WiiM Pro Plus Streamer Review

[bobster]

I returned my WiiM Pro Plus today.

Why?

1. The 12v trigger lowers the voltage, turning off my power amp, after 2.5 minutes, and this setting can't be changed by the user. This makes it useless for me.

On December 27, I posted a feature request in the WiiM forums that it be user-adjustable and, preferably, linked to the auto-standby-mode setting. Several others echoed the request, and WiiM support said it was a good idea, and "stay tuned". But after three and a half weeks, I decided I didn't want to wait around for something that might never come. IMO, this feature is poo

2. Even after disconnected the trigger cable from my power amp, I continued to get occasional audio dropouts in Zoom meetings after periods of silence, as if there were a noise gate. (The meeting was streamed from a laptop to an Apple TV 4k connected via HDMI to a Panasonic plasma TV, with optical out from the TV connected to the WiiM Pro Plus).

When I removed the WiiM from the system and reverted to my old setup, the dropouts stopped (I tested two different configurations, each for a 90-minute meeting, and also ruled out Zoom as the cause).

EDIT: I found a thread from March 2023 at the WiiM forum where three other users reported dropouts from the optical input (one also reported dropouts from the analog input).

3. I had album art display problems in the WiiM Home app with music files on my NAS, streamed via DLNA over Ethernet. In song list view, some of the small cover images only displayed partially. Larger album images usually displayed as four tiled smaller images. These problems didn't occur on Synology's DS Audio app or in Audio Station in a web browser. (I wouldn't have returned it if these were the only issues, btw.)

4. WiiM support didn't respond to follow-up questions in a support ticket. I waited three weeks. Then, five days ago, I reported the dropouts (#2 above) in the same ticket, and still didn't get a response.

Also, potential buyers should know that the 12v trigger cable jack on the WiiM Pro Plus is 2.5mm instead of the more-common 3.5mm. Cables with a 2.5mm TS male connector on one end and 3.5mm TS male connector on the other are available.

 

[Alecsandru]

Hello there. After much praise on this forum,Reddit and a few other sites i purchased a Wiim pro plus almost a month ago and so far…I am speechless. Until now I was using the Buchardt I150 amplifier running the S400 and two Rel T7x series and the addition of the Wiim just made my system sound…how should I put put it? large,the volume gain is just amazing, sound stage, suddenly they have more personality,I couldn’t recognise them and I highly doubt is placebo.

I am by no means knowledgeable when it comes to audio gear but I suppose Wiim’s DAC made all the difference.
Now my question boils down to : is it worth getting an external DAC eg Topping that would have an audible improvement? Or what would make my system sound incrementally better ? I have this system for some years now and I feel like I missed out many listening hours just because I didn’t invest in a slightly better DAC than the one in my integrated amplifier.

Thanks!

 

[radix]

Hello there. After much praise on this forum,Reddit and a few other sites i purchased a Wiim pro plus almost a month ago and so far…I am speechless. Until now I was using the Buchardt I150 amplifier running the S400 and two Rel T7x series and the addition of the Wiim just made my system sound…how should I put put it? large,the volume gain is just amazing, sound stage, suddenly they have more personality,I couldn’t recognise them and I highly doubt is placebo.

I am by no means knowledgeable when it comes to audio gear but I suppose Wiim’s DAC made all the difference.
Now my question boils down to : is it worth getting an external DAC eg Topping that would have an audible improvement? Or what would make my system sound incrementally better ? I have this system for some years now and I feel like I missed out many listening hours just because I didn’t invest in a slightly better DAC than the one in my integrated amplifier.

Thanks!

I doubt much of anything would make the wiim pro plus sound better at the DAC level. Probably not even incrementally better.

If you wanted balanced outputs, that might be the only reason to use a different DAC, in which case you should get the Wiim mini and use toslink to the DAC and sell the Pro Plus to finance the DAC. The DAC in the pro plus would be unused if you use toslink out. But maybe the upcoming Wiim ultra has balanced out? Anyway, if you use RCA cables you can stop the upgrade trek.

 

[staticV3]

Now my question boils down to : is it worth getting an external DAC eg Topping that would have an audible improvement?

No.

Or what would make my system sound incrementally better ?

