iOS WiiM Home App v3.1.9 & Android v3.1.8 Update – Apr 5, 2025

[WiiM Team]

They're Sonab OA14 – old Swedish speakers with a pretty unusual design. The tweeters point upwards instead of forward, so the sound spreads out in all directions. They're what’s called “omnidirectional” or “ortho-acoustic” speakers, which basically means they’re made to fill the whole room with sound instead of just aiming at one spot. Sounds really open and natural. Might not even work with room correction cause I got some very disappointing resaults from various settings, but I'm learning so it could also be the settings.

I am just trying to learn and was following some advice posted by @dominikz when the update came. So I never got the chance to try it using hes recommendations of setting it to 12.

"Max gain: 12dB
You need to have a high value here for the app to be able to bring down severe room resonances. A current limitation in the app is that the same max gain control affects both positive and negative gain filters, but this will apparently improve soon.
After the separate positive/negative max gain controls are implemented I'd suggest to keep the max positive gain below 3dB (preferably 0), and keep max negative gain at 12dB."

So that should make me settings above correct right? It really sounds terrible.

Hi Fralle,

Please contact us through the WiiM Home app by going to the More tab and selecting Feedback. Our engineers will review your environment to understand why the Room Correction results may not be optimal.

 

[pieterv1]

We'll look into this issue. Could you let us know your phone model? This will help us reproduce the problem.

Yes, Google Pixel 6 with Android 16 beta.

 

[WiiM Team]

Yes, Google Pixel 6 with Android 16 beta.

Thanks.

 

[dominikz]

Room Correction Enhancements: Added support for independent Left/Right channel room correction with subwoofer. Introduced separate controls for adjusting Min Gain and Max Gain during room correction.

I tested the separate min and max gain control yesterday, and while it appears to work OK in principle, IMHO limiting the Max Gain minimum value to 0,5dB is unfortunate.
The main issue is not the tiny potential overall boost this can introduce, but rather the fact that several EQ filter banks will be wasted by PEQ filters having negligible gains which won't have any significant impact on the response:



@WiiM Team Are there any plans to support setting Max Gain to "0" (i.e. disabling the use of positive gain PEQ filters completely) to make better use of the available PEQ filters? Thanks in advance!

 

[Valentino]

^A comment on positive gain.
To achieve the Harman curve a wide band positive gain of +6 dB may be necessary to be able to reach the desired target curve.
What should be avoided is high Q positive corrections in excess of 3 dB. If the automatic correction gives such results reduce manually for better sound.

Also for those who may be interested:
The Sonab speakers @Fralle has until recently had modern descendants from the Larsen loudspeaker company. It’s an interesting design which should be excellent for members that like «sound showers» and not head in a vice super dry pinpointing in the sweet spot.

Larsen HiFi – That sounds beautiful

www.larsenhifi.com

 

[dominikz]

^A comment on positive gain.
To achieve the Harman curve a wide band positive gain of +6 dB may be necessary to be able to reach the desired target curve.
What should be avoided is high Q positive corrections in excess of 3 dB. If the automatic correction gives such results reduce manually for better sound.

In principle I agree, but note that there are ways to achieve compliance with the "Harman target" without using positive gain filters in RC:

1. you could first run RC with the B&K target and then just boost bass with a dedicated low-shelf PEQ filter (or with dedicated EQ);
2. or (if you have a subwoofer) you could increase the subwoofer level appropriately prior to performing RC.

Though I guess for many users having too many options to achieve a similar result could result in paralysis by analysis. On one hand as an audio-geek I'm really happy that WiiM is introducing all of this advanced capability, but on the other hand I can't help but feel a bit sorry for the non-technical end-users trying to understand how to use it for best results.

Also for those who may be interested:
The Sonab speakers @Fralle has until recently had modern descendants from the Larsen loudspeaker company. It’s an interesting design which should be excellent for members that like «sound showers» and not head in a vice super dry pinpointing in the sweet spot.

Larsen HiFi – That sounds beautiful

www.larsenhifi.com

That is really an interesting design that I'd love to have a chance to hear some time - thanks for sharing!

In general wide-directivity designs can be really satisfying; note that there are such even with the generic box-type front-firing speaker designs.

E.g. have a look at the Philharmonic BMR or Wharfedale Linton horizontal directivity, especially compared to a narrow-directivity design like the Kef R3 Meta:

 

[Valentino]

Thanks 1. Very good points.
Thanks 2. I shall dive into the Wharfedale and BMR. If you haven’t seen what Sigberg Audio is doing with directivity you may want to have a look. The latest Saranna is a domestic cartoidic brute.

Saranna Full Range Floorstander (pair)

Saranna is for you if you want a speaker with: Deep, punchy bass without the need for subwoofers Exceptional clarity and nuance without listening fatigue An immersive and huge soundstage unlike anything you've ever heard. An ability to play loud and uncompressed even in large rooms. The option...

www.sigbergaudio.com

My own system is something as seldom as a «trying to be a true horizontal dipole radiator». Directivity matters!