WiiM Amp Pro Streaming Stereo Amplifier Review

[FraJazz]

I need to replace a Yamaha RXE100 that was driving a pair of Monitor Audio Radius 90 and a sub (desktop office system).


I like the Wiim Amp Pro because of the form factor. The other choice is a NAD C 328. Will the Wiim Amp Pro (or the Wiim Amp) be able to compete with the NAD as far as sound quality is concerned? I don't care about the streaming ability of the Wiim...or the price difference.

I mostly listen to headphones, but I want to get the best possible sound when I do use speakers (when the wife is out and I know I will not disturb the neighbors). The Yamaha did a fine job for many years, and now that I need to replace it I want to find something that will be an improvement and not a downgrade.

Just wanted to get the take of people who know their stuff when it comes to amps.

 

[FraJazz]

Well, I just answered my own question.

I have both here with me ( Wiim Amp, not the Pro, and the NAD C 328) and I like the NAD, but I love the Wiim Amp. The Wiim blows the NAD out of the water when it comes to features (and price), but I was surprised to find out that I prefer the Wiim when it comes to sound quality (with and without room correction). It also sounds much better than the Yamaha RXE100 the Wiim replaced.

The NAD is a nice unit, but I hate that you have to turn the volume knob like crazy to increase or the decrease the volume. If both models cost the same, I would still chose the Wiim Amp.

Sometimes you get what you pay for...and a lot more.

 

[ZinMe]

I have a 5 zone Sonos Connect:Amp set-up for whole house audio that I've been using for about 14 yrs. I recently discovered how much a proper/sufficient subwoofer can augment sound quality, and put a subwoofer in one of the main zones, and like it quite a bit. The older Sonos Amp however is limited to a single crossover (80Hz), there is no separate gain control for subwoofer output, and there is no EQ other than basic bass, treble and loudness controls. These players do not support more than 16bit/48Khz. So, I am looking at the WiiM Amp Pro and the current model from 2019 of the Sonos Amp to replace all the zones. My only hesitations in jumping into WiiM are (1) Sonos has been very reliable- a couple minor issues with a sonos connect (prior version of the port) which stopped working and some issues playing from TuneIn with the S1 software but I consider this very good considering it's over a 14 yr period, (2) the new Sonos Amp has more power (125W at 8ohms), and (3) I don't know if I should really care that much aobut high res formats for in-ceiling whole house listening. The advantages of the WiiM are many (tunable crossover, EQ, 24/196 support, cost, better SINAD etc...). I only listen to digital streaming music for whole house audio, so I don't care about analog inputs. I am driving mostly 8 inch B+W 8ohm ceiling speakers in rooms that range from 8x8ft to 12x15, to 15x20, to outdoors, but I believe the output current of the WiiM Amp Pro is probably enough to drive a pair of the B+Ws considering that the Connect:Amp is also rated at about 60Watts, and I can offload some output burden in a couple of rooms where I can use a subwoofer (non-Sonos 10inch KEF) so I'm leaning in that direction.

The main question is whether the output power benefits of the Sonos outweigh the other factors- for example should I really care that much about room EQ and high res support. Are there other considerations I should be taking into account before making the upgrade such as whether the WiiM app work as well or if multi-room synch is accurate?

 

[Mort]

I have almost the exact same setup. I switched to 8 Wiim amps with the same speakers. Didn't regret for a minute

 

[ZinMe]

I have almost the exact same setup. I switched to 8 Wiim amps with the same speakers. Didn't regret for a minute

Did you integrate subwoofers with your WiiMs?

 

[Mort]

Did you integrate subwoofers with your WiiMs?

I did with a separate ultra running just the sub.

 

[ZinMe]

I did with a separate ultra running just the sub.

What benefit do you get running the sub on a separate ultra vs running it off an Amp Pro?

 

[Mort]

What benefit do you get running the sub on a separate ultra vs running it off an Amp Pro?

I have it in a different room. Amp pro didn't exist then either.

 

[corumuk]

Basic question but the WiiM manual says the optical input 'only supports PCM'. So presumably if I hook up my PC that will always be outputting PCM?
Thinking of picking one of these up and selling off my old 2017 Rega Brio, just for a change. Should easily recoup the costs by selling the Brio.

