WiiM Pro Plus Streamer Review

[Ralph_Cramden]

Huh?!
Room correction only for iOS?! Why did they not say that much earlier?

They have said they will investigate using the WiiM remote, but that seems a bit iffy to me.

FWIW, Sonos has for years limited their room correction to iOS devices, due to the vast variation of Android device microphones.

 

[TheBatsEar]

Huh?!
Room correction only for iOS?! Why did they not say that much earlier?

I think they did say it when they wrote they will implement it.

Anyway, here are my first impressions of the Wiim Pro Plus:

Network/WLAN

• Getting the WLAN connected was easy. The connection seems robust.
• It went to 2.4GHz per default, when 5GHz was available with the same SSID and better network quality
• It overwrote my DHCP nameserver with 8.8.8.8, this is unacceptable!
• I set the "disable the nameserver 8.8.8.8", disable IPv6 and also set the WLAN to 5GHz manually. After it switched to 5GHz, the nameserver was 8.8.8.8 again IPv6 was active again. Unacceptable!
• Disabling the nameserver 8.8.8.8 and rebooting the device kept 8.8.8.8 disabled (for now?).

Firmware

• First upgrade went flawless.
• Firmware upgrades can't be disabled, wich is unacceptable. Sooner or later they add ads or some other unwanted feature, or disable something, and you can't do anything against it.
• Firmware can't be downgraded.

Remote

• The remote uses bluetooth and needs pairing and firmware.
• The remote came without battery (2* AAA are needed).
• The remote buttons are silicone, but not the ultrasoft kind that clings to dust. Good.

App on Android

• Language of Audiofeedback was set to English, despite the App and Device language, which was German
• Language of Alexa was set to English, despite the App and Device language, which was German
• The back button (bottom left at Android devices) puts the currently running app into the background. Not here, you get a message to "tap again to put the app into the background". Why? I just tapped to do just that? Why again?
• Spelling errors in the UI of the app.
• There was no agreement that they are allowed to save or sell my private information. So they don't. Right? RIGHT?

Because of it's bad networking behaviour and unclear privacy policy i'll isolate the Wiim Pro Plus from my network, so it can't call home without me allowing it. I highly recommend anyone doing the same. If you are in peoples network, you have to play by their rules, which means accept the nameserver DHCP tells you to use and accept the settings the user sets manually.

Other than that it's great, i like the hardware and the software features .

 

[Bernardo_G]

Hello everybody; long time reader, first time poster.

My name is Bernardo García and I'm a music lover and home audio enthusiast (I don't call myself an"audiophile"); I've been learning a lot from reading your posts, and slowly assembling my humble audio system, funds permitting.

Probably this has been discussed before, and if so, please excuse me but reading 30 pages is a bit too much. I already own a Schiit Modi+ (I don't know what model, I purchased it in August last year). I'd like to know if the internal DAC of the Wiim Pro Plus is as good as the Modi+ or if I just get the Wiim Pro and connect it to my DAC.

Thank you for your help, guys. My wife told me that she wants to buy either the Wiim Pro or Wiim Pro Plus as my birthday present and I'd like her to spend her money wisely.

 

[Yorkshire Mouth]

Hello everybody; long time reader, first time poster.

My name is Bernardo García and I'm a music lover and home audio enthusiast (I don't call myself an"audiophile"); I've been learning a lot from reading your posts, and slowly assembling my humble audio system, funds permitting.

Probably this has been discussed before, and if so, please excuse me but reading 30 pages is a bit too much. I already own a Schiit Modi+ (I don't know what model, I purchased it in August last year). I'd like to know if the internal DAC of the Wiim Pro Plus is as good as the Modi+ or if I just get the Wiim Pro and connect it to my DAC.

Thank you for your help, guys. My wife told me that she wants to buy either the Wiim Pro or Wiim Pro Plus as my birthday present and I'd like her to spend her money wisely.

Both DACs are transparent, so I’d go for the Pro, digital out into the Modi+.

 

[Brian Hall]

Hello everybody; long time reader, first time poster.

My name is Bernardo García and I'm a music lover and home audio enthusiast (I don't call myself an"audiophile"); I've been learning a lot from reading your posts, and slowly assembling my humble audio system, funds permitting.

Probably this has been discussed before, and if so, please excuse me but reading 30 pages is a bit too much. I already own a Schiit Modi+ (I don't know what model, I purchased it in August last year). I'd like to know if the internal DAC of the Wiim Pro Plus is as good as the Modi+ or if I just get the Wiim Pro and connect it to my DAC.

