WiiM Mini Review (Streamer)

[Atanasi]

I tried linking an Amazon account to Wiim Mini, and I was disappointed that the app opens an embedded browser for logging into the Amazon account. This kind of setup is insecure, because the app is able to capture passwords from embedded browsers and use the Amazon account for purposes it was not intended. Google has actually forbidden this and apps that do this for Google accounts will be removed from Play Store.

One proper way to do this is to open the system browser for logging into external accounts and return to the app afterwards. The system browser is trusted to handle external service passwords.

 

[Brantome]

I tried linking an Amazon account to Wiim Mini, and I was disappointed that the app opens an embedded browser for logging into the Amazon account. This kind of setup is insecure, because the app is able to capture passwords from embedded browsers and use the Amazon account for purposes it was not intended. Google has actually forbidden this and apps that do this for Google accounts will be removed from Play Store.

One proper way to do this is to open the system browser for logging into external accounts and return to the app afterwards. The system browser is trusted to handle external service passwords.

Probably an idea to raise a ticket with WiiM and see if they'll change that

 

[AndyLewis]

Very interesting and good its bitcorrect. How about using the digital volumecontrol with the app , is the toslink output fixed or can you change the digital output volume level ? If you can do this, is it any sample rate conversion going on when using the volume , and is it any good ?

You didnt post any frequency response curve , is there any measurements on this ? Thanks for the review .

Yep - 2vrms fixed 1 vrms fixed or variable..... also bluetooth/aux input in & toslink out

 

[AndyLewis]

Very interesting and good its bitcorrect. How about using the digital volumecontrol with the app , is the toslink output fixed or can you change the digital output volume level ? If you can do this, is it any sample rate conversion going on when using the volume , and is it any good ?

You didnt post any frequency response curve , is there any measurements on this ? Thanks for the review .

Yep - 2v fixed 1v fixed or variable..... also bluetooth/aux input in & toslink out controlled similarly.

 

[jae]

What cables does this come with?

 

[Brantome]

What cables does this come with?

From the Amazon website:

What's in the box?​

• WiiM Mini Music Streamer
• Optical Audio Cable
• 3.5mm to 3.5mm Cable
• 3.5mm to RCA (Phono) Cable
• USB C Power Cable

You”ll need to supply your own usb power plug though

 

[AndyLewis]

From the Amazon website:

What's in the box?​

• WiiM Mini Music Streamer
• Optical Audio Cable
• 3.5mm to 3.5mm Cable
• 3.5mm to RCA (Phono) Cable
• USB C Power Cable

You”ll need to supply your own usb power plug though

I found that a plug from a (now defunct UHD faulty Firestick) rated 10w 2A is ideal although it was also fine using a higher rated usb output on my 30000ma power bank.

 

[Ralph_Cramden]

From the Amazon website:

What's in the box?​

• WiiM Mini Music Streamer
• Optical Audio Cable
• 3.5mm to 3.5mm Cable
• 3.5mm to RCA (Phono) Cable
• USB C Power Cable

You”ll need to supply your own usb power plug though

Power plug came with mine, purchased from Amazon USA.

 

[AndyLewis]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the WiiM Mini Wifi/Bluetooth streamer. It is on kind loan from a member and is on sale on Amazon for US $89.

View attachment 200172

As you can see the former factor is a "hockey puck." An included phone charger needs to be used to power the unit over USB-C. It did not work so when I used my computer USB port.

Initial setup is by connecting using Bluetooth and the available App. I connected using BT but the Android app would not see it. I had to shut off BT and turn it back on for it to recognize it. While this is disappointing, I have had similar issues with other streamers. Once there, the app was reliable and gave me the option of configuring Toslink output for bit exact and its maximum sample rate which I appreciated. It also updated the device on first connection.

WiiM Mini Measurements
My first tests were using Aiplay 2.0 as initiated by my Roon player. As usual, Airplay itself becomes the bottleneck as we see with Toslink digital out:
View attachment 200173

Not sure if Airplay forced the sample rate to change to 48 kHz or the device did it. Using it with analog out we get:
View attachment 200174

While we are beating the company spec, performance is lackluster as is typically the case in this category of product. Noise performance is not great either:

View attachment 200175

There is however good news if you use the App and output over Toslink:

View attachment 200176

This is the best you can do with 24-bit dithered signal. At 141 dB, your limit then will be what your DAC can do as even state of the are units have a SINAD of 123 dB.

