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WiiM Mini Review (Streamer)

Rate this streamer:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 12 2.6%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 46 9.8%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 225 48.0%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 186 39.7%

  • Total voters
    469

Jim Shaw

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I've been waiting to see some measurements of this little device -- because I think I have an ideal use for it: the bedroom lull-me-to-sleep music player. I've been using an old Amazon Echo interface with Amazon HD Unlimited. Echo's speech recognition is nice in the kitchen, but the nice lady has much difficulty with artist and composer names. (Like a dive bartender, she knows Bo Diddley and Taylor Swift just fine but cannot find anyone named Jean Guillou or Arthur Jussen.)
The components of the bedroom system are intolerable cast-offs from the living room system -- a leftover Denon PMA-600NE that doesn't have enough power for the living room, two castoff, shrill Klipsch RP-600M "Voice Of The Pissed Monkey" speakers, a new little Elac sub, and an old Samsung BluRay machine with Toslink and remote. Luckily, the Denon has two optical inputs -- and a remote.

Frankly, I was just waiting for an objective review before pushing the buy button for the WiiM. I play the bedroom system player at quite a low volume to keep the pissed monkey (Klipsch) speakers somewhat at bay.
.....
Yes, I need to confess to the dilettantes here that I find Amazon HD Unlimited just fine, everywhere, thank you. For me, Roon, Tidal, and Qubuz are services that were SOTA five years ago, the same vintage as, say, Vine. There are so many bad recordings of good music extant that playing them through a fufu service seems like eating gruel with a silver spoon, pinkie out. But I digress...
 

dsnyder0cnn

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vkvedam

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Thanks for the review @amirm.

I need to ask myself if I need it given the fact that I have two CCAs in my possession :). HiFi Cast is doing gapless for the locally stored files. Streaming services have a very little gap, that's the only reason I have been thinking about getting this.
 

TomJ

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It's "missing" a USB input since it's designed to replace use of a computer as streamer.
Different use case. This is a wifi streamer. If you want to stream on USB, plug that into your DAC.

The Wiim has not replaced my computer because I use a UPnP music player. I only use their app for the initial setup and then to pull their FW updates on demand rather than wait for auto-updates.

As a wifi streamer, the WiiM is much more robust than the Volumio network interface for example which is "still crazy after all these years". I now bypass the Volumio network interface on my SHD Studio by streaming wifi to the WiiM and connecting that to the SHD by 192/24 toslink to run Dirac etc. It's a big improvement. I hope that miniDSP replaces the OEM Volumio interface with an OEM Linkplay interface on their next generation SHD products.
 
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mSpot

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I use and like Roon, but I know that it will never become a mainstream product. Roon requires running a Roon Core server and a paid subscription just to listen to music. Only a tiny, minuscule proportion of music listeners will ever use Roon.

Therefore I think it's harsh to conclude, "Personally I can't recommend the WiiM Mini due to lack of support for Roon player." Many readers will skip the review and jump the conclusion and decide, "Well, it's not good enough for Amir so I'm not going to consider it".

The bottom line for recommendation should be whether it is a "good product". I see so few negatives for WiiM Mini. It offers Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, AirPlay2, bit perfect hi-res, Bluetooth, WiFi, analog and digital output for under $100. Seriously, what products would you recommend instead?
 

sarumbear

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Therefore I think it's harsh to conclude, "Personally I can't recommend the WiiM Mini due to lack of support for Roon player." Many readers will skip the review and jump the conclusion and decide, "Well, it's not good enough for Amir so I'm not going to consider it".
That’s the problem. @amirm made ASR such a success that, as the founder and tester, his recommendations, even if it is qualified as personal views, are seen as objective. He is now very deservedly on an objective pedestal. The downside is people on that position are not expected to have personal views.
 

TomJ

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Personally I can't recommend the WiiM Mini due to lack of support for Roon player.
Roon runs well on Windows and Roon Nucleus, but the MacOS version has a nasty bug (memory leak?) that was reported 3+ years ago and is still not fixed. It hogs so much CPU resource that the cooling fans start running continuously on MacBook Pros. I stopped using Roon when Apple support advised me to stop using any software application that overdrives the CPU that hard (good advice). There's lots more about this in several threads on the Roon user forum.
 
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PeteL

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I'll order one on Amazon and will send it back if it's not as good as my RPI-4. RPI-4 is dead simple to use. Set it up and forget it. I like using the USB out of the ADI-2 to RPI4. It looks like this $100 WiiM streamer is missing that basic function to begin with. Lets hope the rest of the comparison is not totally downhill too. :D
It's a basic function for a computer. RPI are computers, this is consumers electronics. By it's nature, USB audio needs an actual operating system. Yes some streamers do it but basically, those who do just litterally cram a PI in their box or other linux based micro computing modules. Of course no one will ever be able to compete RPI for what it can do for a certain price. Volume folks, this is a music listening device, that will sell in the 6 numbers if they do very well. RPI it's hundreds of millions.
 

mSpot

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Roon runs well on Windows and Roon Nucleus, but the MacOS version has a nasty bug (memory leak?) that was reported 3+ years ago and is still not fixed. It hogs so much CPU resource that the cooling fans start running continuously on MacBook Pros.
Interesting, because I've been running Roon on my MacBook Pro continuously for almost 2 years without any issues. I follow the Roon forum and a lot of users seem to use Macs, so the problem may have been resolved some time ago. However, I have just (literally this week) set up Roon Rock on a NUC so that I don't have to leave my MacBook Pro running just to listen to music.
 

