WiiM Vibelink Amp Review

[telemike]

Amazon Prime Day! $240

 

[F1Fan72]

And in the UK

 

[rageworm]

Amazon Prime Day! $240

Fantastic. Mine arrived yesterday morning, so I had to reach out to wiim just now via contact seller on Amazon and asked for $60 back. They replied within a couple of minutes confirming they've issued 20% refund.
Thanks for heads-up!

 

[telemike]

I bought the Vibelink to match my WiiM Ultra. I'll be putting the Fosi V3 monos up for sale

 

[mxs8106]

How well will the wiim ultra/vibelink combo match up with klipschorns, lascalas, cornwalls (ie very efficient speakers)? Looking at buying this combo while its 20%off on prime day.

 

[telemike]

How well will the wiim ultra/vibelink combo match up with klipschorns, lascalas, cornwalls (ie very efficient speakers)? Looking at buying this combo while its 20%off on prime day.

I'll find out soon as I have Forte IV's. The Fosi V3 monos worked great with them as well

 

[mxs8106]

I'll find out soon as I have Forte IV's. The Fosi V3 monos worked great with them as well

Are you ordering this combo as well? I have lots and lots of vintage Klipsch and have only used vintage McIntosh amp/preamp and vintage Marantz receivers in the past. Have been looking into class D and wanted something simple. This combo looks very nice and I have always wanted to play with room correction and have a built in eq.
Probably going to order this today and see how does.

 

[telemike]

Are you ordering this combo as well? I have lots and lots of vintage Klipsch and have only used vintage McIntosh amp/preamp and vintage Marantz receivers in the past. Have been looking into class D and wanted something simple. This combo looks very nice and I have always wanted to play with room correction and have a built in eq.
Probably going to order this today and see how does.

I’m using the WiiM Ultra as a preamp and getting the matching power amp

 

[rageworm]

Listening to it now paired with revel f36 in my living room... Well, emotiva a2 walks over it without any hesitation. While subjectively it sounds decent, there's a lack of bass, no punch in comparison with A2... Even if both wiim ultra and vibelink are at 100 - bass is somewhat mediocre. Paired with emotiva, which is more powerful of course, not only it sounds very clean as well, but it gets super punchy, with wiim ultra volume being around 65-ish...
Ran room correction again, sounds about the same. Now I wonder if that's because A2 is more powerful or it's a class AB vs class D thing? Emotiva also can play quieter yet it'll be punchier.

 

[harkpabst]

Listening to it now paired with revel f36 in my living room... Well, emotiva a2 walks over it without any hesitation. While subjectively it sounds decent, there's a lack of bass, no punch in comparison with A2... Even if both wiim ultra and vibelink are at 100 - bass is somewhat mediocre. Paired with emotiva, which is more powerful of course, not only it sounds very clean as well, but it gets super punchy, with wiim ultra volume being around 65-ish...
Ran room correction again, sounds about the same. Now I wonder if that's because A2 is more powerful or it's a class AB vs class D thing? Emotiva also can play quieter yet it'll be punchier.

I cannot quite follow what you did or didn't. It even remains cloudy what gear was in use. Do you have a subwoofer connected?

If you own a WiiM Ultra, why are you tinkering with the volume control on the Vibelink Amp?

 

[antcollinet]

or it's a class AB vs class D thing?

It's not that.

More likely (assuming the difference is real and not perceptive bias) you are simply putting more power out of the Emotiva than the Vibelink is able to supply. Or otherwise comparing without accurate level matching.

 

[rageworm]

It's not that.

More likely (assuming the difference is real and not perceptive bias) you are simply putting more power out of the Emotiva than the Vibelink is able to supply. Or otherwise comparing without accurate level matching.

@antcollinet @harkpabst folks I made a dumb mistake, which I realized later that night when I left my previous post, just had no time to listen to it again since then. So of course dummy me forgot to increase volume limit in wiim ultra's audio settings. For A2 I kept it at 75, for vibelink it just needs to be higher, not necessarily a 100, but that's what I set it to for now. No chance I could set both vibelink and ultra(limit and actual current value) to a 100 and listen to the music now. I'd become deaf.
No sub, just replaced A2 with vibelink, haven't moved speakers. Ran room correction again, just in case.
Boy was I wrong. It sounds fantastic. I apologize for my previous dummy comment in case it caused confusion for anyone.

 

[jimmyjames8]

Anywhere in this thread does anybody ask or address issue of the tested 8 ohm output of 75 watts vs the specd 8 ohm output of 100 watts?

