WiiM Vibelink Amp Review

[Abovebeyond]

I own the Buchardt s400 mk2 and looking for a new amp as I relocated to a new country.
I already had Rotel and Arcam which were... Ok but not something that I liked that much.

Do you think vibelink will drive the Buchardt ?
Should I search something an higher tier amp?

 

[clamleflambeur]

I've somehow lost the power cable - does anyone know where to get a replacement one, in the UK?

It seems a unique 3-pin that I've not been able to find anywhere else

 

[antcollinet]

I've somehow lost the power cable - does anyone know where to get a replacement one, in the UK?

It seems a unique 3-pin that I've not been able to find anywhere else

Your best bet is probably to ask WIIM directly : they are quite responsive.

The Wiim forum would also be a good place to go.

 

[clamleflambeur]

Your best bet is probably to ask WIIM directly : they are quite responsive.

The Wiim forum would also be a good place to go.

Thanks I'm waiting for my account to be approved - I think actually its a cloverleaf c5 (chatgpt got there, perplexity didnt) if anyone could confirm that'd be great

on amazon cloverleaf c5

 

[antcollinet]

Thanks I'm waiting for my account to be approved - I think actually its a cloverleaf c5 (chatgpt got there, perplexity didnt) if anyone could confirm that'd be great

on amazon cloverleaf c5

Can you post a picture of the socket on the amp

 

[clamleflambeur]

 

[SoySalsaPicante]

It’s a C5 or, “Mickey Mouse,” connector.

You can also use a C14 to C5 adapter like this and then use a cable you already own:

https://a.co/d/e0tF6ca

 

[antcollinet]

It’s a C5 or, “Mickey Mouse,” connector.

You can also use a C14 to C5 adapter like this and then use a cable you already own:

https://a.co/d/e0tF6ca

I wouldn't though. That adapter will put unnecessary extra stress on the connector in the amp. It also likely doesn't cost much less thna than the correct cable in any case.

EDIT : As I suspected, costs the same...

 

[clamleflambeur]

I got a standard mickey mouse cable off Amazon, seems to work perfectly thanks all.

Now that I've had a second chance to compare it, I feel I have to say this - and I'm quite new to this game so maybe this is obvious, but to me it wasn't from reading the ASR review:

I've a pair of KEF LS50 Metas, which I bought the Vibelink for. After ordering it, I came across this Darko article that mentions a Rotel RA-10 is a good match for them.

I duly bought one off ebay for nearly 1/2 the price of the Vibelink - and the Rotel blows the Vibelink out of the water. Everything is markedly better - soundstage, drums, vocals, strings & wind instruments - the Rotel sounds punchier, warmer, both much deeper and livelier. Even my mother said it was markedly better when we were blind comparing them (both hooked up to a Wiim Ultra, and using my phone to try and match decibels, we took turns not telling the other which amp was playing).

As an aside, to my surprise, the Rotel also goes a lot louder than the Vibelink - the Vibelink is the first amp I've turned to full volume w/ the Ultra at 100 volume too - now this was with 500 mVrms output on the Ultra, so I then raised that to 800 (and could have gone higher ofc) but with the Rotel I'd not really push the volume above halfway at 500mVrms in comparison. I don't tend to listen at high volume ever, but it surprised me considering their differing power ratings.

Maybe you all know this and its obvious? And the Rotel is of course 4x the size of the Vibelink and A/B vs D.

But I was surprised with all the measurements and positive feedback here about the Vibelink that this budget A/B amp from 12 years ago blows it out the water. Not sure what I'll do with the Vibelink now. Thought I'd let others know as I'm relatively new to Hi-Fi and didn't expect this to be the case.

Gonna tag @Abovebeyond due to his post above.

 

[SoySalsaPicante]

I wouldn't though. That adapter will put unnecessary extra stress on the connector in the amp. It also likely doesn't cost much less thna than the correct cable in any case.

EDIT : As I suspected, costs the same...

Yes; this was just a suggestion in case there was a specific cable that he had in hand and wanted to use anyway.

Some people are uh...picky about what cables they use (yes, yes...not an ASR-oriented philosophy, but I'm just trying to be accommodating).

 

[Abovebeyond]

I got a standard mickey mouse cable off Amazon, seems to work perfectly thanks all.

Now that I've had a second chance to compare it, I feel I have to say this - and I'm quite new to this game so maybe this is obvious, but to me it wasn't from reading the ASR review:

I've a pair of KEF LS50 Metas, which I bought the Vibelink for. After ordering it, I came across this Darko article that mentions a Rotel RA-10 is a good match for them.

I duly bought one off ebay for nearly 1/2 the price of the Vibelink - and the Rotel blows the Vibelink out of the water. Everything is markedly better - soundstage, drums, vocals, strings & wind instruments - the Rotel sounds punchier, warmer, both much deeper and livelier. Even my mother said it was markedly better when we were blind comparing them (both hooked up to a Wiim Ultra, and using my phone to try and match decibels, we took turns not telling the other which amp was playing).