Using the same signal but now testing the analog output we get:
View attachment 200177

So just a hair better than using Airplay. The internal DAC as expected, is a mass market product than high performance.

Using the same for jitter we have:
View attachment 200178

Noise floor is fairly high which can hide a lot of sins.

Since my analyzer can't control streaming devices, these are all the tests I can reasonably run. I think we have a good picture though.

Edit: by request, here is the frequency response from the internal DAC:

View attachment 200372

Edit WiiM Mini ADC Analog In Measurements
Feeding the Mini analog input and capturing the same, gives this output:
View attachment 200375

Performance is dominated by distortion. Switching to Toslink out to eliminate effect of the DAC we basically get the same result:

View attachment 200376

So just like the DAC, this is a mass market ADC implementation. Good enough for common uses though but I would not route the clean output of any DAC through it.

Conclusions
If you use the App and Toslink output, you basically have a transparent wireless link to your stereo. Connect it to your favorite DAC and your performance will only be limited by the rest of your system. For me personally lack of Roon support is a big deal. I don't want to use their App to play or stream content. I hope the company looks at supporting Roon endpoint. Analog output of the unit is just OK.

Personally I can't recommend the WiiM Mini due to lack of support for Roon player. That aside, it is great to see bit exact digital output in a budget streamer allowing you to improve its performance to any level you want using your own DAC.

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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/

Probably an idea to raise a ticket with WiiM and see if they'll change that

Just a point to note - when I did it it directed me to the Amazon sign in & about 5 security steps & a changed password later (outside the wiim) it authorised the "speaker". Also you cannot change any amazon control settings/content from the wiim - that's limited to their own apps only.
If you don't use Amazon on it for a few days Amzn logs you out & you have to do some external checks again so I'm ok with that.

 

[Ceck the sound]

Just watched Darko review and sounds just amazing. But at this point I'm wondering: does it make sense to spend 100€ for this device while with 40€ less you can get a Xiaomi Mi Box, that does the same with good quality but allowing you to also use a screen/tv to navigate (without considering Netflix and so on)?

 

[Witterings]

Just watched Darko review and sounds just amazing. But at this point I'm wondering: does it make sense to spend 100€ for this device while with 40€ less you can get a Xiaomi Mi Box, that does the same with good quality but allowing you to also use a screen/tv to navigate (without considering Netflix and so on)?

Depends what you want to use it with / for.

I've a slightly older Mi Box which I bought as I liked playing the music from Youtube videos through the stereo but you can't cast Youtube to a Chromecast Audio and if you're Apple based it doesn't play well with anything Chromecast orientated which is what my Mi Box was based around .... Android's a different story though.

Also not sure if you can group the newer Mi Box's for multi room but whatever unless they've moved on Chromecast seems to almost be being phased out by Google.

 

[RobR]

I just bought a Wiim Mini. I tried to use Tidal in my Windows 10-PC to cast/connect to Wiim Mini, but the streamer doesn't show in the 'tidal connect' list of devices. I tried the same with Spotify, no problem. The streamer shows up in the 'spotify connect' list of devices.
(Not sure if it's relevant, but I'd logged into my Tidal account inside Wiim Home app. And I've been using Tidal inside the Wiim Home with no problem)

Is the streamer unable to cast/connect from Tidal in a Windows 10-PC?

 

[Ralph_Cramden]

Tidal Connect works to the WiiM from my iPhone and from my Chrome tablet.

 

[telemike]

Tidal Connect works from iPhone and iPad

 

[Witterings]

I just bought a Wiim Mini. I tried to use Tidal in my Windows 10-PC to cast/connect to Wiim Mini, but the streamer doesn't show in the 'tidal connect' list of devices. I tried the same with Spotify, no problem. The streamer shows up in the 'spotify connect' list of devices.
(Not sure if it's relevant, but I'd logged into my Tidal account inside Wiim Home app. And I've been using Tidal inside the Wiim Home with no problem)

Is the streamer unable to cast/connect from Tidal in a Windows 10-PC?

That sounds like it's the same as Amazon Music, you can cast from their Apps on a tablet / phone but not from a PC ... if so I think it's something that would have to come from Amazon / Tidal as opposed to WiiM and I doubt they have any real interest in doing it at the moment as the vast majority will probably be using a phone / tablet.
Personally I think it's a shame as I'm not a big phone / tablet user and they're switched off the majority of the time but my laptop's always on in the area I mainly play music.