 

[kyuu]

Anywhere in this thread does anybody ask or address issue of the tested 8 ohm output of 75 watts vs the specd 8 ohm output of 100 watts?

Yes, at least a couple times. I'll reiterate what I said those times: the way Amir rates the power is not how any manufacturer does it. He takes the power at the "knee" where the distortion starts to shoot up (that's where the cursor is placed on the graph). Wiim is rating the power at 1% distortion, a very normal way to do it, which would be the -40dB line on the graph:

As you can see, it's reaching 100W at 1% distortion no issue.

 

[antcollinet]

@antcollinet @harkpabst folks I made a dumb mistake, which I realized later that night when I left my previous post, just had no time to listen to it again since then. So of course dummy me forgot to increase volume limit in wiim ultra's audio settings. For A2 I kept it at 75, for vibelink it just needs to be higher, not necessarily a 100, but that's what I set it to for now. No chance I could set both vibelink and ultra(limit and actual current value) to a 100 and listen to the music now. I'd become deaf.
No sub, just replaced A2 with vibelink, haven't moved speakers. Ran room correction again, just in case.
Boy was I wrong. It sounds fantastic. I apologize for my previous dummy comment in case it caused confusion for anyone.

We all do it.

I've made an ass of myself multiple times on here. Coming clean - as you have done - is the best way of dealing with it.

 

[Schlippwhip68]

Quite happy to see this, no network features is not a problem, I like the bare bones approach. I have not used tone control in years and never really liked many of them when I did. EQ is..well..meh..alot of the time and todays sources usually have one somewhere. Decent performance and price. Couple of things really appealed to my future use case with the Vibelink. The speaker terminals embedded into the chassis is an excellent design choice. Personal use case is usb c to coaxial cable from the MacBook/ipad/iPhone straight into the new ESS chip based dac. Nice, simple clean connection.
The reduced sensitivity of the RCA is a small concern of mine as I want to also attach either another dac or source but it’s not a deal breaker by any means as the onboard dac is already at the top of the tree in theory. I purchased the Vibelink today at AV.com, UK, for delivery tomorrow so looking forward to hear how well have implemented the ESS9039 chip.
Some are saying the new Cambridge Audio Hypex based power amp sounds a little better, more natural but it’s also £145 more expensive based on the price I paid today, £255 for the Vibelink.

 

[telemike]

Well, with the Amazon Prime Day price of $250, I ordered the Vibelink to replace the Fosi V3 monos to match my Ultra and less clutter.

I decided to use optical to connect them together. The Vibelink runs a little cooler than the Fosi. The sound of the Vibelink with my Klipsch Forte IV is quite good. Subjectively the sound it tight in the bass.

 

[rageworm]

We all do it.

I've made an ass of myself multiple times on here. Coming clean - as you have done - is the best way of dealing with it.

I appreciate you

 

[Alexx]

I need some advice.

I have a Wiim Ultra preamp, and I'm very happy with it, even though every dealer in Italy told me to throw it away because it wasn't a good preamp at all... (I'd like to know why).

I'm using it with a Wiim Vibelink amplifier and Monitor Audio Studio 89 speakers, but it seems a bit limited in terms of output power.

What can you recommend that performs better than the Wiim Vibelink?

I was thinking about the SMSL PA200, but I can't find many reviews. It also doesn't have a trigger input for turning on the power, which is very useful!

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

 

[SoySalsaPicante]

I need some advice.

I have a Wiim Ultra preamp, and I'm very happy with it, even though every dealer in Italy told me to throw it away because it wasn't a good preamp at all... (I'd like to know why).

I'm using it with a Wiim Vibelink amplifier and Monitor Audio Studio 89 speakers, but it seems a bit limited in terms of output power.

What can you recommend that performs better than the Wiim Vibelink?

I was thinking about the SMSL PA200, but I can't find many reviews. It also doesn't have a trigger input for turning on the power, which is very useful!

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

Hypex NC252MP is a well-known and proven amp, albeit more expensive than VibeLink. The IOM Ultra is an NC252MP-based amp designed to match the aesthetics of WiiM Ultra, and it provides both, higher gain and higher power than the VibeLink with equally high fidelity. Take a look—worth it if it fits your budget. The same performance/amp can also be had for less money from other builders if you’re willing to forego the matching aesthetics, depending on which country you’re in/builders/dealers since numerous companies build amps around Hypex modules/internals.