TomJ

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Interesting, because I've been running Roon on my MacBook Pro continuously for almost 2 years without any issues. I follow the Roon forum and a lot of users seem to use Macs, so the problem may have been resolved some time ago. However, I have just (literally this week) set up Roon Rock on a NUC so that I don't have to leave my MacBook Pro running just to listen to music.
Lucky you! Lots of us were the unlucky ones, many different reports on the forum on all kinds of Macs and MacOS versions...
When I upgraded to an M1 MBP I tried again with Monterey. The latest Roon release ran at over 60% CPU, which is nuts given how screaming fast these are.
 
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ExUnoPlura

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Common sense tells us but when you read this on the review wouldn’t you question further?



Assuming the word “when” is a typo for “then” the sentence reads: the phone charger did not work so I used my computer USB port.

Anyway, soon the moderator will ban me being personal, again, so I bow out.
It was mildly ambiguous. I read: ”It did not work so when I used my computer USB…” as “It did not work however (or as such) when…” The preceding sentence rules out treating “so” as meaning “and therefore”
 
OP
amirm

amirm

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Only a tiny, minuscule proportion of music listeners will ever use Roon.
And only a tiny percentage of music listeners cares about bit perfect Toslink yet you all want that so bad. Ditto for me and Roon support. It costs nothing in hardware to support it. So it should be a standard feature of any streamer targeting enthusiasts. The only work-around for Roon users is to use Apple Airplay which causes performance degradation. This is not acceptable.
 

dsnyder0cnn

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And only a tiny percentage of music listeners cares about bit perfect Toslink yet you all want that so bad. Ditto for me and Roon support. It costs nothing in hardware to support it. So it should be a standard feature of any streamer targeting enthusiasts. The only work-around for Roon users is to use Apple Airplay which causes performance degradation. This is not acceptable.
Someone else mentioned this (paid) extension, but I've not tried it. I am using the rooDial extension, written by the same author, with good results. I'm I'm sure this one works fine too. Probably worth $35 if these folks can't (or won't) add support for R.A.A.T.

 

PeteL

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And only a tiny percentage of music listeners cares about bit perfect Toslink yet you all want that so bad. Ditto for me and Roon support. It costs nothing in hardware to support it. So it should be a standard feature of any streamer targeting enthusiasts. The only work-around for Roon users is to use Apple Airplay which causes performance degradation. This is not acceptable.
In order to know there is no hardware cost, we first need to know the hardware architechture. The roon endpoint functionality comes with a certain framework and the micro-controller and memory have to support it. That said you are likely right and I don't dispute that, but why does it matter if it's hardware, dev, or licensing... Cost is cost and it gets transmitted to the buyer. I get that you like Roon but: come on Amit "This is not acceptable" That's a seriously strong in coffee statement, You need this, you look for a streamer that support this. You have the choice. I don't need this, why should I pay for this?
 

flz

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The only work-around for Roon users is to use Apple Airplay which causes performance degradation. This is not acceptable.
Apple airplay degradation is an interesting subject. I wonder how audible it is for people. I compared Tidal lossless (hifi mode) vs redbook CD vs Apple Music over Airplay 2 (AAC 256) and could not hear any consistent difference at all, other than slightly different volume levels on a few tracks. Then again, there are many measurements not audible to me. However, I can tell the difference with Bluetooth, with BT sounding slightly inferior to all the ones mentioned above.
 

ThatM1key

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I use and like Roon, but I know that it will never become a mainstream product. Roon requires running a Roon Core server and a paid subscription just to listen to music. Only a tiny, minuscule proportion of music listeners will ever use Roon.

Therefore I think it's harsh to conclude, "Personally I can't recommend the WiiM Mini due to lack of support for Roon player." Many readers will skip the review and jump the conclusion and decide, "Well, it's not good enough for Amir so I'm not going to consider it".

The bottom line for recommendation should be whether it is a "good product". I see so few negatives for WiiM Mini. It offers Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, AirPlay2, bit perfect hi-res, Bluetooth, WiFi, analog and digital output for under $100. Seriously, what products would you recommend instead?
The Topping BC-3, when it comes to Bluetooth
 

dsnyder0cnn

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Not with Roon. There is no support for UPnP.
There's some level of support via a 3rd party paid extension. Please see my post above. If someone who spends $89 for an endpoint will be happy spending another $35 for the extension is another story. On the plus side, there's no limit to the number of UPnP devices supported. :)
 
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