Thank you for your help, guys. My wife told me that she wants to buy either the Wiim Pro or Wiim Pro Plus as my birthday present and I'd like her to spend her money wisely.

The Modi+ is a good DAC. The Wiim Pro Plus has a good DAC. Since you already have the Modi+, you can save money and just get the Wiim Pro or even the Wiim Mini if you don't need the extra inputs and outputs on the Pro.

 

[Bernardo_G]

Great feedback guys; thank you for your comments!!

 

[audioje]

To those who are familiar with REW, as Wiim will release 8 bands peq soon, is the generic & configurable peq with 8 bands setting would be good for Wiim peq filters (LS, HS, and PK)? As Wiim's own room correction won't support Android, I am thinking about getting a measurement mic such as umik1 or umm6.

 

[Yannick]

Would running optical from my source into a WiiM Pro followed by optical output to my DAC be a reasonable entry-level means of adding some (P)EQ to my system? As it stands, I don't have any components with an equalizing capacity, but I'd like to trial it by buying the WiiM to see just how much I enjoy the difference. Then (much) later on I would likely consider a miniDSP or something to do some room correction and the like. Thanks!

 

[Brantome]

Would running optical from my source into a WiiM Pro followed by optical output to my DAC be a reasonable entry-level means of adding some (P)EQ to my system? As it stands, I don't have any components with an equalizing capacity, but I'd like to trial it by buying the WiiM to see just how much I enjoy the difference. Then (much) later on I would likely consider a miniDSP or something to do some room correction and the like. Thanks!

Yeah

 

[Yannick]

Lightning fast! Thanks for the confirmation.

 

[Yorkshire Mouth]

To follow that up, and just as a general point.

All of the WiiM streamers (apart from the Mini) are actually excellent products, and great value for money, even if you don't use them as a streamer.

Is there another box that can give you digital 4-band (soon to be 8, then 10 band) and room correction for the price?

Even the Mini has an analogue in, and a less-than-stellar, but still serviceable ADC.

If someone had a 'finished' system, but wanted to add PEQ and room correction, is there a cheaper and more user-friendly box?

 

[staticV3]

If someone had a 'finished' system, but wanted to add PEQ and room correction, is there a cheaper and more user-friendly box?

Nope!

 

[TheBatsEar]

Is there another box that can give you digital 4-band (soon to be 8, then 10 band) and room correction for the price?

RPi Zero2 with two digital input/output cards using CamillaDSP. I guess we look at 60€ or so.

 

[TheBatsEar]

To those who are familiar with REW, as Wiim will release 8 bands peq soon, is the generic & configurable peq with 8 bands setting would be good for Wiim peq filters (LS, HS, and PK)? As Wiim's own room correction won't support Android, I am thinking about getting a measurement mic such as umik1 or umm6.

If i understand your question right, you are asking if you can use REW measurements to design either a 4 PEQ or 8 PEQ correction filter and transfer it to the Wiim.

Yes. Obviously you need a microphone for REW. And sadly you have to type in the PEQ values by hand.

 

[gitesh]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the WiiM Pro Plus streamer, DAC and preamplifier with Bluetooth support. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $219.
View attachment 332704
While the case is plastic, it still "looks the part" as the Brits would say relative to other more famous brands of streamers. I was pleasantly surprised to see support for analog input:
View attachment 332705

There is both Toslink in and out and even trigger support (for automation/turning on downstream devices). As usual, you need to download an App to get access to full set of functionality. Upon running said app, I was once again pleasantly surprised in it instantly finding the streamer. It asked me if I wanted to upgrade and I said yes. It took about 6 minutes which was rather long but otherwise worked smoothly.

Note that my version is the "Plus" which has a much more performant DAC and retails for more money as a result.

Upon power cycle I went to my Roon player to see if it sees the device but it did not! I could swear I was told it now had Roon support. Searching online showed that it should be there but nope. Power cycle did nothing. FAQ did nothing. Searching on WiiM site did not inform. Searched again and landed on a thread on Roon forum where it said the *Plus* version is yet to be certified. And that it is the standard WiiM Pro that is already there. What a mess. I put most of the blame on Roon for their slow process here but from WiiM front, I would have liked to see a notation in documentation/app saying support is not there yet.

Fortunately Chromecast is supported which gives the same high resolution, bit-exact streaming as Roon endpoing does so I did my streaming tests with that.

One key feature of this streamer is support for both Graphic and Parametric EQ. Latter is limited to 4 bands but that is good enough to do major good for both speaker/headphone response and even room EQ.