 

[Brantome]

This Tidal help page for Connect doesn’t mention Windows, so it looks like you can only cast from their iOS or android app. However, if you have Windows 11 and are usa based, you may be able to run the android version of the Tidal ( or amazon music app) and cast from that.

https://support.tidal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360004565898-How-to-Use-TIDAL-Connect

 

[Witterings]

I hope I'm not shooting off too soon again .... I've been away for a few days (Seville in Spain ... if anyone fancies somewhere amazing to go) but was sending as many bug reports as I could to the guys at WiiM as I could before I went - (I understand the more they have the easier to trace the issue ... especially if just after an issue's happened).

Fingers crossed the stuttering on Amazon Music seems to have stopped and I've been using it quite a bit since I've been back.

I nearly sent my WiiM's back a while ago but gut instinct I believed they genuinely wanted to resolve any issues and it seems like they're taking them head on.

"The Main" person I've dealt with has been incredibly professional / helpful (If his boss reads this ... his name begins with L and he's a credit to your company) and if they continue like this I'm sure they'll go from strength to strength and produce many more incredible products.

Looking forward to the Amazon HD upgrade as long as it doesn't recreate any stuttering issues, hopefully it'll be fully tested before release.

I've recently upgraded some of my system (In a secondary area) and added a Sub and B&W 607's ... sitting here listening to Genesis - Duke ... 1st track Behind The Lines and 6th track Heathaze ... some amazing Bass on both of those if that's what people are that ... wonder if it may have been Daryl Stuermer.

Anyway summary .... If the company continue to work with their customers in such a way, they may be a serious contender in the future producing amazing products at a very competitive price and if so good luck to them.

 

[morillon]

Hello
a small complaint from me
it seems to me that there are three main axes of evolution for this little wiim:
- the best possible integration with tidal suppliers, amazon deezer etc etc... it seems like a real way of the cross
but the wiim team seems very reactive...
-
the fact of continuing to expand and develop the small application of wiim...
there too the team seems, and I still hope for a good time, listening....
-
the pure technical aspect...
in """asr""" mode
personally I am quite disappointed.
I have fun digging in comparison with the old little chromecast marketed in 2015..
certainly the wiim has capabilities such as being able to support 192k (which personally doesn't matter to me), but, to observe in detail the analog output is rather less good than the old chromecast...
in optical output the wiim does rather less well in jitter going so far as to put souccis "to measure", the clocks seem really not good ..quality of quartz?
especially since the chromecast was nothing of a racing beast.
but I do not forget for what affordable price bracket are one and the other.
I'm just disappointed to see that like 6 or 7 years later a gap has not been crossed...
(if at home the wifi connection seems more stable with the wiim)

I have already expressed but I wonder tonight if the engineers will not be able to dig on the side of the firmware to improve the purely audio aspect
;-)
sorry for the automatic translator
ps
I still keep the wiim because thanks to the wiim application I have safe access to deezer in flac "44k/16bits , upnp etc ...
which is not at all guaranteed "bit perfect" it seems (!) with the chromecast

 

[Witterings]

I have fun digging in comparison with the old little chromecast marketed in 2015..
certainly the wiim has capabilities such as being able to support 192k (which personally doesn't matter to me), but, to observe in detail the analog output is rather less good than the old chromecast...
in optical output the wiim does rather less well in jitter going so far as to put souccis "to measure", the clocks seem really not good ..quality of quartz?
especially since the chromecast was nothing of a racing beast.
but I do not forget for what affordable price bracket are one and the other.
I'm just disappointed to see that like 6 or 7 years later a gap has not been crossed...
(if at home the wifi connection seems more stable with the wiim)

I've come from CC Audio as well, my reason for changing is Google seem less and less interested in supporting them and that's only going to get worse in the future and the CCA's didn't play well with anything Apple based.

Having switched back the my CCA's a couple of times I've noticed the gaps on Amazon between songs on albums / playlists are way longer than they are with the WiiM, I'm just hoping these become the "New" CCA but better and hopefully in the near future but I'm not e-baying my CCA's just yet.

 

[morillon]

I just use both.
the cca on a internet radio that I really like in analog "stand alone",
and
the wiim with external dac on deezer flac etc
;-)
ps
with wiim, stay with no more "1v analogique"" .......at "2v"distortion sinad etc deteriorates sharply