[newzooreview]

I've been selling off my main system in preparation for a move, and I decided to buy a WiiM amp to pack in my luggage so I'll have something to use before I figure out a new setup in the new space.

The WiiM amp is a bit pampered. It's hooked up to a pair of Harbeth 30.1 35th Anniversary speakers, powered off of my Puritan PSM 156 power conditioner, and running via an Audioquest ethernet cable with an iFi Ethernet filter on the end plugged into the WiiM. It's streaming Qobuz or Roon (via Airplay, because the WiiM Amp is waiting for Roon certification to be Roon Ready. The WiiM Pro is already Roon Ready, so the amp certification should come). The only part of the setup that will travel with me are the WiiM, ethernet cable, and the Blue Jeans Cable 10-gauge speaker cables. I've convinced myself that I can protect a pair of Ascend Acoustics Sierra LX speakers in my luggage and take those as well.

Summary: I like it. It's a pleasant and enjoyable sound with detail, imaging, soundstage, and tonality well above what might be expected. It commits no offenses. It's going to serve the purpose well. The Harbeths generally sound pleasant, and I haven't tried it with the Sierra LX since they come next week. We'll see how it does with less sensitive speakers. It's at ~30-40% volume at slightly loud (for me) listening levels (peaks of 77 dB).

Setup and annoyances: WiiM and Amazon need to improve their packaging. The amp was shipped in its bare box from Amazon (no cardboard box or cushioning), and the amp broke through the inner cardboard cradle in a few places. The amp seems like a solid, sturdy brick and showed no sign of harm or anything rattling inside. I would certainly buy it from Crutchfield, however, given the choice.

I connected the speakers, ethernet cable, and then finally power chord. The amp wants to see the WiiM Home app when it first starts, which it seeks via Bluetooth. I opened the WiiM Home app on my iPhone, and it immediately found the amp. The app then started a firmware update on the amp which took about 6 minutes. It went fine. If the WiiM amp is connected by ethernet then it uses ethernet not WiFi. You can also turn off WiFi in the amp, which is excellent. The less WiFi in the vicinity of a component the better. The amp cannot connect via typing its IP address in the browser: it does not run a web server for direct setup; you have to use the WiiM Home app.

After the firmware update, the app asked me to name the amp and gave me the option to enable Chromecast and Alexa. I declined since that can be done later. It then told me there was another firmware update for the amp. I said ok, and nothing happened. It showed me an empty "downloading" circle, and after a couple of minutes the light on the amp went out. The amp had gone into standby mode. The amp was not showing the blinking light to indicate that it was actually updating firmware.

I decided that if the amp was sitting in standby mode, I might try closing the WiiM Home app on the iPhone. I reopened the WiiM Home app, and things were up and running normally. This kind of bugginess is very annoying, especially in a device that is supposed to be for technically challenged people who want a box that just works.

Once in the app and signed into Qobuz, I couldn't find my Qobuz playlists. You can swipe along the top of the screen to see playlists that Qobuz suggests, but not the ones in your Qobuz account. I finally figured out that if I click the little menu button (three horizontal bars) at the top left of the screen I can access my own Qobuz playlists. That was a relief, but seems to me like poor interface design. My playlists shouldn't be hidden on an obscure second screen, especially when there are a bunch of playlists (not mine) all along the top.

The second thing that I could not find was the settings for the amp. The "Settings" menu at the bottom of the screen is just app settings: there is nothing there for setting things on the WiiM amp, such as how long it waits before it goes into standby or whether it constantly displays the volume lights. After a lot of searching, I found that there is a second Settings menu specific to the WiiM amp. To get to the WiiM amp settings you can't use the main "Settings" menu at the bottom of the main screen in the WiiM Home app. Another great user interface choice, WiiM!

To get to the WiiM amp settings, you have to go to the Devices menu and then notice that there is a gear icon. Tap the gear icon, and you can open up the amp settings. You can set the time to standby up to 20 minutes, but you cannot disable standby. You cannot dim the lights on the front, which is very annoying. You can, however, turn the lights on the front off entirely. You can check for new firmware manually, but you cannot disable automatic firmware checking at 2am. It likely uses whatever time your phone is showing to schedule that.

The four-frequency parametric EQ works in real time and lets you type an exact frequency, dB, and Q factor for each of the four adjustment points. For point #1 and point #4 you can also choose whether it's a high-shelf, low-shelf, or peak adjustment. Points #2 and #3 are peak adjustments only. Pretty useful.

There was one little glitch when I was playing back via Roon to the WiiM as an Airplay 2 device. Just a quick click. I switched to Qobuz and the hasn't happened again. It's been well behaved and will likely be fine using Airplay 2 over the long term as well. I do look forward to Roon certification, however.

