WiiM Pro - Review & Measurements (Streamer)

Romario · Feb 25, 2023

All is covered, not much to discuss, it's an awesome product. I was especially curious about the performance when EQ is enabled and you covered that too! ( alltough a little obscured by the fixed volume results in the graph)
To be on the safe side I lower the volume to about 80 %, because who knows how much db you're going to add with EQ. I don't know if that's an issue with volume set at 95 %.

Tangband · Feb 25, 2023

Romario said:
All is covered, not much to discuss, it's an awesome product. I was especially curious about the performance when EQ is enabled and you covered that too! ( alltough a little obscured by the fixed volume results in the graph)
To be on the safe side I lower the volume to about 80 %, because who knows how much db you're going to add with EQ. I don't know if that's an issue with volume set at 95 %.

Yes, and this is a device that can be used as a highend digital transport to a dac , with good GIU to, at least as good as a bluesound node or a Linn DS, and its ROON ready.

No need to buy anything more expensive than this then ? Lets see how much impact this streamer will have on the hifi market.

The players plastic facia is a small letdown, but the bluesound node is not any better. Yamaha wxc50 has a metal case, but has a digital preamp volume issue with resampling of everything to 48 kHz, with less good sound. Not good enough sound for highend use in my opinion ( I own one ) . And its twice as expensive.
———————-

Edit: using this streamer with the A/D, the eq or/and the D/A converter with analog output is very low-fi. An Allo boss streamer is much, much better in this case.

I:e - dont use the WiiM pro as a streamer with analog output , only as a digital drive to a dac or digital inputs to a loudspeaker.

morillon · Feb 25, 2023

Romario said:
To be on the safe side I lower the volume to about 80 %, because who knows how much db you're going to add with EQ. I don't know if that's an issue with volume set at 95 %.

that's the real question...

I sometimes have the impression that the use of the integrated drc (by texas "just in case") to circumvent the fact of having to develop a "smart" eq solution and avoid much less discreet digital saturations, is not well understood...
(the famous "95%" is only useful in "flat" eq mode, which is nonsense of course...
or possibly if that corrections by descending frequencies ... not by increasing them)
the brutality of this drc just allows to avoid saturations in all circumstances..
it will take many other investment skills to achieve a relevant peq mode....

onlyoneme · Feb 25, 2023

morillon said:
that's the real question...

I sometimes have the impression that the use of the integrated drc (by texas "just in case") to circumvent the fact of having to develop a "smart" eq solution and avoid much less discreet digital saturations, is not well understood...
(the famous "95%" is only useful in "flat" eq mode, which is nonsense of course...
or possibly if that corrections by descending frequencies ... not by increasing them)
the brutality of this drc just allows to avoid saturations in all circumstances..
it will take many other investment skills to achieve a relevant peq mode....

Fixed volume with EQ, 1k band at -1 dBFS and all other at 0 dBFS will give you this for 1k sine:

but -1.2 dBFS at 1k will be safe:

Overseas · Feb 25, 2023

@VintageFlanker very curious about - how does it sound to you the 'broken' DAC in a listening test?!

morillon · Feb 25, 2023

onlyoneme said:
Fixed volume with EQ, 1k band at -1 dBFS and all other at 0 dBFS will give you this for 1k sine:

View attachment 267343

but -1.2 dBFS at 1k will be safe:

View attachment 267344

you know that s i know..
hihi
just now in eq mode put 6 or 8 db more at your 1k..
etc
the eq mode in flat has essentially no interest ...
;-)

onlyoneme · Feb 25, 2023

morillon said:
you know that s a know..
hihi
just now in eq mode put 6 or 8 db more at your 1k..
etc
the eq mode in flat has essentially no interest ...
;-)

And with 1k +12 dBFS it will be very similar to -1 dBFS:

morillon · Feb 25, 2023

of course because this is the reason for the use of drc..
but find out at what threshold of your 1k test the drc is now committing...
;-)

onlyoneme · Feb 25, 2023

morillon said:
of course because this is the reason for the use of drc..
but find out at what threshold the drc is now committing...
;-)

Maximum volume to stay safe from DRC is 59% when a gain +12 dBFS is used.

