WiiM Amp Pro - user evaluation
- Thread starter adias
- Start date
Mr Ee
Major Contributor
Pin the quote on the song..
Familiar Taste of Poison - Halestorm
Whore - In This Moment
AVA - Natalie Jane
Alarm (Marshmello Remix) - Anne-Marie
STRUT - Emeline
Seasons of Change - Firehouse
Lost - Within Temptation
STFD - TeZATalks
Rock Show - Halestorm
Shatter Me - Lindsay Sterling
Yes, this list is heavily Female Vocal oriented - not your thing iirc, Achim?
Time now for AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Dio...
Familiar Taste of Poison - Halestorm
Whore - In This Moment
AVA - Natalie Jane
Alarm (Marshmello Remix) - Anne-Marie
STRUT - Emeline
Seasons of Change - Firehouse
Lost - Within Temptation
STFD - TeZATalks
Rock Show - Halestorm
Shatter Me - Lindsay Sterling
Yes, this list is heavily Female Vocal oriented - not your thing iirc, Achim?
Time now for AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Dio...
but your "pro", not "amp pro", in your normal installation already allowed you to test the "RC" mode No? etcI had one other quite strange situation with the amp when I first used it.
I'll start at the beginning, for A N Other User Evaluation.
Came home from a couple of hours out and was excited to see a parcel on the front doorstep.
Right size, right weight; could it be??
Opened it up and was actually quite surprised by how diminutive the Amp is in the flesh!
Surely an amp that small couldn't compete with my current amps?
Glad to see it came with an Aussie power cable (the ultra didn't, and I don't have a spare audiophile power cable lying around).
Note that so far I have only used it in one room / setup - replacing my pro / smsl dac / marantz pm6006 amp, into Krix speakers.
Long weekend coming up here though!
I unplugged the speakers from the marantz and was very careful to ensure I got the left /right and pos/neg all correct on the amp pro.
Bare wire connections, so I also double checked and tightened the speaker ends too.
Did that before plugging in the mains cable too
Turned it on, same experience as adias, and as expected: firmware update etc. and a very smooth setup process.
So, time to get listening!
Fired up Tidal Connect, set the volume to a little under half way, chose my 'Demo' playlist of 10 songs and sat back to be...
...totally underwhelmed and quite disappointed. (But keep reading!)
So much so that I seriously though I had wired the speakers up incorrectly to start with.
My notes on each song had a common theme.
Here're some of them, just for fun!
"Relaxed presentation, Quite dull even." (1st song that is quite soft for half of it.)
"Very heavy bass. Vocals don't stand out from the background."
"Bass loud, but percussion is not crisp. Flat presentation."
"Beginning (of song) is dull. Doesn't grab your attention."
"Just a wall of sound. No finesse."
While listening to a song titled 'Lost': "Sums up the amp in one word."
"Vocals are soft, lacking punch. Like the whole presentation."
"Vocals just don't have the grip, grit, roughness I'm expecting."
"Ending (of a song, where it climaxes) is just mushed together."
My final comment was "'Reminds me of listening to the (original) Pro's analog out, but with a lot more bass. Significant lack of emotion and engagement with the music. Very, very underwhelmed."
So, where to from here?
When I applied room correction to my pro in this room it made a suble, yet significant, improvement.
The speakers are not well placed and the bass is accentuated. Nothing like the bass from the Amp Pro was, but RC did tame this nicely.
I ran RC on the amp pro using the defaults, with a cheap Android phone. Samsung A5?
Well, the sound was immediately transformed!
"Much, much better. The overwhelming bass has gone and the vocals are allowed to come through."
"Guitars now shine. Plucking is much clearer."
"Vocals no longer drowned out."
"Vocals greatly improved. The rawness is now evident."
"Perhaps lacking a bit of 'oomph' now, has RC tamed it a bit too much?"
"Cymbals much more evident, stands out from background now."
"Far better stereo separation."
The RC added 4* 2.5db dips at both 41hz and 106hz. For me, that took away some of the 'thump' I've probably got used to.
Since then I have manually adjusted the RC to bring back some of the bass.
As for what caused that initial, woeful, experience?
No idea. Toggling between my RC settings and EQ off now simply sounds like I'd expect - less/more bass, more/less overall cohesion.
So, my conclusion (if a short time listening in one room / setup can be called a conclusion).
I have never had a class D amp before, and wasn't sure what to expect. That, and it's tiny
Colour me surprised, and impressed.
It's so easy to just start streaming. No longer have to turn on my dac and amp first.
Press a preset on the remote and away we go!
And, being called Amp, it's high up the list of Tidal connect devices so I no longer have to scroll down to find my pro.