The speaker cables are brand new, and the amp needs to break in as well. I also don't know how well it will work with the Sierra LX speakers. They are less sensitive than the Harbeths, but according to Ascend I need <30 watts for 96 dB peaks at my 8-foot listening distance. I will have to see how that goes.

That's it. I'm happy with it. It's cheap and cheerful, and the annoyances have not been great.

[AllanS]

Thanks for the review.  I’m happy to hear you’re satisfied.  We bought one for the middle child for Christmas based on little more than a Darko review.  He’d been borrowing an old Optimus receiver I had that finally gave up the ghost. 

This is his first step beyond BT ear pods and he had no trouble with setup, though I seriously doubt he’s gone beyond the basics.  It’s playing through a pair of 87db Polk Audio Signature Elite ES10.

He lives a few hours away so we’ve not heard it yet.

Your Sierra LX impressions will be interesting. I demo’d an EX pair a while back and was quite impressed.

[newzooreview]

I'm getting a fair facsimile of imaging, detail, soundstage depth, and good instrument tonality. It hasn't given me any noise or loss of remote connection, which were complaints from early adopters. I think WiiM is up to v.6 of the motherboard already, according to folks on their forums. They seem to iterate quickly.

For my purposes, or a college dorm/small apartment setup, I think it's ideal.

I will post on the Sierra LX. If it's just a matter of turning the volume up a click then I'll be happy with it. If the Harbeth speakers are helping to gloss over warts then it could be a different story. The Harbeths are not that far from neutral, however, so I'll see.

[newzooreview]

I’ve had the Sierra LX speakers now since Tuesday, and I have about 80 hours on them.

The WiiM Amp is exceptional with the Sierra LX in a small to medium-sized room. My room is 18x14. The WiiM Amp can easily drive the LX at normal to moderately loud listening levels. A -1 dBFS Pink Noise track reaches 70-71 dB in my room at 48% volume. The LX is rated at 81 dB efficient for 1 kHz at 1m, so it is not at all an efficient speaker. However, the LX has a flat anechoic frequency response with 60 deg. vertical and horizontal dispersion: it can load the room well and bring effective (or perceived) efficiency into the 87dB range.

In practice, the WiiM Amp in my room with the LXs can give me a full symphony as loud as I would like it. I have run the WiiM Amp at 75% volume without any distortion. WiiM says it can run continuously at its full 60 watts, but I have not tried it. So, WiiM ≠ wimpy as long as you are not dealing with a large space.

Sound

Normally, the inexpensive amps I’ve tried have one or more obvious weaknesses: massed strings sound mushed together, complicated passages are congested, it’s hard to follow an individual instrument in the mix, the depth of the soundstage is poor and collapses during complicated passages, timbre is bleached, there’s poor emotional connection to vocals, subtle details are masked or they are present but etched, the sound is either dull or fatiguing.

The WiiM Amp with the LXs does not have any of these issues. Timbre is excellent. Soundstage depth is very well presented and voices and instruments are well separated and placed. There is imaging depth, texture, and good timbre in the bass. Bass is exceptionally extended and always accurate. There are no flaws that draw attention to themselves.

One thing I did notice was that the wide dispersion of the LX tweeter and its excellent accuracy can bring forward any room issues in the upper midrange and treble. My first thought was that the LX might be bright. But knowing that it measures with a flat anechoic response and nearly textbook linear, downward sloping in-room response, I decided to investigate further.

I downloaded HouseCurve for my iPhone (free) and plugged my Umik-2 into the phone. I set the WiiM Amp as my output (via AirPlay) and ran a few frequency sweeps. My room has a peak at 1600 Hz and another at 8300 Hz that needed to come down about 3 dB. I set HouseCurve to give me 4 PEQ adjustments above 200 Hz, and I entered those into the Wiim Home app. The LX no longer sounds bright. It just sounds right.

I’ve been going through a wide range of genres, and it’s the kind of setup that just invites listening. Everything sounds correct. The LX will provide the bass that is in the recording, even the heavy bass of electronic music. It reproduces drums very very well. And I’m hearing timbre and texture and imaging of low notes in orchestral pieces. Stand-up bass in jazz recordings is very realistic. In the midrange, vocals are detailed and expressive and smooth. Flutes that I’ve heard sound shrill in some systems are very well reproduced. Trumpets are full of life, energy, and brassiness without being harsh or aggressive.

The ability of the WiiM Amp to provide PEQ (although only 4 bands) coupled with measurement and a table of corrections from HouseCurve really makes the setup easy.