Consider purchasing a UMIK-1 and doing some in-room frequency response measurements.
Based on those, you can then use the Parametric EQ that's built into the WiiM for basic room coorection.

 

[fabtou14]

Hello,
I just bought the Wiim Pro Plus and I am very happy with its setup, the simplicity of the application and the integration of qobuz.
The little extra is the remote control which works perfectly. It is currently connected to a Marantz PM 6007, but would like to change to a pure hi-fi amp without a DAC and without a multitude of connections.
This would be to power the wiim pro plus set of Elac DBR 62. What can you advise me?
THANKS

 

[antcollinet]

Hello,
I just bought the Wiim Pro Plus and I am very happy with its setup, the simplicity of the application and the integration of qobuz.
The little extra is the remote control which works perfectly. It is currently connected to a Marantz PM 6007, but would like to change to a pure hi-fi amp without a DAC and without a multitude of connections.
This would be to power the wiim pro plus set of Elac DBR 62. What can you advise me?
THANKS

Budget?

And why? What do you want to achieve with the switch? If sound quality, it is very unlikely you will get an improvement from changing the amp - unless your current amp is being overdriven into clipping.

My advice would be to keep the amp, and put the money into speaker upgrade, or room eq, or a Sub - or some combination of those.

 

[staticV3]

Hello,
I just bought the Wiim Pro Plus and I am very happy with its setup, the simplicity of the application and the integration of qobuz.
The little extra is the remote control which works perfectly. It is currently connected to a Marantz PM 6007, but would like to change to a pure hi-fi amp without a DAC and without a multitude of connections.
This would be to power the wiim pro plus set of Elac DBR 62. What can you advise me?
THANKS

Check out Matias' Amplifier SINAD spreadsheet:

Amplifier SINAD list ASR + 3rd parties

I wanted to compare amplifiers measured elsewhere to the ASR standard measurements: SINAD at 5W in 4 ohms, and power at 1% THD+N in 4 ohms. So I chose some amplifiers that interested me more (let me know if you wish I can add more), read their graphs, converted to SINAD, color coded and created...

www.audiosciencereview.com

You can use this calculator to calculate the required output power based on listening distance, speaker placement, and desired SPL:
http://www.hometheaterengineering.com/splcalculator.html

The DBR62 has an efficiency of about 82dB SPL (1W/1m), when considering EPDR.

With EPDR it's a 4Ω speaker.

 

[Power Pop 23]

Hello,
I just bought the Wiim Pro Plus and I am very happy with its setup, the simplicity of the application and the integration of qobuz.
The little extra is the remote control which works perfectly. It is currently connected to a Marantz PM 6007, but would like to change to a pure hi-fi amp without a DAC and without a multitude of connections.
This would be to power the wiim pro plus set of Elac DBR 62. What can you advise me?
THANKS

There can be many options - what is your budget ? At the lower price end would be a Fosi Audio V3 speaker amplifier with a 48 volt power supply - currently $109.99 at the official Ebay store for Fosi Audio. Fosi Audio is also selling the same at Walmart dot com.

The WiiM Pro Plus has a 12 volt trigger output. You may want the convenience of using an amplifier with a 12 volt trigger input. The 'out of stock' Fosi Audio ZA3 has a 12 volt trigger input. I do not know when the ZA3 will be back in stock but I recall a posting from another ASR member indicating shipments of the ZA3 would resume on March 01, 2024.

Robot or human?

 

[fabtou14]

Budget?

And why? What do you want to achieve with the switch? If sound quality, it is very unlikely you will get an improvement from changing the amp - unless your current amp is being overdriven into clipping.

My advice would be to keep the amp, and put the money into speaker upgrade, or room eq, or a Sub - or some combination of those.

Max 1000 euros for an ampli!

 

[bobster]

Heads up: as currently implemented, the 12 V trigger voltage lowers after 2.5 minutes of silence, and this cannot be changed or disabled. So if you pause music or a movie (e.g., to take a phone call, go to the bathroom, etc), the amp will turn off. When you resume playback, you'll miss a couple seconds of sound while your amp turns on.

I posted a feature request, and WiiM support says a change is in the works, with a target release date of February 10. Presumably, the trigger will then respond to the Standby mode settings in the app, which IMO is how it should have been from the start.