Maybe I should rename the Ultra to An Ultra?
It's the little things that matter, and this thing is little.
Looking forward to swapping out the Hegel for this
lots of funny comparisons are possible between these two solutions in rc..
or rc from one to peq from the other.....
Last edited:
Achim1811
Senior Member
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2023
- Messages
- 300
Thank you!
I love female vocals, shoulder at shoulder with Mr. @Wiimer
(see my post in "What are you listening" from this morning).What I normally, there are exceptions, not like is Female Fronted Heavy Metal. One exception, for example, is Doro. I know her personally, we share the same town of birth and even the quartier. So I am biased, as with many many other things
Mr Ee
Major Contributor
Just had what I beleve was a little hdmi connection glitch - ticket 513594.
I had one other quite strange situation with the amp when I first used it.
I'll start at the beginning, for A N Other User Evaluation.
Came home from a couple of hours out and was excited to see a parcel on the front doorstep.
Right size, right weight; could it be??
Opened it up and was actually quite surprised by how diminutive the Amp is in the flesh!
Surely an amp that small couldn't compete with my current amps?
Glad to see it came with an Aussie power cable (the ultra didn't, and I don't have a spare audiophile power cable lying around).
Note that so far I have only used it in one room / setup - replacing my pro / smsl dac / marantz pm6006 amp, into Krix speakers.
Long weekend coming up here though!
I unplugged the speakers from the marantz and was very careful to ensure I got the left /right and pos/neg all correct on the amp pro.
Bare wire connections, so I also double checked and tightened the speaker ends too.
Did that before plugging in the mains cable too
Turned it on, same experience as adias, and as expected: firmware update etc. and a very smooth setup process.
So, time to get listening!
Fired up Tidal Connect, set the volume to a little under half way, chose my 'Demo' playlist of 10 songs and sat back to be...
...totally underwhelmed and quite disappointed. (But keep reading!)
So much so that I seriously though I had wired the speakers up incorrectly to start with.
My notes on each song had a common theme.
Here're some of them, just for fun!
"Relaxed presentation, Quite dull even." (1st song that is quite soft for half of it.)
"Very heavy bass. Vocals don't stand out from the background."
"Bass loud, but percussion is not crisp. Flat presentation."
"Beginning (of song) is dull. Doesn't grab your attention."
"Just a wall of sound. No finesse."
While listening to a song titled 'Lost': "Sums up the amp in one word."
"Vocals are soft, lacking punch. Like the whole presentation."
"Vocals just don't have the grip, grit, roughness I'm expecting."
"Ending (of a song, where it climaxes) is just mushed together."
My final comment was "'Reminds me of listening to the (original) Pro's analog out, but with a lot more bass. Significant lack of emotion and engagement with the music. Very, very underwhelmed."
So, where to from here?
When I applied room correction to my pro in this room it made a suble, yet significant, improvement.
The speakers are not well placed and the bass is accentuated. Nothing like the bass from the Amp Pro was, but RC did tame this nicely.
I ran RC on the amp pro using the defaults, with a cheap Android phone. Samsung A5?
Well, the sound was immediately transformed!
"Much, much better. The overwhelming bass has gone and the vocals are allowed to come through."
"Guitars now shine. Plucking is much clearer."
"Vocals no longer drowned out."
"Vocals greatly improved. The rawness is now evident."
"Perhaps lacking a bit of 'oomph' now, has RC tamed it a bit too much?"
"Cymbals much more evident, stands out from background now."
"Far better stereo separation."
The RC added 4* 2.5db dips at both 41hz and 106hz. For me, that took away some of the 'thump' I've probably got used to.
Since then I have manually adjusted the RC to bring back some of the bass.
As for what caused that initial, woeful, experience?
No idea. Toggling between my RC settings and EQ off now simply sounds like I'd expect - less/more bass, more/less overall cohesion.
So, my conclusion (if a short time listening in one room / setup can be called a conclusion).
I have never had a class D amp before, and wasn't sure what to expect. That, and it's tiny
Colour me surprised, and impressed.
It's so easy to just start streaming. No longer have to turn on my dac and amp first.
Press a preset on the remote and away we go!
And, being called Amp, it's high up the list of Tidal connect devices so I no longer have to scroll down to find my pro.
Maybe I should rename the Ultra to An Ultra?
It's the little things that matter, and this thing is little.
Looking forward to swapping out the Hegel for this
Your impression is likely speaker/room dependent, IMO. In my case, with fairly neutral and reasonably well behaved FR speakers, in a large room with minimal boundary interaction, the sound is balanced as I described.