 

[corumuk]

So to answer my own question, the WiiM arrived yesterday and is working fine using optical in from the PC.
Initial subjective impressions, comparing to the Rega Brio/DacMagic through my Dynaudio Emit M10's.
It sounds great for TV programs and Youtube etc.
For music, I wasn't expecting it to sound better, but was hoping it would at least offer similar sound quality.
It sounds fine for a range of genres including classical at low to moderate volumes.
There seems to be less of the warmth that the Brio exhibited, and a more clinical presentation. Subjective, but I thought I could immediately notice a difference in the presentation.
After listening to some tracks and then switching to YouTube, for some reason I started getting lots of clicks, pops, and sound dropping out. Changed to the included (but too short) optical cable and it was fine. Changed back to my original cable and its been fine since.
The app is OK, but requires quite a bit to navigate around.
The remote is fine.
What's with the room equalisation, I've tried it on auto mode a couple of times with the same results but it seems broken. These are the screens that it shows.
Screen 1 - results overview. On this one I would have thought the target (predicted) should be to overlay the yellow line?
Screen 2 - final assessment. Asks to compare yellow/cyan lines but the graph is blank?
Screen 3 - PEQ applied. I mean wtf, seems a bit extreme?

For comparison, the suggested PEQ from spinorama for the Emit M10's is included in the last screenshot.

So overall the jury is still out on this one.

 

[ObjectiveSubjectivist]

Received it yesterday.
So far I'm impressed by app and overall functionality of this amp.
Alo positively surprised of built quality and finish if this device. It feels very nice and dense.
Should serve well in our living room. Now it's time to add a subwoofer

ps. @WiiM Team as I see you are about to introduce a subwoofer, can we expect more info about power, size connectivity etc. ?

 

[somebodyelse]

Alo positively surprised of built quality and finish if this device. It feels very nice and dense.

IIRC a teardown showed a couple of bits of steel in there whose only function was to add weight. Don't remember if that was an amp or Ultra.

 

[ObjectiveSubjectivist]

H

IIRC a teardown showed a couple of bits of steel in there whose only function was to add weight. Don't remember if that was an amp or Ultra.

Here are the photos of the inside, and I'm not sure if there is any unnecessary weight added just to impress

WiiM Amp PRO

WiiM zdobył popularność niedrogimi odtwarzaczami strumieniującymi, które pozwoliły wiele tradycyjnych systemów stereofonicznych otworzyć ...

audio.com.pl

 

[somebodyelse]

H

Here are the photos of the inside, and I'm not sure if there is any unnecessary weight added just to impress

WiiM Amp PRO

WiiM zdobył popularność niedrogimi odtwarzaczami strumieniującymi, które pozwoliły wiele tradycyjnych systemów stereofonicznych otworzyć ...

audio.com.pl

It was inside the top of the case, not shown in those pics. Checking back it was the Ultra I was thinking of:

The Amp doesn't have that, but does have some reasonably large aluminium heatsinks and transfer blocks that should provide some heft as well as decent cooling:

 

[corumuk]

Following on from earlier, after auditioning the WiiM Amp Pro for just under a week I finally decided to return it and stick the Brio (despite the Brio's own faults).
I listened to one for a day or two then the other then back again.
It was a very close thing though and I have to say the SQ of the WiiM was actually very good.
Listening to Sade's Love is Stronger Than Pride, the WiiM really made the separation of the second male vocalist stand out more, something I'd never noticed before. Listening the following day on the Brio and sure enough the second vocalist was there, but felt like it was more blended in. Perhaps it was this type of presentation that led to my earlier comment of the WiiM being more analytical.
Listening to Morcheeba on the WiiM and it sounded fine, but at lower volumes, which is where I tend to listen most, it felt like it wasn't able to deliver the same level of bass weight as the Brio.

With regard to the Brio, it has a power rating of 73 watts into 4 ohms (both channels). I've rarely had it passed the 25% mark and at the 50% mark it is uncomfortably loud. The WiiM on the other hand states that it is 120w per channel at 4 ohm, yet I had it passed 50% and whilst it was plenty loud enough it didn't seem anything like as loud as the Brio.

Regarding my earlier comments on the automatic room equalisation results, I don't think this was any fault of the WiiM as such, but would guess that it has more to do with the quality (or lack therein) of the microphone in the phone used. To test this out I used a sound level measuring app plus a tone generator website to measure the level of a tone at 100hz, 500hz, 1000hz, and on both the WiiM and Brio, sure enough the phone measured significantly different levels, with a big drop at lower frequencies. So to be honest I think that whilst having PEQ on the WiiM is a great idea and the manual setup would be fine, the auto calibration approach which relies on a phone mic is probably flawed at best and unlikely to offer good results.

Some things I'll miss with the WiiM are the streaming abilities, the auto switching between inputs, and the auto standby mode. It's definitely a great bit of kit.