Hopefully, the Roon certification for the WiiM Amp won’t take too long. The WiiM Home App is not a lot of fun to use. I’ve been using Roon to play to the WiiM Amp via Airplay 2. Even though the WiiM Amp is connected by ethernet with WiFi off, I get a crackle every 2-3 hours that would likely go away with the more reliable Roon streaming protocol.

I am extremely happy with the Sierra LX + WiiM Amp in my room.

[AllanS]

For less than one moderately priced hi end component you have a more or less complete digital system.

Considering where you came from I'm guessing this is a pretty impressive system that would satisfy many people.

Among other things, including the engineering, I love Acend’s V-LAM cabinets.

[newzooreview]

A constraint was portability in luggage. The Sierra LXs are pushing it, but the WiiM Amp works nicely. I think the EQ is important in this setup since measurements elsewhere suggest load-dependent frequency response in the high frequencies:
https://forum.wiimhome.com/threads/my-wiim-amp-tests-chapter-2.2442/

Erin's Audio Corner will also be posting some measurements, I believe.

I would rather have an amp that is not a source of peaks and dips in the in-room frequency response, but with four points of PEQ I can lower the worst peaks. The end result is definitely cheap and cheerful. But whenever I'm settled in a new space I'll be considering options. I won't be impatient about that: the WiiM Amp and Sierra LX are very satisfying in a small to medium room with judicious PEQ.

[ExileSt]

My curiosity is definitely piqued.  What amp and source were you using with the Harbeths?  Just trying to triangulate where you were coming from before landing on this setup.

I think the EQ is important in this setup since measurements elsewhere suggest load-dependent frequency response in the high frequencies:
https://forum.wiimhome.com/threads/my-wiim-amp-tests-chapter-2.2442/

Interesting!  But like you say, if you know it's there, you can work around it.

[figcon]

I purchased the WiiM amp and a pair of Micca RB42 speakers from Amazon for our bedroom. Primary considerations were amp and speaker size, functionality, the aesthetics for both and then sound quality, as my wife was kind enough to allow this and I was trying to accommodate her, while having something better than mediocre sounding. I think it's a pretty amazing little set up. It certainly sounds good enough to listen to as background music and as a mesh house music system, similar to Sonos, I can see where the WiiM would be a great addition, although we don't need that here. The Micca speakers are finished in a dark veneer, not rectangular boxes and sound amazing for their size and cost. Sensitivity is pretty low, but the price to pay for the sound quality and for the bedroom, it gets loud enough. Interestingly, the amp will max out and then stop, so no clipping. Thinking about the target audience, a good engineering decision. The EQ function on the WiiM is a great feature and so far, my only issue so far is trying to figure out why I can only play about 1 minute of each track when streaming via Qobuz. It shows my Qobuz account and saved favorites, but it wont play the full tracks. If anyone has any ideas, I'd appreciate your input. For $500, a steal!

[Doublej]

I'd post the question here:

https://forum.wiimhome.com/

[newzooreview]

My curiosity is definitely piqued.  What amp and source were you using with the Harbeths?  Just trying to triangulate where you were coming from before landing on this setup.

Interesting!  But like you say, if you know it's there, you can work around it.

With the Harbeths I used a Benchmark AHB2 and a Denis Had SET primarily, but I also used a Jolida tube integrated (with EL34 tubes). More recently I was using the AHB2, a Pass Labs XA25, and a pair of monoblock GanFET amps with my Spatial Sapphire M3 speakers. I've been selling off the big system equipment in prep for a move.

1. I am no longer using any EQ. I moved some carpeting around, and all of the high-frequency oddity was floor reflections. The measurements of variations in the amp in the higher frequencies with complex loads is actually in the 0.5 to 1 dB range, and only for speakers with difficult loads. The Sierra LX is not very sensitive, but it's not a difficult load to drive from the amp's viewpoint. I hear excellent detail, no fatigue at all, excellent imaging and soundstage depth, and nothing that sounds "off" in the treble. So, in the end, the possible issues in the WiiM Amp measurements are not anything that I can hear or see in the measured in-room response.

2. As the Sierra LX speakers have broken in, I am more impressed than I was earlier. These are terrific speakers.

3. One of the things that is enjoyable about the WiiM Amp is timbre. Things sound very natural and realistic. I think as the speakers have broken in (nearing 300 hours now) this has become more apparent.

4. The big caveats are room size, listening distance, and the volume level you prefer. I'm in a medium room sitting 7-8 feet from the speakers and typically listen to music in the 60-72 dB range. I really don't need much power 80% of the time. With the room size, I can get enjoyable volume when I want to turn it up, but depending on someone's circumstance, I could see wattage being a consideration.

The WiiM Amp does meet its specified maximum output at 8 and 4 Ohms, however, so it's no different than any other 60W amp in that respect.