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Bluesound Node (130) vs Wiim mini?

Stereoguy

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Hi: Long time follower of this forum decided to join!:)

So I am going to try a Wiim Mini(Or should wait for the pro ver. is it on the near horizon???) will run a toslink cable(is this the best way to go?). From the Wiim to the dac from the Dac to my AVR....question 1) What budget dac should I look at looking at the ToppingE30(new one) but open to any other Dac's in the 200-400 range(in Canadian dollars).What about using a USB connection how would that hook up to my Anthem MRX-740 & the dac?My speakers are Revel F36's with the matching C25 center.Looking for smooth & detailed sound with as good a soundstage as possible.....using Tidal as music streaming service the Hi-Fi level not the plus!!Thanks for any help!
 

josefK666

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The Wiim Mini is a fantastic product for the price - there is a separate long thread about it on this site - mainly very favourable and it reviewed well here also:-


Connecting to your AVR by toslink would be good but you need to bear in mind that however you connect things up your AVR would normally use its own internal DAC (which is meant to be a very good AKM one by the way) in order to do the final processing. This is certainly the case if you have any sort of DSP/room correction/bass management happening - and I'm not certain that your AVR has any form of 'Pure Direct' mode to try to bypass that. The good news though is that you might be able to save your money without losing out on any of the audio quality!

Last I heard the pro version was meant to be out later this year but I'm sure you can get the latest from the thread above.
 

olbobcat

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I would say it depends on what your streaming. I think all streamers have a problem with something. In this modern world not all software and hardware play nice with each other. I would go for the wiim because it is a no brainer for the price and if it works you will be happy. I own one and it does work for me.
I have that very amp as well, I can't remember if it could be bypassed easily. You can run it in any analog input. I now it has some things that are unique as far as setup, but it has been a long time since I played with it.
 

Turambar

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I have both the Bluesound and the WiiM Mini.

I would go with the WiiM, as you mention use the optical out to a DAC (Topping E30 II sounds right) and then directly to your amp. For use with Tidal, the only thing you are missing is MQA, but as your subscription is HiFi, not HiFi plus, you have already taken the decision to pass on MQA, so everything is fine.
 

Berwhale

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Hi: Long time follower of this forum decided to join!:)

So I am going to try a Wiim Mini(Or should wait for the pro ver. is it on the near horizon???) will run a toslink cable(is this the best way to go?). From the Wiim to the dac from the Dac to my AVR....question 1) What budget dac should I look at looking at the ToppingE30(new one) but open to any other Dac's in the 200-400 range(in Canadian dollars).What about using a USB connection how would that hook up to my Anthem MRX-740 & the dac?My speakers are Revel F36's with the matching C25 center.Looking for smooth & detailed sound with as good a soundstage as possible.....using Tidal as music streaming service the Hi-Fi level not the plus!!Thanks for any help!

Your AVR already supports Airplay, Chromecast, Bluetooth and will support Spotify and Roon soon (apparently!). What do you hope to achieve by adding the Wiim mini? You should be able to Chromecast from the Tidal app on a phone to the AVR.
 

wozzagonebush

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I've been using a node2i for sometime now. Very happy using it with my local music server, but not satisfied with the poor implementation of Amazon and Deezer interface.

I tried connecting a ChromeCast Audio as input into the Node using digital and this works fine - except CCA doesn't do gapless playback which annoys me!!

Just bought the WIIM because I can use the native Amazon Music app and use the DAC in the Node and it is gapless.

Now have best of both worlds :)
 
Last edited:

Chris M

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I have the Node 2i in my possession and was hoping to improve with the Wiim Mini. Amazon got it back. This was less due to the specifications, but to the bad operation for me. I stream music mainly from the local network, here Bluesound recognizes the NAS, which can be integrated very easily, while the WIIM is troubling. There is no (as of 2022.11.1) album view in tiles, everything is just lists and then search for almost 20,000 titles. The sound didn't blow my mind either analog or digital via Topping E50 in comparison. Sure, the node is expensive, but I wasn't in the mood for beta testers.
 

wozzagonebush

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I’m still happy with the Wiim running into the Node DAC for streaming services. I still use the Node for music on my NAS as I’m happy how that works. Haven’t tried Wiim with the NAS.

My issue was the poor user interface on the Node with services such as Amazon or Deezer, which is nowhere near as good as their native apps. Mine is connect optically to the Node as the DAC in the Wiim is only good for 320kbps MP3.

Apparently there is Wiim Pro due which will have a hires DAC due out.
 

olbobcat

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It comes down to which streamer does the best for what you need it to do. I was using bluos, but am currently happily using a wii mini and will get a pro when it is released. I have learned that one update along the chain can mess the whole thing up.
 

JasonC331

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Hi: Long time follower of this forum decided to join!:)

So I am going to try a Wiim Mini(Or should wait for the pro ver. is it on the near horizon???) will run a toslink cable(is this the best way to go?). From the Wiim to the dac from the Dac to my AVR....question 1) What budget dac should I look at looking at the ToppingE30(new one) but open to any other Dac's in the 200-400 range(in Canadian dollars).What about using a USB connection how would that hook up to my Anthem MRX-740 & the dac?My speakers are Revel F36's with the matching C25 center.Looking for smooth & detailed sound with as good a soundstage as possible.....using Tidal as music streaming service the Hi-Fi level not the plus!!Thanks for any help!
Nice to see another MRX740 user!
Yeah, it sucks we have no analog bypass to really use another DAC and we have been waiting on ROON since launch...... I would wait for the Pro, days away now.
 

Brantome

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I’m still happy with the Wiim running into the Node DAC for streaming services. I still use the Node for music on my NAS as I’m happy how that works. Haven’t tried Wiim with the NAS.

My issue was the poor user interface on the Node with services such as Amazon or Deezer, which is nowhere near as good as their native apps. Mine is connect optically to the Node as the DAC in the Wiim is only good for 320kbps MP3.

Apparently there is Wiim Pro due which will have a hires DAC due out.
WiiM Mini and WiiM Pro have the same DAC, and I’d dispute all the WiiM‘s DAC is good for is MP3
 

mbl1116

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Just found this thread

New owner of an Anthem MRX 740, and i also purchased the Node thinking I’d be able to take full advantage of Tidal Hifi Plus. Just now realizing that there’s no way to bypass the Anthems internal DAC, so is my Node now essentially a $600 paperweight with slightly better App functionality?

I didn’t want to stream music via Airplay straight to the receiver, but finding it hard to justify keeping the Node
 

MaxBuck

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Just now realizing that there’s no way to bypass the Anthems internal DAC, so is my Node now essentially a $600 paperweight with slightly better App functionality?
I'm confused. Are you saying that this AVR converts all incoming analog signals to digital and then re-converts to analog later in the signal path? Sounds very strange.
 

mbl1116

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I'm confused. Are you saying that this AVR converts all incoming analog signals to digital and then re-converts to analog later in the signal path? Sounds very strange.
Not sure I fully understand the rationale either, but long story short, the Anthem MRX series do not have an analog passthru feature (the AVM series do).

So no matter how I connect the Node, the signal will always pass through the Anthems DAC.

This was confirmed by Anthem Support
 
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