WiiM Pro - Review & Measurements (Streamer)

[VintageFlanker]

Mate, may I ask you to test the jitter of a proper DAC (almost dead flat at a low dB) with Wii mini (or pro) through Tousling, if possible?

I did already and found no issue whatsoever.

You also got the Jitter out of the toslink and S/PDIF output in the review, and results are textbook perfect (24 bits ENOB).

 

[Veri]

@VintageFlanker

Mate, may I ask you to test the jitter of a proper DAC (almost dead flat at a low dB) with Wii mini (or pro) through Toslink, if possible?

I have just watched this video , making me confused about the overall jitter performance of our Wii mini setups. At 5:35, the jitter behaviour of the X18 is claimed to vary depending on the jitter quality of the streamer.

I wonder if you find a similar result with your set-up as the jitter measurement of Wii mini is not that much relatively great compared to ASR-stamped DACs.

..@VintageFlanker beat me to it. It's in the review already. Jitter is 100% under control

 

[onlyoneme]

..@VintageFlanker beat me to it. It's in the review already. Jitter is 100% under control

It's under control when the receiving unit is able to suppress it completely, otherwise it has its impact. Talking about the jitter doesn't make sense when it has been fully rejected.

 

[Veri]

More (jitter) measurements https://wiim.community.forum/threads/my-pro-tests.186/post-1896

 

[Pritaudio]

Is there a phenomena such that the streamer needs to be powered up for the first time ( maybe capacitance related) whereby there is crackling and or jitter stutter in playback in an otherwise fully functioning network connection.

I understand that Wiim has acknowledged that spdif input on the pro has problems from some tv digital out connection.
but I have the problem from an otherwise flawless sonos connect optical out.
and initially from whatever I stream from Ethernet input too.

 

[My adventures in stereo]

Have been having issues with intermittent stuttering, with chromecast
Anyone else having similar issues?

 

[stunta]

Have been having issues with intermittent stuttering, with chromecast
Anyone else having similar issues?

No. I only use it with chromecast and it has worked flawlessly

 

[geekosa]

Should we use this Wiim pro with Coaxial or Optical output ?

 

[onlyoneme]

Choose the one you personally prefer.

 

[Kelims]

Hello, thanks for measuring the digital outputs. That's exactly what I'm interested in with the Streamer. Don't you have such measurements for
BLUESOUND NODE? I'm deciding Node vs.
WiiM Pro.

 

[Jimbob54]

Hello, thanks for measuring the digital outputs. That's exactly what I'm interested in with the Streamer. Don't you have such measurements for
BLUESOUND NODE? I'm deciding Node vs.
WiiM Pro.

Which version of the Node? Pretty sure Amir has measured the 2 and 2.1 and digital out was fine

 

[Kelims]

Which version of the Node? Pretty sure Amir has measured the 2 and 2.1 and digital out was fine

So you think there is no difference in the digital output in terms of signal quality for an external DAC? I'd like the best of course.....

 

[Jimbob54]

So you think there is no difference in the digital output in terms of signal quality for an external DAC? I'd like the best of course.....

I wouldnt care what I think if I were you. I would go and look at the measurements. Pretty sure he did them in his reviews on this very site. If I recall correctly the onboard DAC was average for both but digital out as good as it gets.

Edit- Node https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/bluesound-node-review-streamer.25578/
2i https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...f-bluesound-node-2i-streamer.6631/post-148227

Personally, the Wiim mini/ pro works for me but I would choose based on software/ user experience rather than hardware measurements if you are using digital out from any streamer.

 

[Kelims]

I wouldnt care what I think if I were you. I would go and look at the measurements. Pretty sure he did them in his reviews on this very site. If I recall correctly the onboard DAC was average for both but digital out as good as it gets.

I'm currently using this https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...measurements-of-allo-digione-rpi-s-pdif.5418/ and I think it's very good for

S/PDIF. Unfortunately, the software for RPI doesn't suit me very well and that's why I'm looking further...

 

[Jimbob54]

I'm currently using this https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...measurements-of-allo-digione-rpi-s-pdif.5418/ and I think it's very good for

S/PDIF. Unfortunately, the software for RPI doesn't suit me very well and that's why I'm looking further...

See my edit to my last post. What streaming service do you use?

 

[Kelims]

Viz moje úprava mého posledního příspěvku. Jakou streamovací službu používáte?

