This is a review and detailed measurements of the WiiM Vibelink stereo class D amplifier with DAC. It was sent to me by the company and I believe will cost US $299 [original estimatews $400.].
I was relieved from the point of view of testing that is NOT a streaming product so no need to mess with apps and such to use it. Controls as you see are limited to just input select of RCA, Toslink and Coax digital input and volume control. I found the input selection button to be somewhat difficult to use in that pushing it doesn't quickly change selection. I had to hold it in for a bit for it to take action (or was it a delayed action)? Volume control is analog and I tested the amplifier at max volume (which happened to land in target area I like as far as gain).
Back panel has great attention to layout and design even though most people will never face it that way:
I have grown fond of the recessed binding posts (adapters are provided to bring them out), make them a breeze to using my locking banana plugs. Nice to see trigger input provided. But mostly, the appreciate goes toward included AC power supply (its competitors using the same design have chunky external ones).
If you are not familiar with amplifier measurements, please watch my tutorial on it:
[And subscribe to the channel
]
WiiM Vibelink Amp Measurements
I started with the RCA analog input but had trouble getting optimal output due to ground loops (which could be unique to my setup with analyzer and such):
So I switched to Toslink input which not only solved that issue, but upped the performance as well:
Very nice to see distortion that is below threshold of hearing at -115 dB or so. That let's SINAD just be a measure of noise which at 100 dB, puts the Vibelink in very respectable ranking:
Unless noted, I stayed with Toslink for the remainder of tests, starting with signal to noise ratio:
One of the important tests for these chip-based class D designs is to see if the output filter is part of the feedback loop (PFFB) as to eliminate load dependencies. We see that the Vibelink is essentially there:
Channel separation is excellent:
For multitone, I had to switch to analog input as Toslink doesn't support 192 kHz which is the native sampling rate of that test file:
But for 19+20 kHz, I could go back to digital, showing very respectable output:
We have good bit of power for its size and class:
Especially when we allow 1% distortion:
Dropping down to 40 Hz instead of 1 kHz above, we still have healthy amount of output:
It was challenging to run my "FTC like" power sweep as the distortion that is captured at 20 kHz would NOT rise to 1% THD. So I had to lower that which means it causes less power to be measured than how we measured other amplifiers (and testing above):
This became more complicated when trying to measure reactive loads as my AudioGraph loadbox does not like floating ground in these bridged amplifiers in the right channel. So I not only had ot drop down to 1 channel, but per above, also change the criteria for max distortion to get through the test:
No, I don't know why it likes 2 ohm with 60 degree inductive phase. I repeated the test a few times and consistently got that result.
Edit: forgot to post frequency vs power sweep:
NOTE: all power ratings have built-in error in such tests. Run to run variations show a few percentage point differences due to measurements being a the knee of an exponential graph.
Amplifier is stable on power up:
The top hardly changed temperature during testing. The bottom got a bit warmer but nothing remotely concerning so I didn't bother with taking thermal images. Either it doesn't get very hot internally and/or doesn't sync that to the case.
Conclusions
The Vibelink is a well executed class D (TI 3255?) amplifier with nice inclusion of a DAC that works together produce performance that is quite good. For those of you who already have a front-end that has streaming/EQ, this would be perfect pairing. Cost is more than some of its competitors but they don't have built-in power supply or in most cases, a nice DAC.
Overall, I am happy to recommend the WiiM Vibelink Amp. I believe it is slated to be on sale sometime this month (March).
NOTE: company has said that they want to make a donation to the forum. I have told them that while I appreciate that, it would not change how I review their product. And indeed can't due to nature of the objective measurements.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
I was relieved from the point of view of testing that is NOT a streaming product so no need to mess with apps and such to use it. Controls as you see are limited to just input select of RCA, Toslink and Coax digital input and volume control. I found the input selection button to be somewhat difficult to use in that pushing it doesn't quickly change selection. I had to hold it in for a bit for it to take action (or was it a delayed action)? Volume control is analog and I tested the amplifier at max volume (which happened to land in target area I like as far as gain).
Back panel has great attention to layout and design even though most people will never face it that way:
I have grown fond of the recessed binding posts (adapters are provided to bring them out), make them a breeze to using my locking banana plugs. Nice to see trigger input provided. But mostly, the appreciate goes toward included AC power supply (its competitors using the same design have chunky external ones).
If you are not familiar with amplifier measurements, please watch my tutorial on it:
[And subscribe to the channel
]WiiM Vibelink Amp Measurements
I started with the RCA analog input but had trouble getting optimal output due to ground loops (which could be unique to my setup with analyzer and such):
So I switched to Toslink input which not only solved that issue, but upped the performance as well:
Very nice to see distortion that is below threshold of hearing at -115 dB or so. That let's SINAD just be a measure of noise which at 100 dB, puts the Vibelink in very respectable ranking:
Unless noted, I stayed with Toslink for the remainder of tests, starting with signal to noise ratio:
One of the important tests for these chip-based class D designs is to see if the output filter is part of the feedback loop (PFFB) as to eliminate load dependencies. We see that the Vibelink is essentially there:
Channel separation is excellent:
For multitone, I had to switch to analog input as Toslink doesn't support 192 kHz which is the native sampling rate of that test file:
But for 19+20 kHz, I could go back to digital, showing very respectable output:
We have good bit of power for its size and class:
Especially when we allow 1% distortion:
Dropping down to 40 Hz instead of 1 kHz above, we still have healthy amount of output:
It was challenging to run my "FTC like" power sweep as the distortion that is captured at 20 kHz would NOT rise to 1% THD. So I had to lower that which means it causes less power to be measured than how we measured other amplifiers (and testing above):
This became more complicated when trying to measure reactive loads as my AudioGraph loadbox does not like floating ground in these bridged amplifiers in the right channel. So I not only had ot drop down to 1 channel, but per above, also change the criteria for max distortion to get through the test:
No, I don't know why it likes 2 ohm with 60 degree inductive phase. I repeated the test a few times and consistently got that result.
Edit: forgot to post frequency vs power sweep:
NOTE: all power ratings have built-in error in such tests. Run to run variations show a few percentage point differences due to measurements being a the knee of an exponential graph.
Amplifier is stable on power up:
The top hardly changed temperature during testing. The bottom got a bit warmer but nothing remotely concerning so I didn't bother with taking thermal images. Either it doesn't get very hot internally and/or doesn't sync that to the case.
Conclusions
The Vibelink is a well executed class D (TI 3255?) amplifier with nice inclusion of a DAC that works together produce performance that is quite good. For those of you who already have a front-end that has streaming/EQ, this would be perfect pairing. Cost is more than some of its competitors but they don't have built-in power supply or in most cases, a nice DAC.
Overall, I am happy to recommend the WiiM Vibelink Amp. I believe it is slated to be on sale sometime this month (March).
NOTE: company has said that they want to make a donation to the forum. I have told them that while I appreciate that, it would not change how I review their product. And indeed can't due to nature of the objective measurements.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
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