As an aside, to my surprise, the Rotel also goes a lot louder than the Vibelink - the Vibelink is the first amp I've turned to full volume w/ the Ultra at 100 volume too - now this was with 500 mVrms output on the Ultra, so I then raised that to 800 (and could have gone higher ofc) but with the Rotel I'd not really push the volume above halfway at 500mVrms in comparison. I don't tend to listen at high volume ever, but it surprised me considering their differing power ratings.

Maybe you all know this and its obvious? And the Rotel is of course 4x the size of the Vibelink and A/B vs D.

But I was surprised with all the measurements and positive feedback here about the Vibelink that this budget A/B amp from 12 years ago blows it out the water. Not sure what I'll do with the Vibelink now. Thought I'd let others know as I'm relatively new to Hi-Fi and didn't expect this to be the case.

Gonna tag @Abovebeyond due to his post above.

Interesting, as I had the kef ls50 with the same Rotel RA10, and it sounded awful. I replaced it after a year with an Arcam SA20 which sounded quite driving the ls50

 

[antcollinet]

using my phone to try and match decibels,

Not accurate enough** to eliminate levels as being the reason for the perceived difference. If you want to do this you need to measure with a DVM at the speaker terminals using a test signal.

but it surprised me considering their differing power ratings.

Don't confuse gain with power. The Rotel (like many amps of its era because of the low voltages provided by sources of the day) has a very high gain of 40+dB. The Vibelink - designed for the much higher (typically 2V RCA) sources of today - only has a gain of 21dB. You only need 150mV to drive the Rotel to full power. You need to provide the Vibelink more than 10x that to deliver the same 40W into 8 ohms.

I'm pretty certain that the reason for the difference you heard was due to not running it at near the same power.

But I was surprised with all the measurements and positive feedback here about the Vibelink that this budget A/B amp from 12 years ago blows it out the water.

Pretty certain that if you were to test properly controlled LEVEL MATCHED you'd not hear a difference. Or it would be vanishingly slight.

**and a million miles away from accurate enough if you were trying to match levels of music.

 

[morillon]

I am using a Wiim Ultra streamer connecting it to the Vibelink via toslink. Contrary to other devices, both the Ultra and the Vibelink can use the toslink upto 24/192.

I like the sound of the Vibelink dac implementation better than the Ultra. Its sound great to me.

Also, I have used the Ultra with the Vibelink using the following arrangement. Ultra out via usb to an SMSL PO100 PRO ( which reclocks and coverts to toslink or rca pcm output), then the SMSL PO100 PRO toslink ouput to an SMSL SU-1 dac and the dac analog rca outputs to the Vibelink analog input. The SMSL units are only $80 each at amazon and, as you can read in their respective reviews at audiosciencereview, both are superbly accurate, with low noise and great overall implementation.

Using them, the Ultra indicates for its usb output a maximum word length of 32 bits instead of the 24 bits of its internal dac and can pass MQA from Tidal, which its internal dac does not process.

As you can see on the Vibelink review it is quite a resolving amplifier and the use of the SMSL devices result in even better sound to me. I was really impressed with the sound quality of the Vibelink, either with its internal dac or with the SMSL units.

To me, the Vibelink has clear neutral sound without strident highs, the bass is fast and deep if the recording has it. Its very transparent but not analitical. I would characterize the sound as very natural.

One thing you should know is that the Vibelink, as other Wiim amplifiers, has an aparent lower input gain (or sensitivity) compared to other amps which require to volume knob to be further dialed up to achieve a desired ammount of sound. From what I have read with regards to such matters, this could be a design choice intended to construct a lower distortion amplifier with larger dinamic range. I am not an engineer, so if I have expressed this in inaccurate terms dont shoot me.

It's most likely more linked to issues, relative quality, of the VibeLink analog input ;-)

 

[GroeneLeeuw]

I got a standard mickey mouse cable off Amazon, seems to work perfectly thanks all.

Now that I've had a second chance to compare it, I feel I have to say this - and I'm quite new to this game so maybe this is obvious, but to me it wasn't from reading the ASR review:

I've a pair of KEF LS50 Metas, which I bought the Vibelink for. After ordering it, I came across this Darko article that mentions a Rotel RA-10 is a good match for them.

I duly bought one off ebay for nearly 1/2 the price of the Vibelink - and the Rotel blows the Vibelink out of the water. Everything is markedly better - soundstage, drums, vocals, strings & wind instruments - the Rotel sounds punchier, warmer, both much deeper and livelier. Even my mother said it was markedly better when we were blind comparing them (both hooked up to a Wiim Ultra, and using my phone to try and match decibels, we took turns not telling the other which amp was playing).

