WiiM Amp Streaming Amplifier Review

[mcfadyeni]

Jumping in here to say thank you for the review, amirm!

Switched from an older Alexa gen 2 to a pair of Polk speakers and a WiiM amp, partially thanks to seeing this review, and while it may not be the best equipment out there it still sounds night and day versus the old and is good enough for me and my budget

 

[Ralph_Cramden]

You can have perfect sterile values, but that doesn't mean the amp sounds great. As for the wiim amplifier, all values and measurements are posted by both the amir and other reviewers.
You must listen with your ears and not look at the measurements and data given by reviewers. Either the amplifier sounds beautiful or it doesn’t.

You’re full of it.

 

[bcfc]

Your opinion holds no water as a generalisation, besides being a subjective impression.

My subjective opinion besides being on my listening wiim amp, ayima 07, topping pa 3s, naim nait 5i and another amplifiers

 

[onlyoneme]

Either the amplifier sounds beautiful or it doesn’t.

No. Any amp might sound "beautiful" for you and horrible for me. You have your ears, I have mine, so your statements about how the Amp sounds make no sense.

 

[bcfc]

No. Any amp might sound "beautiful" for you and horrible for me. You have your ears, I have mine, so your statements about how the Amp sounds make no sense.

This is how I express only my thoughts and how I hear. I expressed his opinion in response to a person’s question about what is better, separate components or an all-in-one device. I’m not imposing my opinion on anyone, you need to listen to the difference and not rely on dry numbers.

 

[VintageFlanker]

I’m not imposing my opinion on anyone,

But you are, indeed.

...you need to listen to the difference and not rely on dry numbers.

This is an opinion. (By the way, a very poor and uneducated one).

You must listen with your ears and not look at the measurements and data given by reviewers.

This is an opinion. Also very problematic.

If the sound with good separation of musical instruments is important to you, then of course you need to buy separate devices.

This is an opinion. Again very, very wrong, for what matters.

It turns out that ASR is more focused on facts than random and unsupported opinions from a new member.

Cheers.

 

[dominikz]

you need to listen to the difference and not rely on dry numbers.

However if you listen with both amps precisely level-matched, and without knowing which is playing, you might find the differences are suddenly gone.
And then you might realize the numbers are not as dry as you thought.

However I appreciate such tests are not trivial to facilitate for most hobbyists - though I'd hope people would trust audio scientists and engineers who have been doing these types of tests (and documenting their results) all their lives. There's around 100 years of such research behind us already.

If you spend the time to learn about audio science you will find that a lot of it is indeed based on listening - a controlled listening test is one of the basic tools in the field. This is how we know which numbers are 'good' and which are 'bad' (though the exact borders between them are sometimes fuzzy).

Listening tests without basic controls (level matching and not being able to see which device is playing) offer no value because there are many factors that can influence them - mainly tiny volume differences, short auditory memory, various well-known perceptual and cognitive biases, etc...

EDIT: A short, but very informative article by dr. Sean Olive: "The Dishonesty of Sighted Listening Tests"

 

[bcfc]

It turns out that ASR is more focused on facts than random and unsupported opinions from a new member.

I am a new member, you are an old member - why emphasize this? It is not nice of you to segregate people. Just like attacking a person who has listened to several amplifiers and can draw his own personal conclusion and express it on the forum? I expressed my opinion, I have nothing more to add. All the best and peace. Be tolerant.

 

[harkpabst]

I am a new member, you are an old member - why emphasize this? It is not nice of you to segregate people. Just like attacking a person who has listened to several amplifiers and can draw his own personal conclusion and express it on the forum? I expressed my opinion, I have nothing more to add. All the best and peace. Be tolerant.

He's been pointing out facts, not attacking you.

The fact that you are a new member means nothing else than nobody knows about your background, your education or your taste (for that matter), so far. Thus, every word you say must be taking very literally, not "tolerant".

From that point of view nothing has happened, except showing the reasons why your responses have not been helpful for undecided buyers. That's it.

 

[dominikz]

I am a new member, you are an old member - why emphasize this? It is not nice of you to segregate people. Just like attacking a person who has listened to several amplifiers and can draw his own personal conclusion and express it on the forum? I expressed my opinion, I have nothing more to add. All the best and peace. Be tolerant.

You should be aware that this forum is strongly focused on providing robust and objective corroborating data whenever a claim that challenges established science is made.

IMHO it is very important to challenge such claims so that the many people who read this forum can see which claims can withstand scrutiny. Without it myths will continue to propagate, people will continue to throw their hard-earned-money away on various irrelevant 'upgrades', and the audio industry will continue to be snake-oil-ridden.

This has nothing to do with intolerance and hopefully shouldn't degrade to personal attacks - though it can surely be challenging to perceive it like that when on the receiving end!

 

[VintageFlanker]

I am a new member, you are an old member - why emphasize this? It is not nice of you to segregate people.

Oh sorry, maybe it's my own education, or maybe it's a cultural thing... But in my book, you cannot just land somewhere and then make very strong statements such as "you need to", "you have to", "you must", towards people that have been here for a while. In whatever situation, I find this behaviour to be very inappropriate, I regret.

Just like attacking a person who has listened to several amplifiers and can draw his own personal conclusion and express it on the forum?

This is not the issue here. The issue is that you expressed your opinions as robust facts, while they absolutely aren't. (Not denying that you heard an actual difference between your amps. You might. Just this statement for separated is pure nonsense)

You should be aware that this forum is strongly focused on providing robust and objective corroborating data whenever a claim that challenges established science is made.