Allow 12V trigger to be controlled by standby mode status instead of playback

I started using a WiiM Pro Plus four days ago. I'm hoping it can replace an old preamp. According to the article linked below, the 12v trigger raises the voltage music starts playing, and reduces the voltage 2.5 minutes after music stops playing...

forum.wiimhome.com

This ridiculous trigger design, intermittent audio dropouts when using the optical input (which were reported by others as early as March 2023), and poor ticket response from WiiM support drove me to return my WiiM Pro Plus.

 

[fabtou14]

I'm thinking in particular about buying the wiim amp

 

[antcollinet]

I'm thinking in particular about buying the wiim amp

But if you alreay have the wiim pro, what is the point of the wiim amp? You already have all the functionality.

Plus it is certainly not...

a pure hi-fi amp without a DAC and without a multitude of connections.

Again - please can you clarify what you are trying to achieve with a new amp. It is difficult to help without knowing that.

 

[fabtou14]

But if you alreay have the wiim pro, what is the point of the wiim amp? You already have all the functionality.

Plus it is certainly not...

Again - please can you clarify what you are trying to achieve with a new amp. It is difficult to help without knowing that.

The idea would be to replace the Wiim Pro + and the Marantz amp with a Wiim amp. So I keep the network player that I like, associated with an amplifier.
In fact I would like to replace my hi-fi amplifier with something simpler without the DAC and the digital inputs which are of no use to me (I plug everything into the streamer).

 

[audioje]

Does anyone use a stereo 3.5-2.5 cable for 12v trigger? Does it work for wiim?

To answer my own question, it works with a stereo cable too. I wanted a short one (like less than 10 inch) but all 25-35 mono cables were like 6ft long. Ordered a stereo cable from Ali and just tried it

 

[ralph]

Not any analogue source. The ADC is clipping just before 2.00Vrms input voltage (which still is an improvement over the Pro).

My turntable is connected to an exposure amp that has a phono card. If I connect the amp's pre out with the wiim's analogue line-in - how likely is that to be working?

 

[Brian Hall]

Hello there. After much praise on this forum,Reddit and a few other sites i purchased a Wiim pro plus almost a month ago and so far…I am speechless. Until now I was using the Buchardt I150 amplifier running the S400 and two Rel T7x series and the addition of the Wiim just made my system sound…how should I put put it? large,the volume gain is just amazing, sound stage, suddenly they have more personality,I couldn’t recognise them and I highly doubt is placebo.

I am by no means knowledgeable when it comes to audio gear but I suppose Wiim’s DAC made all the difference.
Now my question boils down to : is it worth getting an external DAC eg Topping that would have an audible improvement? Or what would make my system sound incrementally better ? I have this system for some years now and I feel like I missed out many listening hours just because I didn’t invest in a slightly better DAC than the one in my integrated amplifier.

Thanks!

My Pro Plus normally goes through an Eversolo Dac Z8 (I like the VU meters, eye candy), but I also have the analog outs going to my preamp so I can easily switch between the Z8 and the internal Dac. I can't hear any difference between them. The Pro Plus has a good dac and output stage. I don't believe you would see an audible benefit from another dac. Upgrade to another dac only if it gives you features (or eye candy) you want, not for better sound.

 

[jdjung]

My turntable is connected to an exposure amp that has a phono card. If I connect the amp's pre out with the wiim's analogue line-in - how likely is that to be working?

Does the exposure amp have a way to control volume on the phono output? If so just reduce volume to make sure it doesn't clip.

 

[ralph]

Does the exposure amp have a way to control volume on the phono output? If so just reduce volume to make sure it doesn't clip.

Not that i would know of. It's an integrated amp and there is no way to control the output voltage of its pre out when the case is closed. May be there's some way to change it after opening the case.

 

[antcollinet]

Not that i would know of. It's an integrated amp and there is no way to control the output voltage of its pre out when the case is closed. May be there's some way to change it after opening the case.

If it is a pre out (preamp output) it should be controlled by the volume dial of the amp.

If it is a line out, it won't be.

 

[ralph]

If it is a pre out (preamp output) it should be controlled by the volume dial of the amp.

If it is a line out, it won't be.

Thanks, then it should work, it's a preamp output.
There's also a tape rec output - would the latter have fixed voltage output?