WiiM Pro Streamer

[onlyoneme]

Can you confirm if the 10-band EQ in the WiiM Pro applies to any input you select? I’m specifically interested in knowing if it works for the optical in signal. I assume it does, but if you could confirm I would really appreciate it!

You will get more than you expect if Pro shares FW with Mini actually...

 

[Leonid Khachaturov]

Connectivity and a nicer case aside, is it any different from the Mini? I have just ordered a Mini and learned that this comes out in a few days

 

[onlyoneme]

Connectivity and a nicer case aside, is it any different from the Mini? I have just ordered a Mini and learned that this comes out in a few days

More powerful hardware added as well.

 

[Mal]

Darko just gave this a very positive review, or at least the streaming aspects of it. He suggests that the DAC is a weak point, and on contacting the company had it confirmed that they are expecting serious listeners to stream to a more capabe DAC. Darko's favourite streamer of 2022 was the WiiM mini, and he prefers it over the pro for cost & v. small foot print, but recommends people check specs carefully before plumping for one or the other. For instance WiiM Pro has ethernet the mini does not. Darko is OK with no ethernet, considers wireless good enough.

I'm using my chromebox as a music streamer but it has the typical google/chromeos/android problem of scaling everything to 48khz... my Topping 10s DAC shows no other number but 48 whatever I play! So I'm thinking of getting this streamer to play with different bit rates. But now my problem is that the Topping 10s is a USB DAC and there is no USB out on the streamer! After a quick browse, optical to usb conversion seems fraught with difficulties.

Anyone have a good, cheap solution for connecting WiiM Pro to Topping 10s DAC?

(I may just give up my desire to play with bit rates and not bother buying a WiiM. With the Topping 10s connected to my chromebox, my music is sounding excellent at 48khz, which is higher than CD quality anyway, and I suspect Spotify and BBC Radio aren't damaged by the upscaling...)

P.S. I see amirm has reviewed the WiiM Mini, must read that, I like comparing the subjective and objective gurus!

 

[Brantome]

Connectivity and a nicer case aside, is it any different from the Mini? I have just ordered a Mini and learned that this comes out in a few days

Depends on what you want to use it for. While the Pro has a more powerful processor and memory, Chromecast and more connectivity options, the codebase is the same and offers much the same functionality. What services were you looking to use?

 

[Leonid Khachaturov]

Depends on what you want to use it for. While the Pro has a more powerful processor and memory, Chromecast and more connectivity options, the codebase is the same and offers much the same functionality. What services were you looking to use?

For streaming Qobuz. Optical out is fine with me.

 

[sajgre]

This seems perfect for my soon-to-arrive Genelec 8330 desktop setup. Is there a way to play notebook sound throe Wiim?

 

[Brantome]

For streaming Qobuz. Optical out is fine with me.

Mini is more than sufficient then

 

[onlyoneme]

This seems perfect for my soon-to-arrive Genelec 8330 desktop setup. Is there a way to play notebook sound throe Wiim?

GitHub - dheijl/swyh-rs: Stream What You Hear written in rust, inspired by SWYH.

Stream What You Hear written in rust, inspired by SWYH. - GitHub - dheijl/swyh-rs: Stream What You Hear written in rust, inspired by SWYH.

github.com

could possibly help.

 

[Tangband]

Darko just gave this a very positive review, or at least the streaming aspects of it. He suggests that the DAC is a weak point, and on contacting the company had it confirmed that they are expecting serious listeners to stream to a more capabe DAC. Darko's favourite streamer of 2022 was the WiiM mini, and he prefers it over the pro for cost & v. small foot print, but recommends people check specs carefully before plumping for one or the other. For instance WiiM Pro has ethernet the mini does not. Darko is OK with no ethernet, considers wireless good enough.

I'm using my chromebox as a music streamer but it has the typical google/chromeos/android problem of scaling everything to 48khz... my Topping 10s DAC shows no other number but 48 whatever I play! So I'm thinking of getting this streamer to play with different bit rates. But now my problem is that the Topping 10s is a USB DAC and there is no USB out on the streamer! After a quick browse, optical to usb conversion seems fraught with difficulties.

Anyone have a good, cheap solution for connecting WiiM Pro to Topping 10s DAC?

(I may just give up my desire to play with bit rates and not bother buying a WiiM. With the Topping 10s connected to my chromebox, my music is sounding excellent at 48khz, which is higher than CD quality anyway, and I suspect Spotify and BBC Radio aren't damaged by the upscaling...)