Threshold seemed to be somewhere between -1.2 and -1.1 dBFS, I don't remember exactly.

morillon · Feb 25, 2023

onlyoneme said:
Maximum volume to stay safe from DRC is 59% when a gain +12 dBFS is used.

;-))))

Tangband · Feb 25, 2023

This unit is no good without a good external dac - like this one :

SMSL D-6 DAC Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the SMSL D-6 balanced stereo DAC with Bluetooth. It was sent to be by Shenzhenaudio and costs US $169.99. I like the compact enclosure even though there is a built-in power supply and balanced outputs. Included volume control lets you bypass a...

www.audiosciencereview.com

With these two ( WiiM pro and SMSL D6 ) you get highend performance for only 350 bucks.

I havent found anything better for this price , - Allo Boss II streamer is very good but have no digital output with volume regulation.

onlyoneme · Feb 25, 2023

Actually WiiMs work fine only in the digital domain and when no signal processing in involved. Analog path is poor, EQ is horrible.

One exception is for digital volume implementation I guess, it works fine too.

Tangband · Feb 25, 2023

onlyoneme said:
Actually WiiMs work fine only in the digital domain and when no signal processing in involved. Analog path is poor, EQ is horrible.

One exception is for digital volume implementation I guess, it works fine too.

This is where it counts as a digital transport, many streamer fails on the digital volumeregulation - even expensive ones.

morillon · Feb 25, 2023

onlyoneme said:
Actually WiiMs work fine only in the digital domain and when no signal processing in involved. Analog path is poor, EQ is horrible.

One exception is for digital volume implementation I guess, it works fine too.

and your measurements show that the pro is notably cleaner in digital
;-)
(the digital volume function must be a function implemented by texas ... like this possibility of this strong drc)

onlyoneme · Feb 25, 2023

morillon said:
and your measurements show that the pro is cleaner in digital
;-)

Yeah, but it depends on the DAC if it really matters or not. Still no idea if it's related to the hardware improvement or just a kind of software optimization.
It would be nice to compare Mini and Pro for different "sensitivity" levels on the DAC with adjustable control.

Rja4000 · Feb 25, 2023

onlyoneme said:
Fixed volume with EQ, 1k band at -1 dBFS and all other at 0 dBFS will give you this for 1k sine:

View attachment 267343

but -1.2 dBFS at 1k will be safe:

View attachment 267344

Obviously a bug

onlyoneme · Feb 25, 2023

Rja4000 said:
Obviously a bug

Just a DRC limiter which cannot be disabled in the EQ mode. It was enabled by default also in non EQ mode few months ago, but it has been fixed.

BioMedTechGuy · Feb 25, 2023

So last night I had limited time to listen. I opened the WiiM home app first, and started playing Tidal, which I switched to just "Hi-Fi" subscription (rather than Hi-Fi Plus) BUT that won't take effect for a month. I learned that switching the subscription is delayed, so they "got me" when I paid for another month right after I switched plans.
Anyway, I saw that wasn't Tidal Connect, so I closed the WiiM app and opened Tidal, connected to the WiiM, and listened to the same song that way. The volume was higher and the sound seemed "different" than it did via the WiiM app. I finished my session with Tidal Connect.
I haven't determined which app(s) I'm having trouble with doing "play next" on a consistent basis, but I know it was hit and miss with Tidal last night. Sometimes the song I selected would play next, and sometimes it wouldn't, and something else would play.

BenjaminB · Feb 25, 2023

Tangband said:
Yamaha wxc50 has a metal case, but has a digital preamp volume issue with resampling of everything to 48 kHz, with less good sound. Not good enough sound for highend use in my opinion ( I own one )

In pre-amp mode WXC-50 does re-sample to 48 kHz, due to the volume control. In player mode there is no such re-sampling. Difference in sound quality between these two modes is very clear.

Somewhat OT, but as WXC is brought up as a comparison ....

VintageFlanker · Feb 25, 2023

Edit: AirPlay added.