WiiM Pro Streamer Review

[Billy Budapest]

I think, the distortion from the dac is inaudible for majority of audio enthusiasts and is acceptable given the device’s price and feature set. Also the distortion is second order dominated, that second order spike will be very likely masked by the fundamental. I rated it with "Fine."

Agreed. Rated a fine by me for the same reasons.

I would like to also see the WiiM Pro Plus (which I own) tested.

 

[Billy Budapest]

Agreed. Rated a fine by me for the same reasons.

I would like to also see the WiiM Pro Plus (which I own) tested.

Never mind, it has been tested here:

WiiM Pro Plus Streamer Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the WiiM Pro Plus streamer, DAC and preamplifier with Bluetooth support. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $219. While the case is plastic, it still "looks the part" as the Brits would say relative to other more famous brands of...

www.audiosciencereview.com

My only real criticism of both units—although forgivable at this price point—is the lightweight ABS plastic enclosure. Almost all the other WiiM products have aluminum enclosures. I am not expecting that, but the enclosure could have been made with thicker, heavier, higher quality plastic. For example, like what the AppleTV is made out of.

 

[Aivan]

Between Mini and Pro (into external dac), I went with the Pro because of the additional toslink input that I use for TV. Also the 12v trigger is a huge plus. Having the option to trigger the chain (wiim dac amp) after sound from tv is emitted puts smile on my face each time (geek). It makes this product more suitable for living room setup and the fact that I got it for just over 100$ makes it a very good buy for my use case.

 

[dominikz]

The Pro has individual PEQ for L/R. My Mini's don't seem to have that. My main system speaker locations are asymmetrical.

Also, the Pro allows both Room-EQ along with the std EQ slots to be active at the same time (eg house-curve). Again, my Mini's don't seem to have that functionality.

Presumably both of these omissions are due to not enough processing power on the Mini.

The Pro can often be found on sale for $99.

Just a small correction: WiiM Mini supports individual channel (L/R) PEQ (see an example here), but you are right that it doesn't support RoomFit + EQ at the same time.

 

[Smitty2k1]

The Wiim Pro also supports squeezelite/LMS natively unlike the Wiim mini, which requires a plug-in and thus doesn't work with a few features.

I upgraded my Wiim mini to a pro when they came out and I've been happy. It's on a desk with a dac/headphone amp connected.

 

[Acerun]

I'm guessing most people are just using this as a transport.

 

[delta76]

It was ≈ 3 years ago, and the Pro Plus wasn't a thing back then.

It does not make sense to buy the Pro now, doesn't it?

 

[VintageFlanker]

It does not make sense to buy the Pro now, doesn't it?

IMHO, It does not anymore considering the only 50€ extra for the Pro Plus.

 

[amirm]

It’s aggressively priced and “exemplary” in feature set and software implementation but its entirely adequate distortion performance earns it a “not recommended”? Can’t say that makes much sense to me.

It makes sense to me that after 40 years since 16 bit digital format (CD) was introduced, we seemingly still can't get transparency to that resolution. Praising such results means that no one would care to remedy it.

 

[testp]

I always prefer to have a remote. An app can be discontinued, making the device obsolete.
That said, a remote will not support all functions...

not this app, or at least the way i use(d) it: wi-fi hotspot that does not have internet, it showed that the app (functions) work, can't predict about the streaming part though

 

[Billy Budapest]

Quick question about terminology: What is “mid-fi,” a parlance that I’ve seen crop up occasionally?

Most of the time it seems to be a gentle pejorative, or a characterization of flawed mediocre performance with overtones of pity. Something “acceptable” if you have low standards

Mid-fi is a meaningless term that is best avoided.

Something either reproduces sound with high fidelity to the source material (“hi-fi”) or it doesn’t. I am not sure what “mid fidelity” would even mean.

 

[elmoe420]

Amazon Music integration is poor. You can search and play from the Wiim app (rather than using the Amazon app and Chromecast) but this means you cannot add favorites, and playback stops after each song or album. You don't get the radio feature where Amazon selects music that it thinks is to your taste after the selected album has finished. I have discovered quite a few artists through this feature.

