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WiiM Amp Streaming Amplifier Review

Rate this streaming amplifier:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 14 3.0%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 50 10.7%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 246 52.7%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 157 33.6%

  • Total voters
    467

amirm

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This is a review and detailed measurements of the WiiM Amp streaming amplifier. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $299.
WiiM Amp Smart multi-room stereo amplifier streaming HDMI ARC review.jpg

I was pleasantly surprised by the good bit of weight this small box has. It will help it not slide with the weight of the speaker wires and such. Back panel shows the differentiation from a regular amplifier:
WiiM Amp Smart multi-room stereo amplifier streaming HDMI ARC back panel review.jpg

With included streaming, you have a one box solution to play your content over the network. You can use the included Bluetooth remote or the application. The latter was rock solid which is more than I can say about some other (major) streaming amplifiers. It instantly found the device, upgraded its firmware and allowed reliable control of all function. I can't do justice to all of its capabilities in this performance related review but suffice it to say, it is very capable.

HDMI ARC allows a smart TV to feed the amplifier signal for content you play internally to your TV. A nice quality HDMI cable was provided (in addition to Toslink and even RCA) which was appreciated.

The only complaint I have is with similar looking subwoofer out. Looking from above, I thought that was the other input channel and spent good bit of time trying to figure out why I was only getting sound out of one channel. Having it be located elsewhere would help as opposed to being lined up with the left audio input channel.

Another nit is the rotary volume control not always acting on the volume. You would have to go two notches for example to change volume.

This review has taken a while to get out. The first sample I received performed well in most of the tests but showed quite an increase in distortion at lower frequencies. This manifested in Multitone test and power vs frequency sweeps. I ran the results by the company and they said this was an early production problem that was fixed. They sent me a new one which almost remedied that problem.

WiiM Amp Amplifier Review
With access to AP's APx516 analyzer, I was able to test the HDMI ARC on WiiM Amp:
WiiM Amp Smart multi-room stereo amplifier streaming HDMI ARC measurements.png

This puts the amplifier comfortable above our average of all amplifiers tested:
Best streaming multi-room amplifier 2024 review.png

Best streaming multi-room amplifier 2024 smart review.png

For streaming, I wanted to use Roon but seems that is not there yet. Fortunately Chromecast is there which provides similar high performance streaming:
WiiM Amp Smart multi-room stereo amplifier streaming Chromecast measurements.png

So no difference with respect to which digital input you use. Analog streaming in the first sample I tested was a bit worse with SINAD of 85 dB. The new sample degraded some with low frequency noise down to 80 dB (not shown). I assume this is not material to most users where analog input is only used for LP and such.

Cycling through inputs, here is dynamic range using Toslink:
WiiM Amp Smart multi-room stereo amplifier streaming analog SNR Toslink measurements.png


Frequency response unfortunately shows the typical load dependency in lower cost class D amplifiers:
WiiM Amp Smart multi-room stereo amplifier streaming Frequency Response Toslink measurements.png


Here is the sub out:
WiiM Amp Smart multi-room stereo amplifier streaming analog Line In subwoofer out measurements.png


As noted, multitone shows good performance now:
WiiM Amp Smart multi-room stereo amplifier streaming HDMI ARC Multitone measurements.png


19 and 20 kHz intermodulation test shows the increased distortion there:
WiiM Amp Smart multi-room stereo amplifier streaming HDMI ARC 19 20 kHz measurements.png


Crosstalk wasn't that great with analog input (inset) but very nice with digital:
WiiM Amp Smart multi-room stereo amplifier streaming Crosstalk Toslink measurements.png


Normally I sweep power with analog input but since digital is much better, I used that: [edit: "8 ohm" label is wrong in the first graph, should say 4 ohm).
WiiM Amp Smart multi-room stereo amplifier streaming Power 4 measurements.png

WiiM Amp Smart multi-room stereo amplifier streaming Power 8 measurements.png


Unless you use analog input, the gain settings is designed such that you never clip. This means that the "peak" power is the same as what I have measured above. Spec is 120 watts at 4 ohm and we are achieving that so no issue there. Same with 60 watt specified for 8 ohm.

Here is power sweep at different frequencies:
WiiM Amp Smart multi-room stereo amplifier streaming Analog In Power vs Frequency measurements.png

The graphs are well behaved for a class D amplifier. 20 Hz distortion though, rises good bit (dashed yellow).