This.

I can't believe that someone subscribing here in the last few months wouldn't be aware of what ASR is (mostly) about. Advising people to deliberately ignore hard data (a strong part of ASR) is at best disrespectful for the people providing it. The end.

 

[Pinkynator]

I am a new member, you are an old member - why emphasize this? It is not nice of you to segregate people. Just like attacking a person who has listened to several amplifiers and can draw his own personal conclusion and express it on the forum? I expressed my opinion, I have nothing more to add. All the best and peace. Be tolerant.

Here's the problem: you haven't actually listened to amplifiers.

You have watched amplifier casings, manufacturer names, carried amplifiers from your car to your 5th floor apartment when the elevator was out of order... And god damn it, that 30 kilo amp MUST sound good because you can feel a slight pinch of a nerve just below your left scapula and the person who loaned the amp to you said he paid $12345€.

Also, some amps have VU-meters, which means they're f-ing awesome. Only the BEST stuff has VU-meters.

Here are two only possible scenarios of actually hearing differences between amplifiers on normal listening levels:

1) One is a tube amp, the other isn't
2) One is broken, the other isn't

There's a third scenario outside of the above scope that involves potential hearing loss, and that's when one amp doesn't deliver enough power for loudspeakers to produce painful SPL levels, and one does.

There's no fourth scenario.

 

[ocinn]

It’s 2024 and amplifiers are still being released with low pass subwoofer outputs but no high-pass switch, at minimum, for the mains. Very disappointing.

 

[Joffy1780]

It’s 2024 and amplifiers are still being released with low pass subwoofer outputs but no high-pass switch, at minimum, for the mains. Very disappointing.

This Wiim Amp has both, though, or do you mean other amps?

 

[Ivanovich]

Here's the problem: you haven't actually listened to amplifiers.

You have watched amplifier casings, manufacturer names, carried amplifiers from your car to your 5th floor apartment when the elevator was out of order... And god damn it, that 30 kilo amp MUST sound good because you can feel a slight pinch of a nerve just below your left scapula and the person who loaned the amp to you said he paid $12345€.

Also, some amps have VU-meters, which means they're f-ing awesome. Only the BEST stuff has VU-meters.

Here are two only possible scenarios of actually hearing differences between amplifiers on normal listening levels:

1) One is a tube amp, the other isn't
2) One is broken, the other isn't

There's a third scenario outside of the above scope that involves potential hearing loss, and that's when one amp doesn't deliver enough power for loudspeakers to produce painful SPL levels, and one does.

There's no fourth scenario.

This is funny but I kind of disagree. I’ll grant you that confirmation bias is strong but there is a fourth scenario. Cheap, poorly executed design.

Last year, I bought two $60 Chi-Fi Fosi TB10D’s. Hooked it up and even my wife (not a critical listener) could hear that it sounded terrible. Same with the second unit. It’s possible they’re both broken. I suspect it just has a poor design that has audible odd-order distortion.

Fourth case => cheap, crappy amp!

 

[Pinkynator]

No, that's still scenario 2: one amp is broken (by design; either on purpose to deliberately make a "house sound", or accidentally, by chasing cheapness and letting students design it)

 

[voodooless]

No, that's still scenario 2: one amp is broken (by design; either on purpose to deliberately make a "house sound", or accidentally, by chasing cheapness and letting students design it)

It isn't very much broken though:

Fosi Audio TB10D Amplifier Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Fosi Audio TB10D stereo amplifier. It was sent to me by the company and is only sale for US $70 on Amazon including shipping. We have the typical compact desktop aluminum case. Controls feel nice for the class. Tone controls are not centered...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Talisman]

It isn't very much broken though:

Fosi Audio TB10D Amplifier Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Fosi Audio TB10D stereo amplifier. It was sent to me by the company and is only sale for US $70 on Amazon including shipping. We have the typical compact desktop aluminum case. Controls feel nice for the class. Tone controls are not centered...

www.audiosciencereview.com

In fact it's not broken at all, it's a cheap but quite competent product, apart from the load dependency I'd swallow a sock if in blind it sounded worse than a Cambridge Audio cxa81

 

[Ivanovich]

In fact it's not broken at all, it's a cheap but quite competent product, apart from the load dependency I'd swallow a sock if in blind it sounded worse than a Cambridge Audio cxa81

Based on my experience it would depend on the speakers used. I was using cheap, 8-ohm speakers with exaggerated high end. Performance was audibly bad compared to an old Yamaha Class A/B receiver. (Why match $60 amp with $1000 speaker?)

 

[Talisman]

Based on my experience it would depend on the speakers used. I was using cheap, 8-ohm speakers with exaggerated high end. Performance was audibly bad compared to an old Yamaha Class A/B receiver. (Why match $60 amp with $1000 speaker?)

If the problem you are experiencing is indeed due to load dependency matching very poorly with the impedance of those specific speakers then it may actually be a real and audible problem. The old class AB Yamahas might have a worse synad but they certainly have a flat frequency response independent of the load

The "price" combination on the other hand does not have much meaning, it is the basis on which unnecessarily expensive cables are sold to combine them with expensive systems, even if this makes no difference.
A 60 euro amplifier that is well engineered and powerful enough for your needs can drive 1000 euro speakers, why not, if the features are good, unfortunately this probably wasn't in your case, but regardless of the price