McIntosh MB20 vs. WiiM Pro Plus

[presscot]

I was going to buy a McIntosh MB20. But, I was paused by my friend. He recommended me a new and popular WiiM Pro Plus. The WiiM has numerous positive reviews and it costs half of the MB20. So, I’m hesitating now which one I should buy. I mainly/always play music from YouTube music via iPhone XR. Please advise me.

 

[Brian Hall]

The MB20 is basically a Bluetooth receiver, correct? The Wiim Pro Plus can be set to input from Bluetooth or to output to Bluetooth. I have never used either so I can't comment on how well they work. Instead of using Bluetooth, you can use the cast option from the YouTube music app to the Wiim Pro Plus. That is what I do when I listen to YouTube music. That way you don't need to mess with the input settings and can still use the other streaming apps like Spotify, Qobuz, Amazon etc. if you ever want to.

The Wiim Pro Plus is a great streamer with a very good DAC too.

I just fired up the YouTube music app and clicked on the cast option on the top right. It is playing to the Wiim now without needing to turn on Bluetooth input.

 

[Brian Hall]

Supposedly casting can have better audio quality than Bluetooth, but whether that matters depends on your source.

 

[Brian Hall]

YouTube Music uses 256kbps Opus. I fired up the Amazon Music app to show it can do with casting (It is supported natively by the Wiim so I have never tried casting it).

Playing CD quality or better songs, it says it is outputting 16/44.1 CD quality to the Wiim. I learned something new about the Amazon app.

 

[richardschwalb]

I don’t know anything about the McIntosh, but my experience with the WiiM Pro Plus has been less than stellar. I use my iPhone and iPad Pro to stream local (on device) tracks, mostly ALAC, over AirPlay 2. While WiiM has definitely improved playback since I’ve bought the device back in November there is still a significant lag on the initial track. What I mean by that is once I hit play and the track starts playing on device the WiiM is silent for anywhere from 1/2 to 2 seconds so they initial notes are cut off. I don’t have this issue with a Denon N10 I have, so it definitely seems to be a WiiM issue. I even connected the WiiM to the Denon to ensure it wasn’t an issue with my AVR (Harman Kardon AVR 3600), but had the same lag show up.

If you aren’t using AirPlay to cast your audio then I think the WiiM is great.

 

[Bamyasi]

YouTube Music uses 256kbps Opus. I fired up the Amazon Music app to show it can do with casting (It is supported natively by the Wiim so I have never tried casting it).

Playing CD quality or better songs, it says it is outputting 16/44.1 CD quality to the Wiim. I learned something new about the Amazon app.

View attachment 358859

It shows it is casting in SD, which means lossy encoding is used (likely, mp3). Chromcast is still not fully supported by Amazon Misic HD.