Thinking about moving to passive speakers with WiiM Ultra — need help picking a direction

[huyvoxyz]

Hey everyone, Wiim Ultra user here. I'm currently running it with KEF LSX II as my main setup and love how it sounds - the convenience of an all-in-one active speaker is great, but I've been trying to get into the passive speaker world and I'm not sure where to start.

My main gripe with the LSX II is that it has no bass . I don't want a subwoofer, so I want a passive speaker that can match the LSX II's overall clarity and soundstage but just... goes lower and hits harder naturally. Now I'm staring at a few paths and genuinely not sure which makes the most sense:

1. Wiim Ultra -> VibeLink -> passive speakers — keep my Ultra, add VibeLink as the amp.
2. Wiim Amp Ultra -> passive speakers — simpler chain, but cannot upgrade the amp later.
3. Wiim Ultra -> KEF Coda W — skip the whole passive rabbit hole, just get something that's still active but has more bass than the LSX II. This feels like the "safe" option but also the least exciting one: cannot upgrade amp, and the Coda W has less function than LSX II anyway.

Budget is flexible, room is 25-30 m2. Would love to hear from anyone who's made a similar transition or has opinions on these paths. What passive speaker would you even pair with a Wiim ecosystem at the LSX II quality level?

 

[Valentino]

@dominikz The speakers I linked to in #8 may be of interest.

 

[dangermouse]

@dominikz The speakers I linked to in #8 may be of interest.

Only £19,960?

Bargain!

 

[Aquaman]

Only £19,960?

Bargain!

If you buy cheap you will buy twice.

 

[dangermouse]

If you buy cheap you will buy twice.

True. If you bought cheap you could buy 19 times and still have some left over to buy booze.

 

[EddNog]

If you buy cheap you will buy twice.

Have not had one iota of this sensation since acquiring my pair of SourcePoint 8s open/box w/warranty for only $1,650. End-game, straight-up.

But fair, I definitely felt this before those speakers after almost two years of ownership with my $800 open-box pair of LS50 Metas prior to the MoFis.

However, even if I had the budget for an upgrade to SourcePoint 888, SourcePoint 10 ME, or SourcePoint V10, I don’t know if I’d even bother. That’s how good the, “smallest,” SourcePoints are.

-Ed

 

[dominikz]

Have not had one iota of this sensation since acquiring my pair of SourcePoint 8s open/box w/warranty for only $1,650. End-game, straight-up.

But fair, I definitely felt this before those speakers after almost two years of ownership with my $800 open-box pair of LS50 Metas prior to the MoFis.

However, even if I had the budget for an upgrade to SourcePoint 888, SourcePoint 10 ME, or SourcePoint V10, I don’t know if I’d even bother. That’s how good the, “smallest,” SourcePoints are.

-Ed

I can see where you are coming from. Personally, given the many great loudspeaker models available today, I can't ever see myself spending more than about 1-3k € for a pair of (brand new) speakers.

On the other hand, in this price range there are very few cardioid designs. Actually, I know of only these two models:

• Palmer Orbit 11 (~1600€)
• Buchardt A200 (~2750€)

Luckily, going cardioid is not the only way to work around SBIR notches. More on all that in this post.