WiiM Pro Plus Measurements
Here is our dashboard with Roon pushing bits over Chromecast protocol to Wiim Pro Plus:
View attachment 332706
This is excellent performance for the class, easily landing it in the Excellent category of all DACs tested:

View attachment 332707

View attachment 332708

Distortion was below threshold of hearing so noise dominated:
View attachment 332709
There is a broad sequence of tones at very low amplitude are visible in our jitter test:
View attachment 332710
Levels are below -130 dB though so not remotely audible.

The default filter is provided which is fine by me:
View attachment 332711

IMD and noise are very good:
View attachment 332714

Linearity is perfect:
View attachment 332715

There is however some rise in distortion with decreasing frequency:
View attachment 332716
Edit: looks like there is an improved version that came out to address this last month. My sample is a few months old.

WiiM Pro Plus Equalization Measurement
You all keep asking me about impact of equalization on performance of products with it. So I decided to turn on EQ but leave the four filters at gain of zero (so frequency response is not changed). Here is Toslink input with EQ defeated:
View attachment 332712

And now with EQ on:

View attachment 332713

As you see, it has no impact.

WiiM Pro Plus Analog Input Measurements
Here is the performance with analog in and out:
View attachment 332717
Predictably, we don't have a high performance implementation as far as distortion. Noise while fluctuating some in the dashboard, was good by itself:
View attachment 332718

You have selectable sample rate for analog input which is a nice feature. I set it to max (has no impact on above measurements) and got nice, wide bandwidth:
View attachment 332720

Conclusions
The WiiM Pro Plus is extremely capable streamer with just the right feature set of DAC, EQ and analog input. Plus version nicely ups the performance by a good mile, essentially matching that of our low cost DACs in $100 to $120 range. But then it adds analog input which has no analog in DACs, pun intended. Software shows impressive depth and capability. Other than Roon support not yet being there, I can't critique anything.

I am happy to add WiiM Pro Plus streamer to my recommended list.

------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

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Hello . I have stereo set up of Harman kardon 3380 stereo receiver along with b & w 706 s2 speakers which sound bright and I get ear fatigue. I listen to streaming music by connecting my iPad directly to hk 3380 . My question is whether the equaliser in wiim pro plus can offset the brightness in my system . It’s not possible to demo the streamer at my place . Thanks for your help.

 

[gwing]

Hello . I have stereo set up of Harman kardon 3380 stereo receiver along with b & w 706 s2 speakers which sound bright and I get ear fatigue. I listen to streaming music by connecting my iPad directly to hk 3380 . My question is whether the equaliser in wiim pro plus can offset the brightness in my system . It’s not possible to demo the streamer at my place . Thanks for your help.

Yes, the Wiim should be easily capable of this as it has both shelving and PEQ filters. I don't stream from Apple myself but I would have thought that you could find a way of similarly implementing tone control on the ipad as well though.

 

[gitesh]

Yes, the Wiim should be easily capable of this as it has both shelving and PEQ filters. I don't stream from Apple myself but I would have thought that you could find a way of similarly implementing tone control on the ipad as well though.

Hello . iPad has generic preset tone controls like low treble , high vocal , Loud bass etc I tried it but it wasn’t really effective

 

[TheBatsEar]

Hello . I have stereo set up of Harman kardon 3380 stereo receiver along with b & w 706 s2 speakers which sound bright and I get ear fatigue. I listen to streaming music by connecting my iPad directly to hk 3380 . My question is whether the equaliser in wiim pro plus can offset the brightness in my system . It’s not possible to demo the streamer at my place . Thanks for your help.

The Wiim also has a regular EQ you might want to use, looks like this:

The loudness preset could be what you want, but you can do your own config.

 

[gitesh]

The Wiim also has a regular EQ you might want to use, looks like this:
View attachment 361273
The loudness preset could be what you want, but you can do your own config.

 

[Gambertuni]

To follow that up, and just as a general point.

All of the WiiM streamers (apart from the Mini) are actually excellent products, and great value for money, even if you don't use them as a streamer.

Is there another box that can give you digital 4-band (soon to be 8, then 10 band) and room correction for the price?

Even the Mini has an analogue in, and a less-than-stellar, but still serviceable ADC.

If someone had a 'finished' system, but wanted to add PEQ and room correction, is there a cheaper and more user-friendly box?

Just one question regarding the mini: if you use it as a wifi / airplay 2 transmitter, connecting it to an external dac via optical, it does a good job, doesn't it?