As an aside, the website tone generator was useful to play with as an indicator of my hearing limits. For me, at low volume, it rolled of quite sharply for anything over 5.5khz and ever at higher volumes all is silent above 7khz (aside from tinnitus). Music still sounds great though!

 

[ZinMe]

I'm trying-out the WiiM Amp Pro as well.

I had the same type of very odd results from the in-room correction feature, so that was a fail.

In comparison with my existing 14 yr old Sonos Connect:Amp on software S1 running Tidal, the WiiM sounded slightly better but only after a lot of tweaking with the EQ graphical sliders. The Sonos sound with loudness on and slight adjustments to treble and bass is super easy to dial-in (because there isn't much you can really dial) but it sounds nicely tuned even with that simplicity. One benefit of the WiiM was maybe a very slight improvement in clarity and imaging after further optimizing the EQ beyond what I could get with the Sonos Amp.

The main benefit of the WiiM was the subwoofer controls- I have a KEF T2 sub in the room and dialed the crossover to 60Hz (the Sonos has only one fixed 80Hz crossover) and the WiiM also has a setting that allows the full freq range to go the main speakers while the sub is on. The mains in this case are 8 inch B+W ceiling speakers which can handle it. This made the integration of the sub very smooth and even. The Sonos was also dropping occasionally with a sub connected- I'm guessing the older system might be getting over loaded with the crossover processing?

I don't see a major UI/software difference overall between WiiM and Sonos.

Overall, I'm net positive on the WiiM but the overall sound benefit isn't as overwhelmingly better as I'd hoped. The experience has put me in a bit of a re-think because I learned Sonos has an upgrade program that gives a 30% discount for every existing component I have (and I have 8), which makes the price a lot closer to the WiiM. The newer Sonos Amp has an adjustable crossover frequency, but not the other bells and whistles for tweaking EQ and blending the sub, and it only supports up to 48kHz sampling rates vs the WiiM which supports up to 196. My family is trained on Sonos, although WiiM UI is pretty similar. I don't currently use any separate Sonos branded speakers, but it wouldn't be bad to have that option by staying in the walled garden. The Sonos has been a good system for 14 yrs, will the WiiM last that long?

Either path is likely to be fine, just a matter of figuring out what's going to work best for me.

 

[Symphoniac]

wiim amp pro arrived today!!, after some testing with my kefs q150 playing a variety of music… my humble opinion( as a musician, home recording enthusiast and “audiophile” for +10 years) is… the sound quality improved about 15%~20%, slightly tighter bass, highs not as bright, i would say less “harsh” overall a better presentation of sound, i’m keeping the pro.

Do you find that you have to really turn the volume up to get loud? I recently paired Kef Q150s with a WiiM Amp Pro. Everything works and sounds great, but I noticed that I have to turn the volume dial up considerably, 80% or higher, to reach 85dbs. This is more than loud enough for me, but it was just a bit surprising coming from a cheap Fosi amp that reached similar volume with its dial at 50% ish (same room, same playback from Roon, same everything, FYI this is a desktop nearfield setup). This just simply reflects the different gain structure of the two amps, correct? Again, no complaints about the WiiM, just trying to understand the relationship between SPL and gain.

 

[staticV3]

Do you find that you have to really turn the volume up to get loud? I recently paired Kef Q150s with a WiiM Amp Pro. Everything works and sounds great, but I noticed that I have to turn the volume dial up considerably, 80% or higher, to reach 85dbs. This is more than loud enough for me, but it was just a bit surprising coming from a cheap Fosi amp that reached similar volume with its dial at 50% ish (same room, same playback from Roon, same everything, FYI this is a desktop nearfield setup). This just simply reflects the different gain structure of the two amps, correct? Again, no complaints about the WiiM, just trying to understand the relationship between SPL and gain.

You can use a basic multimeter and 60Hz test tone (attached below), to make sure that the WiiM is in good working order and that you're not losing any volume along the way.

For this, plug out the speakers, play the test tone, set the WiiM to 100% volume, turn off room correction, sub integration, user EQ etc, and measure the AC voltage between R+ and R-.

The multimeter should read 21.7Vrms.

 

[Symphoniac]

You can use a basic multimeter and 60Hz test tone (attached below), to make sure that the WiiM is in good working order and that you're not losing any volume along the way.

For this, plug out the speakers, play the test tone, set the WiiM to 100% volume, turn off room correction, sub integration, user EQ etc, and measure the AC voltage between R+ and R-.

The multimeter should read 21.7Vrms.

Thank you, I'll give it a go tonight!

 

[Alvaro7]

I got this amp to power a couple of electro voice interface A I just had back from the lab perfectly restored. I am very happy of the sound, I fixed the dial problem changing the gain from the app.