The integration with Alexacast and the Alexa MRM SDK is perfect though. Trying using the Alexa VUI or Amazon Music app via Alexacast. The WiiM products are killer used as "echo speakers" but agree you need to avoid the WiiM Home app.

 

[capslock]

The integration with Alexacast and the Alexa MRM SDK is perfect though. Trying using the Alexa VUI or Amazon Music app via Alexacast. The WiiM products are killer used as "echo speakers" but agree you need to avoid the WiiM Home app.

I didn't know that, I didn't even know the Music app could Alexacast. Will have to figure out how to set that up.

 

[amirm]

What is “mid-fi,” a parlance that I’ve seen crop up occasionally?

Its usage today is different than when it was first coined in 1980s. Then, it meant a step up in fidelity from large producers of audio electronics. The brands in there were Yamaha, Denon, NAD, etc. as opposed to AIWA, Sony, etc. But not as good as high end brands such as Bryston, etc. Put another way, it was meant to say better quality but not for a ton more money.

Today, it is a put down used in derogatory terms to say it is not as good as high-end. Usually is used as a retort regarding well measuring gear against crappy measuring but much more expensive gear. In other words, total nonsense.

 

[daniboun]

Wiim makes some very good products but also some real crap...

 

[obsessive9119]

I have a Pro Plus, a couple of Pros and a Mini. At the time I bought the Pros, the Mini didn’t have PEQ. I mostly didn’t care about the DAC in the Pros because they were feeding headphone amps with their own DACs. These days the Pro is less attractive because the Mini has gotten better.

Since then one of the Pros has been repurposed for the garage TV setup and while on paper the DAC isn’t great, TBH I can’t hear any issues.

 

[jhaider]

Thanks for the test Amir.

Does the WiiM Pro add that much vs the WiiM Mini? If we assume that in both cases we add a good external DAC to them?

IMO, yes. Specifically, RJ45 jack for hard wired network connection and 12V trigger for downstream components. No joke, I used one with an HTP-1 in a secondary system for a while, and turned the AVP on via the 12V trigger and off via WiiM's sleep timer. I think we currently have 5 of these in use, including one that I'm using to stream music to an RME ADI-2 Pro and DCA Noire X right now. 2 of them use the analog outs, but admittedly those are not foreground systems (kitchen ceiling speakers, patio speaker set).

I suppose Pro Plus is the "better" product, but honestly I doubt anyone would pass a subjective identification test between them using music in the blind.

In any event, both are far superior to WiiM's crippled "Ultra" model, which, mind-bogglingly, lacks basic required functionality (AirPlay).

 

[audioje]

Should we blame Wiim for the lack of Apple support? Isn't just Apple's very closed ecosystem? Wiim wanted to keep airplay as long as I know. Anyway, I am sure Apple has something similar to Wiim though I don't pay any attention to Apple products.

 

[delta76]

Should we blame Wiim for the lack of Apple support? Isn't just Apple's very closed ecosystem? Wiim wanted to keep airplay as long as I know. Anyway, I am sure Apple has something similar to Wiim though I don't pay any attention to Apple products.

Apple TV, and a pretty good one at that - streamer for both video and audio services. But it's digital only (so no DAC/analog output) I think

 

[somebodyelse]

Wiim makes some very good products but also some real crap...

You could say that about any manufacturer that aims for the mass market - some aspect of performance with a relatively niche demand gets sacrificed in some part of their product line in order to better serve the target market. If you have that niche demand then the product is crap, but that just means you're not the target market. Take KEF for example - a number of their lines measure well, but in the T series that's not the priority, and it shows. Or Apple - I'm not their target market, so to me most of their products are crap, but for many people they're great. As a result @jhaider's "basic required functionality" is useless to me, so I don't see the Ultra as crippled.

In this case we have a DAC that's less than perfect, but good enough that most of the population wouldn't care, and might not even notice. And for the subset that would care, if they're going to use the digital output anyway then it just doesn't matter so they don't need to spend the extra on the Pro Plus which is there for those that want the extra DAC performance. Similarly the analog input will be 'good enough' for many purposes. It won't be the weak link for sources like vinyl or cassette. Need better performance? Buy something else that better fits your requirements.