to 48 kHz or the device did it.

What was that maximum sample rate you were sending to the device?

A question: so far we assumed that Airplay 2 is fixed to 16/44.1 transmission like it was on AirPlay (v1) but on AppleTV device via HDMI output it can output 24/48. Your test above shows that not to be correct. I wonder if you or any other member has any documents from Apple to clarify this?

Conclusions
If you use the App and Toslink output, you basically have a transparent wireless link to your stereo. Connect it to your favorite DAC and your performance will only be limited by the rest of your system. For me personally lack of Roon support is a big deal. I don't want to use their App to play or stream content. I hope the company looks at supporting Roon endpoint. Analog output of the unit is just OK.

Personally I can't recommend the WiiM Mini due to lack of support for Roon player. That aside, it is great to see bit exact digital output in a budget streamer allowing you to improve its performance to any level you want using your own DAC.

Thank you for the test. But especially thank you for clarifying that conclusions are your personal take, hence subjective.

 

[nhs]

I'm wondering, if the WiiM fully support UPNP?

 

[sarumbear]

Looks like they bought the old stock of Amazon Alexa pucks lying around.

Or they went to the same OEM Amazon went...