As an aside, to my surprise, the Rotel also goes a lot louder than the Vibelink - the Vibelink is the first amp I've turned to full volume w/ the Ultra at 100 volume too - now this was with 500 mVrms output on the Ultra, so I then raised that to 800 (and could have gone higher ofc) but with the Rotel I'd not really push the volume above halfway at 500mVrms in comparison. I don't tend to listen at high volume ever, but it surprised me considering their differing power ratings.

Maybe you all know this and its obvious? And the Rotel is of course 4x the size of the Vibelink and A/B vs D.

But I was surprised with all the measurements and positive feedback here about the Vibelink that this budget A/B amp from 12 years ago blows it out the water. Not sure what I'll do with the Vibelink now. Thought I'd let others know as I'm relatively new to Hi-Fi and didn't expect this to be the case.

Gonna tag @Abovebeyond due to his post above.

If you like the Rotel better, keep it it.
Rotel has been making good (to very good!) amplifiers for years, they know a thing or two about building solid good sounding amplifiers.
Specially their more budget amplifiers always had a good reputation for performing well.

 

[clamleflambeur]

Thanks, this is interesting - I shall try with the the vibelink with higher input power, and for good measure use optical instead of RCA.

We tried both amps with a chord mojo2 in the setup too but failed to repeatedly measurably discern a difference.

 

[harkpabst]

Thanks, this is interesting - I shall try with the the vibelink with higher input power, and for good measure use optical instead of RCA.

You should most definitely do so.

Don't confuse gain with power. The Rotel (like many amps of its era because of the low voltages provided by sources of the day) has a very high gain of 40+dB. The Vibelink - designed for the much higher (typically 2V RCA) sources of today - only has a gain of 21dB. You only need 150mV to drive the Rotel to full power. You need to provide the Vibelink more than 10x that to deliver the same 40W into 8 ohms.

I'm pretty certain that the reason for the difference you heard was due to not running it at near the same power.

+1

Also, since the WiiM Ultra uses digital volume control, it should ideally not be operated close to the lowest settings range of its volume range. There's no need to assume that the volume knob turned far to the right could in some way restrain the sound quality. It's rather the opposite.

 

[Heat11]

i have the ultra into a vibe into RP-6000F II with a dippy entry level klipsch sub. and used the wiim in room correction.

not super impressed, wish i had the Rotel experience the above poster had. my room is just too small for these speakers and has no sound treatment. i had kef LSX 2 and that was super enjoyable. my music source is basically amazonmusicHD over wifi.

overall i am very happy and will live with this setup for a while the price/features are almost unbeatable, until i can get my hands on the ideal endgame system - La scala and a decware amp + any number of preamps

 

[clamleflambeur]

Today I again subjectively compared the Vibelink - using Optical - vs the Rotel RA-10 (via RCA).

Used an IMM-6C microphone to make sure the volume was roughly similar.

With this setup, I realistically couldn't tell a difference between the Vibelink and Rotel - both sounded great on my KEF LS50 Meta.

So the main/only learning so far is that I should avoid outputting 500mvrms via RCA to the Vibelink.

I'm torn which to keep, kind of like the Rotel's old-school styling though it is much larger; I'll keep switching for a week or so and decide I guess.

Sidenote, having my first app issue ever with Wiim Ultra now unfortunately - it says 'failure' when I try selecting output in app, but fortunately I can do so via the screen on the ultra itself. Going to run room correction using the IMM-6C shortly and see if can take things a level further.

Anyway - absolutely love the whole system. The ultra is a great bit of kit (I love that as well as smoothly playing tidal/spotify/radio stations, I can also link it to my nvidia shield via bluetooth), the LS50 metas sound wonderful and look stunning, and both amps seem to get the best out of everything. With all that said, the hifi bug has got me so I'm going to go to the KEF gallery in London and see how my home setup compares to theirs, and also try some other speakers for future upgrades & dreaming

 

[antcollinet]

Today I again subjectively compared the Vibelink - using Optical - vs the Rotel RA-10 (via RCA).

Used an IMM-6C microphone to make sure the volume was roughly similar.

With this setup, I realistically couldn't tell a difference between the Vibelink and Rotel - both sounded great on my KEF LS50 Meta.

Good to see someone take on board what people advise them of here, and try again, and get the more expected result.

So many people fail at this - often doubling down on their original perceptions.


The great thing is you now have a choice between the two amps, which you can make based on features, aesthetics and other real differences, without having to base it on non-existent sound quality differences.

 

[harkpabst]

Sidenote, having my first app issue ever with Wiim Ultra now unfortunately - it says 'failure' when I try selecting output in app, but fortunately I can do so via the screen on the ultra itself. Going to run room correction using the IMM-6C shortly and see if can take things a level further.

This sounds like that bug that caused WiiM to withdraw the WiiM Home app 3.2.1 from the Google Play Store. If you uninstall version 3.2.1 and reinstall from the Play Store you will receive the previous version 3.2.0 that doesn't suffer from this issue. You will also lose the new lock screen wizard until a new version comes out.

Most settings are stored on the WiiM device, not in the app, so you're mainly using your play history when you do that.