Finally, the amplifier is stable on power up:
WiiM Amp Smart multi-room stereo amplifier streaming warm up measurements.png


Conclusions
The WiiM Amp is a very well executed streaming, multi-room amplifier. It easily plays against big boys of streaming despite lacking their name recognition. Objective performance is very good for the class. The only wish is post output filter feedback to eliminate low dependency of the frequency response.

I am going to put the WiiM Amp amplifier on my recommended list.

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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
 
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Both power sweep graph are labeled for 8 ohms. Typo?
Yes. I reused the 8 ohm template to measure 4 ohm, forgetting about the label. :)
 
Wild that this only hits 90 SINAD. It would be better to use a chromecast audio with a real DAC..

Edit: I realized this is a speaker amp and that is what was tested since there wasn't a line out. The performance is actually good for a speaker amp considering the price of this entire box.
 
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Just confirmation to what I've been reading generally....great value with good feature set (would have loved to see some analysis of the eq but...). If only I needed one (or could think of even a weak excuse), I'd have already ordered it.
 
Voted poor. I do for all amps that will alter the frequency response according to which speaker is connected.
Many speakers have high impedance much higher than 8 ohm in mid to high frequencies. There is a chance this amplifier from 2023 will change how these speakers sound. I think this is more important than how much below threshold the THD+N is.

Also no power cube tests.
 
Is 21 dB max gain? I’ve seen other tests that show it at 27 dB and am curious if they changed the design.
For analog input? If so, it is 20.5 dB. I don't know if there are settings that would change that.
 
The Sonos Amp is a competitive option if you want wireless rear speaker support and the extra power of its amp. The analog in is worse on the Sonos, but for digital, it probably doesn’t matter. The Sonos wireless sub is nicely designed for the size as it has ex-Velodyne engineers.

Where the WiiM Amp wins is the availability of 4-band PEQ… @amirm, if you have time, can you see if enabling PEQ affects noise? The limited power does make me with for a future WiiM Preamp with HDMI ARC support.
 
It's crazy to be in the HiFi hobby today. This guy at $300 + a pair of Ascend Acoustics CBM-170SE at $368, total $668 and you have a very high fidelity system. That's a streamer, DAC, looks to be a very basic DSP in there as there is EQ, integrated amp, and a pair of excellent speakers.

This is a system a college student can afford.
 
It's crazy to be in the HiFi hobby today. This guy at $300 + a pair of Ascend Acoustics CBM-170SE at $368, total $668 and you have a very high fidelity system. That's a streamer, DAC, looks to be a very basic DSP in there as there is EQ, integrated amp, and a pair of excellent speakers.

This is a system a college student can afford.
I'll always advice to buy used HiFi. You can have a TOTL system for peanuts. You may be able to get a cheap chinese amp new. But it is not worth anything in a couple of years.
Not that I disagree with you though. :)
 
It's just an amazing bargain: DAC, Streamer, Bluetooth Receiver, 4 band EQ, and a 60 watt power amp for $300. Also looks really nice. Has a clean Bauhaus minimalistic "Apple made me" kind of look. For what it is, and what it costs not much of anything to complain about. Does it have a remote?
 
If you have a couple of spare bookshelf speakers (and maybe a sub), this seems to be a fairly nice and affordable way to stream good quality stereo music and play better than TV quality audio to guest and secondary bedrooms, considering the Bluetooth remote, control app, and the HDMI ARC TV input.

EDIT: And rumors are that it is headed for Roon Ready Certification; time will tell.
 
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The impedance dependency is sad, but for the money this thing is hard to beat, mainly because of everything that's included in the box.

I can confirm that WiiM streaming capabilities are solid - solid enough that I have one unit (a mini) I keep turned off along with a Fosi amp on a smart switch in my shed. When it's time to listen, I power them both on at once. I usually keep them powered off for a week or more at a time (it's winter and I'm not outside much lately.)

The WiiM is booted up, back on WiFi and ready to stream music in well under a minute every time. This is from inside a plastic box, inside the shed, in my backyard. I don't have to add it back to the network or any nonsense like that.

In this day and age, that quality of software+hardware engineering is not universal in audio, and for the money it's unheard of. Add 120 semi-credible watts to that and you have a pretty tidy system on your hands. The high-quality sub-$1000 system is definitely becoming a reality here.
 
Thanks @amirm.
Wondering how did voice control work if you used during testing?
 
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