Figured I’d chime in since I sent my unit to Amir to test. In non-scientific comparison with the Wiim I felt there was some audible differences, again take as heresy if you like as they aren’t measured but were just a couple weeks of A/B which was roughly level matched. I’d listen for about 30 mins then swap boxes and play the same material. Yes sighted bias but who knows because not everything favored the more expensive unit as that would seem to infer. A few of my thoughts:
The Wiim sounded significantly better with my turntable, frankly the analog in on the Icon subjectively sounded very poor. Perhaps Amir’s measurements support why. It seemed to lack detail while also sounding much harsher than the Wiim, this was my biggest disappointment in the unit.
The Icon and Wiim were very similar sounding streaming FLAC but I found the Icon to have more depth of soundstage consistently and have more specific placement of instruments and vocals. How you relate this to a test measurement I have no idea, admittedly not technical enough for that. The potential IMD that Amir mentions is interesting, obviously I would prefer if Qrono was switchable on the Icon, I am very curious if the poorly measuring filter led to the audible difference in soundstage, but also at what cost? Being able to swap filters would be a big plus to me.
I’m undecided if I will keep the Icon, before I sent it to Amir Dirac wasn’t enabled yet. That was a huge selling point for me and still is, despite me playing with REW and the PEQ on the Wiim for awhile the results haven’t equaled what other Dirac components (NAD) seemed to in the past for me. Those who state “get a Topping and a streamer” aren’t the market target, my days of shelves full of components and cables are done, I want simple, sleek and user friendly in one box with strong performance and was hoping the Icon was it, but maybe it isn’t quite there yet. BlueOS isn’t unbearable for me and my wife has figured it out too, though I admit the Wiim is more intuitive at first glance.
Finally my Icon was dead quiet, comparatively the Wiim was noisier with my ear to the tweeter, however some people have mentioned huge noise issues so maybe I was just lucky.
The Wiim sounded significantly better with my turntable, frankly the analog in on the Icon subjectively sounded very poor. Perhaps Amir’s measurements support why. It seemed to lack detail while also sounding much harsher than the Wiim, this was my biggest disappointment in the unit.
The Icon and Wiim were very similar sounding streaming FLAC but I found the Icon to have more depth of soundstage consistently and have more specific placement of instruments and vocals. How you relate this to a test measurement I have no idea, admittedly not technical enough for that. The potential IMD that Amir mentions is interesting, obviously I would prefer if Qrono was switchable on the Icon, I am very curious if the poorly measuring filter led to the audible difference in soundstage, but also at what cost? Being able to swap filters would be a big plus to me.
I’m undecided if I will keep the Icon, before I sent it to Amir Dirac wasn’t enabled yet. That was a huge selling point for me and still is, despite me playing with REW and the PEQ on the Wiim for awhile the results haven’t equaled what other Dirac components (NAD) seemed to in the past for me. Those who state “get a Topping and a streamer” aren’t the market target, my days of shelves full of components and cables are done, I want simple, sleek and user friendly in one box with strong performance and was hoping the Icon was it, but maybe it isn’t quite there yet. BlueOS isn’t unbearable for me and my wife has figured it out too, though I admit the Wiim is more intuitive at first glance.
Finally my Icon was dead quiet, comparatively the Wiim was noisier with my ear to the tweeter, however some people have mentioned huge noise issues so maybe I was just lucky.