Listening to The Black Crow's new album, Happiness Bastards, gave us a chance to hear what the Mini could do using its internal DAC. While the sound was clean and clear, allowing us to hear the fundamentals, the soundstage, and imaging were not up to the standards we are used to from better DAC’s. The tonal balance was good, with good bass and midrange, while the treble seemed to have a little bit of glare and etch. This is to be expected as the DAC inside the WiiM Mini is a budget chip that just does not have the specs of better DACs. Using the available Toslink output, we connected the Mini to one of our separate reference DACs, and the sound improved immensely, showing that the Budget-priced Mini has growth potential. If you are looking for a true all-in-one streamer for a higher-end music system, you would do much better with one of the Bluesound streaming products. However, given the very low entry price, the WiiM Mini is still a great product that would fit into a low-budget entry-level system or a system where critical music listening is not the priority.
Moving on to the WiiM Pro and Pro Plus streamers, things get a little more musical. With the same budget DAC as the Mini, the Pro is a more feature-rich version of the Mini. We liked the extra analog connections and thought the addition of an ethernet connection improved the sound a tiny bit, but we still think that the Pro is more geared toward budget systems. A separate quality DAC will be needed to get more out of it. With the addition of an AKM 4493 EQ DAC, the Pro Plus brings much better sound quality. Playing the same tracks through the Pro Plus allowed us to hear better instrument separation, with much-improved imaging and soundstaging ability. The treble had much less glare and etch to it, Allowing us to listen for much longer without fatigue. With its digital outputs, the Pro Plus still allows growth to better separate DACs and could be the base of a great streaming front end. We still think users looking for a streamer for their higher-end system will want to look at some of our better options, but the Pro Plus is great for the money. Some of our integrated amplifiers and receivers with built-in streaming are also worth considering, as they are true all-in-one powered packages from some of the top brands on the market.
The WiiM Amp is a product that fits a certain use case. We tested it with some fairly easy-to-drive and lower-priced stand-mount speakers, as this is where we see this amp being used. The WiiM Amp delivered good power and drove higher-sensitivity speakers well, but we would not recommend it for most tower speakers or larger, hard-to-fill rooms. The power amplifier section in the WiiM Amp is a class D design based on a TI chip and has its limitations. Playing The Black Crows tracks we liked the clean and clear output of the WiiM Amp and thought it had good tonal balance. The bass was tight and went low enough to give the music a good flow. The midrange was detailed and clean and as was the treble response. We heard a hint of treble glare and edginess on some harder-hitting tracks with cymbals and treble energy. The Soundstage and Imaging were decent, but this showed us that we were listening to a budget component. If you are looking for an amplifier to power less sensitive speakers or want one that will show you the great soundstage of your system, then you should look at our better amplifiers. We recommend the WiiM Amp for cases where regular-sized components just won’t fit or when critical listening is not the concern.
Overall Recommendation
After spending time with the WiiM streaming products, we were impressed by the ease of use and quality of the software experience. We also appreciated having an included app that does everything and doesn’t require switching apps to stream from our favorite streaming service. The sound quality of each unit is good and represents a value at their respective price points. Yes, there are better-sounding streaming products from brands like Bluesound and HiFI Rose, but they are costlier. The WiiM products will do multi-room audio(limited to 16 bit-48kHz audio), but if that is the use case, there are better products from brands like Sonos. But if you are looking for a low-cost streaming option for a budget system, or you have a great DAC and want to test the streaming waters, the WiiM products represent a quality option. We recommend the WiiM streaming products and think they would be a good fit for budget-minded music lovers. If you are wondering if the WiiM music streaming options are right for you, please give us a call or chat with us at Audio Advice and let our experts help you decide.
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