Tidal, Qobuz

 

[Jimbob54]

Tidal, Qobuz

I've never used the Bluesound devices so cant say it is any better but the Wiim only really come into their own for me with Amazon. With the Alexa commands you can do full library shuffles. For Qobuz its pretty basic navigation/ playback via the app. I believe with Wiim Tidal does Connect so its as good as that can get. No idea if the Node can do Tidal Connect.

 

[geekosa]

Hi everyone, hi VintageFlanker,

Many thanks for your work and this detailed review!

It's good timing, my old laptop (2010) running Volumio (USB connection) broke down (processor fan out)...so here I am with this Wiim Pro connected in coax to the E50 DAC...

• I confirm that the lag/jitter problems with my LG Oled TV on the optical output are perfectly managed with the Wiim. I can finally get the sound from my HDMI inputs to my amp (OSMC + Xbox) and from the live TV!

• As far as playing personal library (local FLAC files) shared on a NAS, the WiiM can't index directly a network directory (samba for example); you'll have to set up a DLNA server/service on your NAS in order for WiiM to play your files. By the way, I use TWONKY server which is light, fast, simple and efficient.

My road stops here after a Node2i sold and replaced by a small laptop with Volumio and now this WiiM Pro which has nothing to envy to the much more expensive streamers of the market. Bravo !

Merci encore pour ton boulot VF !

Hello, can you explain the jitter you encounter with you OLED LG, and how you can handle it the best way ? I'm interested because I also own a OLED LG.

 

[Abrise]

Thank you @VintageFlanker for your review of the WiiM Pro. After reading it I have purchased one together with a remote. Today my systems are driven by JRiver on PCs for everything from audio to video and TV. It is not easy then for a visitor to listen to music. One can use dlna apps or Jremote but they are rather limited and it needs software to be installed in the smartphone. If I could connect the WiiM Pro to my PC then anybody could be able to play music on my system without the need to add any software as everybody has either an Android or Iphone compatible with Chromecast or Airplay . I am now able to achieve that.
First good news is the unit that I have received is slightly better than the one that @VintageFlanker has tested. The manufacturer may have taken into account @VintageFlanker test. We have now a SINAD of -95dB instead of -88dB. This 6 to 7dB improvement is really significant as it pushes the device form poor to well into fair inside @amirm scale. It becomes thus acceptable for more applications although it is still far from where we would like it to be.

The test is made thanks to a E1DA Cosmos which is at least 20dB better. Input is on WiiM pro optical output line 2V. By the way there is no more the improvement when going to 1V or less that @VintageFlanker found. On the image one should read -95dB and -94dB without the fs

Intermodulation distortion is also around 6dB lower than @VintageFlanker first test.

So the line output is better but not yet good enough for me. Also I wanted to use my JRiver room correction by convolution. I have thus bought the HiFime optical to USB converter. https://hifimediy.com/product/s2-digi/
The first unit I have received was faulty and it took me a lot of time to determine if it was not working because of my incompetence or else. It was replaced gracefully by the seller.
In order to work both sides of the optical link have to be using the same format. Unfortunately the wiim pro cannot force a fixed format, it can only force a maximum format. I am thus obliged to use the lowest format to insure compatiblity. Wiim Pro output resolution is then set to 16 bits 44.1 khz.
On the windows side in the sound "spdif interface" I select the same format and I link it to JRiver WDM driver. Selecting a Qobuz album played on Chromecast Wiim Pro is now output by Jriver with the room correction.
At the beginning I was experiencing a lot of crackling between tracks or when changing radios or pausing. No crackling at all during playback. This is solved almost completely by setting in Wiim Pro the "sampling rate switch latency" above 1000ms in "audio output" . Unfortunately it is not 100% solved but it is acceptable.
I hope that these explanations on how to use WiiM Pro with JRiver will help others to waste less time than me on a similar project.

 

[VintageFlanker]

Thanks @Abrise.

The manufacturer may have taken into account @VintageFlanker test. We have now a SINAD of -95dB instead of -88dB. This 6 to 7dB improvement is really significant as it pushes the device form poor to well into fair inside @amirm scale

Well, this we have to verify:

On the image one should read -95dB and -94dB without the fs

You really have to display the distorsion settings in REW RTA, otherwise, it is hard to compare anything. BTW, I do see a -5/-6dBFS fundamental tone here, not -0.5dBFS.

Intermodulation distortion is also around 6dB lower than @VintageFlanker first test

Maybe because it is indeed 6dB lower.