Wiim Amp low stage and bass

[aTg!s]

Hello everyone,

Unfortunately my Onkyo TX-SR508 died a few weeks ago.

I now have the Wiim Amp at home on my DIY Iceboxes (8 ohms)

Unfortunately I'm a bit disappointed. Despite active EQ (hip hop profile with bass and treble boosted), the Wiim Amp plays too "thinly" for my taste at room volume.

The Onkyo was much better at that at 1/3 of the maximum volume. I didn't have to turn it up any louder. The TV was connected with a cinch and I controlled the volume with that.

I didn't miss a subwoofer before, but now I would like one. Onkyo had Audyssey sound optimization.

My question: Can I adjust more than the EQ or do I have to live with a thinner sound?

Regards

 

[DVDdoug]

The Onkyo was much better at that at 1/3 of the maximum volume. I didn't have to turn it up any louder. The TV was connected with a cinch and I controlled the volume with that.

That would depend on gain which isn't necessarily related to maximum power. And not all volume controls are equal (and they are not linear) so 1/3rd on one device might not be 1/3rd on the other.

I didn't miss a subwoofer before

In order to get the "point one" LFE channel you need a surround decoder AND a subwoofer.

Wiim Amp plays too "thinly" for my taste at room volume...

... Onkyo had Audyssey sound optimization.

That might explain the "thin" sound. And make sure the Wiim isn't configured for a sub because it may be routing the bass to the unused subwoofer connection.

 

[aTg!s]

Thank you! What I have just discovered is that the Wiim Amp sounds best with an optical connection. With the RCA from the TV, the sound is so flat.

 

[niblue]

Thank you! What I have just discovered is that the Wiim Amp sounds best with an optical connection. With the RCA from the TV, the sound is so flat.

It works very well with the HDMI ARC connection as well.

With mine I'm only using small standmount speakers (Rega R1's) but have added a subwoofer that used to be in my home cinema set-up. That sounds good with TV & movies although I prefer the sound without the sub for music (probably because I've set-up the sub for movie use).

 

[aTg!s]

Unfortunately I have send this beauty back Thank you for your effort and great answers.

 

[staticV3]

Unfortunately I have send this beauty back

Is there any particular issue you're having with it?

Might be useful info for other potential buyers.

 

[aTg!s]

To my ears, it didn't sound the way I wanted it to. Very direct and dry perhaps describes it. Not cheerful.

After measuring with the room correction with an ipad and manually adjusting the parametric EQ (80hz +8db), I was able to achieve a good result with music streamed from my phone via WiFi.

The quality was much worse via Bluetooth. But this maybe my phone?!
The cinch input from the TV wasn't good either.

So music is no problem for the Wiim Amp.

Now to films and series: This is where I have the biggest problem. It sounds like the speakers are very far apart. That sounds strange. The background music is also too intrusive. Dialogue is harder to understand.

However, if I adjust the EQ differently, it sounds too thin in other scenes with action. Setting up and trying out the parametric EQ is time-consuming and as a layman I don't understand the many parameters. There are no presets.

I have now ordered a Denon. It has automatic stereo improvements. It sounds much better to me and was set up in a short time.

It's not professionelle hi-fi, of course, but for me as a standard user it's great!

Wiim Amp is small and sexy and a real beauty. I can recommend it for music!
As an amp on the TV, it lacks a correction that sets the distance between the speakers and presets for the parametric EQ as well as an HDMI out and OSD if you dont want to use the app.

I also didn't find the maximum volume particularly high. Apparently that's because of my TV. But now with the Denon it's very loud.

 

[niblue]

I mostly use my WiiM Amp to integrate with the TV and I've found it very good for that, using the HDMI ARC connection. I'm not having any of the challenges mentioned above and I also haven't needed to mess around with room correction to get a decent sound either. Volume is also fine for me but I'm using sensitive (90db) speakers and it goes plenty loud with those. I'm also using a subwoofer.

I do stream music to it (from Spotify mainly) and it sounds fine for that as well, although it's not the primary use for that system.