Compatibility with Samsung Q990C

[Pkmd68]

Hi for members,

I just discovered this really interesting product (WiiM Pro Plus) and had a question before purchase. We are moving to a new home and have already purchased a Samsung QN 90 C 4K TV. I am considering buying the matching Q 990 C sound bar with its rears and one subwoofer. Though I may be mistaken, there does not appear to be any easy way to stream music directly from my iPhone to system other than through airplay to or Bluetooth which down samples all Hi-Rez music. Is it possible to connect this device directly to the sound bar as a dedicated DAC and take advantage of uncompromised, high definition music directly from within its app, yet able to be compatible with the Samsung multi-channel audio system! And if so, how do I connect this device to the sound bar? I do not see an HDMI cable in the back.

Thanks for your help in advance!

 

[Mr Ee]

The soundbar has optical in, so you could use that connection. I'm assuming the bar can / will do some fancy processing with the stereo signal.
If you're not using the pro plus's dac then you could consider a pro, or even a mini if you don't need any of the pro features, such as ethernet, chromecast.

What do you want to stream?
I see the sounbar has spotify and tidal connect.

 

[Pkmd68]

The soundbar has optical in, so you could use that connection. I'm assuming the bar can / will do some fancy processing with the stereo signal.
If you're not using the pro plus's dac then you could consider a pro, or even a mini if you don't need any of the pro features, such as ethernet, chromecast.

What do you want to stream?
I see the sounbar has spotify and tidal connect.

We have an Amazon Music subscription (Which has some Hi Def content) and would like to likely sign up for Quboz or Deezer, maybe even Apple Music (Not all of them, still deciding). Tidal is great, I know, but i guess my main concern with this set-up (All Samsung system) is whether it is as easy as life has been with our Sonos Arc+Gen3+FiveX2 set-up in terms of user interface and usability. We are moving to a new home and have sold to the buyers our existing Sonos system which is stellar for music. First things, I do not in anyway want to depend on the TV being on to listen to music (I understand Tidal App is on the TV). The challenge is we have purchased the TV, Still deciding on a surround sounbar-based solution and have yet to move (two more weeks). Black Friday is coming and I want to comitt to a system now. Sorry I know all this detail is not meant for this forum but my aim in reaching out to this community was that if I stick with the Q990C and it turns out that is not as good for music as it is slated to be for movies, what are my options? My vision is that I connect the Pro Plus to the Soundbar (which is the defacto receiver i guess) and bypass the TV and Samsung's native UI (If ultimately justified) and stream HiRes music from variety of sources WITHOUT relying on Apple Play 2, etc and "patch" any imaginable deficiencies in end-user ease of use and quality sound. Thanks for any thoughts!

 

[Mr Ee]

It reads to me like the soundbar itself supports spotify and tidal connect. No need for the tv to be on for that to work.
Optical connection from a wiim to the soundbar - also no need for the tv to be on.
For any of qobuz, deezer, amazon etc. then you can use the wiim app, which is reasonable enough.
You could also use the native apps for all; chromecast for the first two, alexacast for amazon. Chromecast has its limitations, usually 96khz max and not gapless.
3rd party apps, such as bubbleupnp and mconnect, can be used for qobuz and tidal. imo these apps are better than the wiim app, for now at least!
Oh, and tidal app with tidal connect to the wiim, of course!

If the soundbar proves to be suboptimal for music then you'd need an amp and speakers, or powered/active speakers.
For this, the pro plus would likely fulfill your needs, and be more future proof.
You could still have optical out to the soundbar, but then either analog out to an amp/speakers, or digital coax out to powered speakers (as long as they have a coax input! Note that the soundbar doesn't have coax input).
Note that only one wiim output (optical, coax, analog) can be active at any time, and is switched from within the wiim app. I don't think you can use the wiim remote to change output.

 

[Mr Ee]

Oh, and in case you're wondering, I didn't suggest the wiim amp as that only has speaker outputs.