It does a good job for its size and designed application.
Mr Ee
Major Contributor
I think I know what you're asking...
(normal) Pro via smsl and marantz sounds (a bit) different when RC is on vs off.
Amp Pro sounds (a bit) different when RC is on vs off.
The difference between on and off is the same for both of them, i.e. RC with both devices has the same effect to each of them, as expected.
What's strange, to me, is that the Amp Pro sounded awful until I turned on RC. However, turning RC off again merely made the same difference as toggling RC on the (normal) Pro.
It's almost like the Amp Pro had some very bad EQ applied when I first used it, and applying RC then turning it off again somehow cleared that.
Pure speculation, but I'm sure burn in wasn't a factor.
Mr Ee
Major Contributor
Oh dear, that's half the list out then!
Maybe you can expand your likes beyond Doro
(In my Favourites too)Possible. Always good practice to check settings after a FW update.
Pure speculation, but I'm sure burn in wasn't a factor.
Not likely.
I must confess that I could not imagine you listening to Lindsay Sterling with your eyes closed at all. (My selfish fantasies about you got in the way.) I'm going to listen to this sweet playlist now, too.
I don't understand very well..I think I know what you're asking...
(normal) Pro via smsl and marantz sounds (a bit) different when RC is on vs off.
Amp Pro sounds (a bit) different when RC is on vs off.
The difference between on and off is the same for both of them, i.e. RC with both devices has the same effect to each of them, as expected.
What's strange, to me, is that the Amp Pro sounded awful until I turned on RC. However, turning RC off again merely made the same difference as toggling RC on the (normal) Pro.
It's almost like the Amp Pro had some very bad EQ applied when I first used it, and applying RC then turning it off again somehow cleared that.
Pure speculation, but I'm sure burn in wasn't a factor.
your comparisons are now and future in rc-off in both cases..or peq mode with the same corrections on the main channel and the amp pro?
(other types of more complex music (that you know really well...) are planned for yours futur tests? )
Mr Ee
Major Contributor
I must confess that I could not imagine you listening to Lindsay Sterling with your eyes closed at all. (My selfish fantasies about you got in the way.) I'm going to listen to this sweet playlist now, too.
I'm hoping Google Translate had a hiccup there!
Mr Ee
Major Contributor
The latter, i.e. "peq mode with the same corrections on the main channel and the amp pro"
It's 5pm here now and I've spent pretty much all day working in this room with the amp pro playing tidal.
There have been a few occasions where I've wondered if some songs sound different than I remember through the pro/smsl/marantz combo (sometimes a tad 'harsher', not quite as 'full'?), but tbh the very fact that I'm wondering it rather than thinking it shows me that the amp pro is eminently capable when paired with / compared to equipment at this level.
I'll be throwing it in the ring with the Big Boys over the weekend.
Yes, fans, I feel another Rumble coming on. (Only a very limited fan base will get that reference.)
Other types of more complex music? But I like what I like...
'What are you listening to' is often far too highbrow for me!
Right now? Silent Lucidity, Queensryche. The vocals could do with a little more heft, but it's pretty darn good.
But the last time I listened to this song was on my main setup so that may well be clouding my judgement, so it'll be playing again on the weekend.
Too much of a faff to switch speakers back to the Marantz to compare right now, and anyway, I'm perfectly happy as it is.
Another One Bites The Dust just came on. Sweet!
Achim1811
Senior Member
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2023
- Messages
- 300
The latter, i.e. "peq mode with the same corrections on the main channel and the amp pro"
It's 5pm here now and I've spent pretty much all day working in this room with the amp pro playing tidal.
There have been a few occasions where I've wondered if some songs sound different than I remember through the pro/smsl/marantz combo (sometimes a tad 'harsher', not quite as 'full'?), but tbh the very fact that I'm wondering it rather than thinking it shows me that the amp pro is eminently capable when paired with / compared to equipment at this level.
I'll be throwing it in the ring with the Big Boys over the weekend.
Yes, fans, I feel another Rumble coming on. (Only a very limited fan base will get that reference.)
Other types of more complex music? But I like what I like...
'What are you listening to' is often far too highbrow for me!
Right now? Silent Lucidity, Queensryche. The vocals could do with a little more heft, but it's pretty darn good.
But the last time I listened to this song was on my main setup so that may well be clouding my judgement, so it'll be playing again on the weekend.
Too much of a faff to switch speakers back to the Marantz to compare right now, and anyway, I'm perfectly happy as it is.
Another One Bites The Dust just came on. Sweet!
Pretty darn good written!
By the way, and the next off topic
, and linked to Queensrÿche.