P.S. I see amirm has reviewed the WiiM Mini, must read that, I like comparing the subjective and objective gurus!

You can do comparisons with your 44,1 kHz material thats upsampled to 48 kHz . Compare it to a good CD player. I didnt believe I could here any difference with my Yamaha wxc50 that also does SRC to 48 kHz in preampmode. I was wrong.

 

[Ralph_Cramden]

 

[SIY]

I have one sitting on my lab bench. Measurements will be appearing soon in AudioXpress along with a deeper review by my esteemed colleague Oliver Masciarotte.

 

[tonycollinet]

Mini is more than sufficient then

Worth considering: Parametric EQ is on the roadmap, for room correction.

It is quite likely that the pro will have a much more useful implementation due to it's more powerful hardware. Think enough filters vs not enough.

 

[onlyoneme]

Worth considering: Parametric EQ is on the roadmap, for room correction.

It is quite likely that the pro will have a much more useful implementation due to it's more powerful hardware. Think enough filters vs not enough.

With just 3 bands in case of Mini...

 

[NemesisBaud]

You can do comparisons with your 44,1 kHz material thats upsampled to 48 kHz . Compare it to a good CD player. I didnt believe I could here any difference with my Yamaha wxc50 that also does SRC to 48 kHz in preampmode. I was wrong.

I am using digital sources only right now (a WiiM Mini and a CD transport). I’ve always preferred the CD sound, but the Wiim is much more convenient. Now I’m looking forward to getting the Wiim Pro and connecting my cd transport to it via Toslink. Then I can apply the 10-band EQ via the Wiim to see if I can improve the CD sound even more.

But now I’m wondering if the Wiim Pro will upsample my 44.1 CD audio to 48khz in order to apply the EQ. I don’t see why it would need to do that though, since applying the EQ settings should be sample rate agnostic, right?

 

[Tangband]

I have one sitting on my lab bench. Measurements will be appearing soon in AudioXpress along with a deeper review by my esteemed colleague Oliver Masciarotte.

Nice .
Can you measure the digital spdif output vid the volume regulated to -20 dB ? And check If there is SRC to 48 KHz going on ?
In many ways, this WiiM pro can do the same thing as a Yamaha wxc50 for less money - maybe in a better way.

 

[Tangband]

I am using digital sources only right now (a WiiM Mini and a CD transport). I’ve always preferred the CD sound, but the Wiim is much more convenient. Now I’m looking forward to getting the Wiim Pro and connecting my cd transport to it via Toslink. Then I can apply the 10-band EQ via the Wiim to see if I can improve the CD sound even more.

But now I’m wondering if the Wiim Pro will upsample my 44.1 CD audio to 48khz in order to apply the EQ. I don’t see why it would need to do that though, since applying the EQ settings should be sample rate agnostic, right?

If the SRC is done right , you cant hear it. If its less good, not so.

 

[onlyoneme]

Nice .
Can you measure the digital spdif output vid the volume regulated to -20 dB ? And check If there is SRC to 48 KHz going on ?
In many ways, this WiiM pro can do the same thing as a Yamaha wxc50 for less money - maybe in a better way.

Do you suspect Pro to behave differently than Mini in that matter?

 

[rcstevensonaz]

View attachment 247225

Two questions:
1) When will it be live on Amazon? So far, still shows as "Currently Unavailable" and there is no option for preorder.
2) Is it safe to purchase the first model release? Or, better to wait a bit for potential future revision to fix issues (cf. Topping E30 saga)

 

[Mal]

You can do comparisons with your 44,1 kHz material thats upsampled to 48 kHz . Compare it to a good CD player. I didnt believe I could here any difference with my Yamaha wxc50 that also does SRC to 48 kHz in preampmode. I was wrong.

How do you know that's it's the upsampling causing the problem and not the Yamaha doing a bad job of the upsampling? Still, it's useful information that it can go wrong! Surely it has to be better not to do anything to the original source if at all possible?

I have an old asus chromebox past it's sell by date, maybe I'll convert that to linux. Does that make sense? Is an eight year old chromebox going to give me adequate audio capability? Will it be as good as as a raspberry pi or WiiM? I think the answer might be yes as I'll just be using it to move bits into my Topping 10s DAC... without any up/down scaling or other processing going on inside the computer.

(I moved to chromebox to keep computer & audio as simple as possible.. hah!)