WiiM Pro Preview

Here's a rendering of what WiiM Pro will look like. We're expecting WiiM Pro to launch by early December and will be sold through Amazon.com. More info will be on our website www.wiimhome.com. Please stay tuned! In the meantime, we'd love to hear your thoughts on what you think of WiiM Pro




Tech Specs
Software

• Chromecast Audio
• AirPlay 2
• DLNA
• (Roon Ready expected late Dec or early Q1 2023) - updated
• MICless Amazon Alexa Voice Service
  (AVS) MRM (Multi-Room)
• BT A2DP Source and Sink
• Linkplay streaming services and multiroom
• Spotify Connect/TIDAL Connect/Amazon Music cast
• HD Output 24-bit/192kHz
• Bit perfect output
• True gapless playback
• 10-band EQ or 24 Preset EQs
• TI Audiophile DAC
• Frequent FW/App updates
• Mobile and PC App

Button and LED

• Capacitive touch control: Play/Pause, Volume +, Volume -, 1 x Presets
• LED: BT/WiFi/Line-in modes

Hardware

• Connectivity: Wi-Fi 2.4G/5G, BT5.1, Ethernet (100M）
• Line In RCA
• Optical In
• Line out RCA
• Digital Coaxial Out
• Optical SPDIF Out
• USB Type-C power
• 12v Trigger for AMP
• Mic for Multiroom audio auto-sync
• SBC and AAC codec

Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BJDY6D1W

 

[Balthazar B]

Will it be possible to connect two devices to the WIIM Pro at the same time? For example, Could I connect my TV via toslink and my amp via coaxil? That way, if i turn on my tv, it would play through my stereo system? And then when i switch inputs on my amp, I could listen to Amazon Music?

From the cheapaudioman video (linked above), it looks like the app revision will enable both input and output selection, so apparently you will be able to control source and destination manually. It's unclear whether the remote will enable either, from Matt Coykendall's video.

 

[Balthazar B]

Currently I use chromecast audio but I'm using the DAC on my McIntosh MA 5200 integrated amp. Wondering if i would hear much of an improvement by switching to the WIIM Pro?

That will depend primarily on the quality of your transducers (well, and your hearing), and to some extent on your DAC. The Pro will enable handling of higher-res output than the CCA, and if you link it via digital coax, you may get improved sound if jitter is an issue on your current Toslink connection.

 

[Brantome]

Will it be possible to connect two devices to the WIIM Pro at the same time? For example, Could I connect my TV via toslink and my amp via coaxil? That way, if i turn on my tv, it would play through my stereo system? And then when i switch inputs on my amp, I could listen to Amazon Music?

if you mean plugging your TV in as an input and taking the coaxial output to your amp, then yes. Your amp however would always select its Coax input and you would switch from tv to wifi on the WiiM Pro to play Amazon Music.

 

[Balthazar B]

@WiiM Team, can you say a few words about the EQ functionality enabled in your app? Where in the Pro's signal path will the equalization processing occur? Will it be possible to save and apply EQ presets in the app (e.g., if one is alternating between different headphones as transducers)?

 

[Brantome]

@WiiM Team, can you say a few words about the EQ functionality enabled in your app? Where in the Pro's signal path will the equalization processing occur? Will it be possible to save and apply EQ presets in the app (e.g., if one is alternating between different headphones as transducers)?

Currently you can only save one custom preset in the app, but being able to do what you suggest would indeed be useful. Post that suggestion in the Feature Request forum.

 

[Balthazar B]

Currently you can only save one custom preset in the app, but being able to do what you suggest would indeed be useful. Post that suggestion in the Feature Request forum.

Ah, it's already been requested:

https://wiim.community.forum/threads/save-custom-eq-presets.6/

 

[WiiM Team]

Hello,
I ordered the Wiim pro on the audiophonics website. Following your message, I am a bit worried. Could you clarify the problem with this seller? Are the products sold genuine copy? Thank you for your reply.

Sorry for the misunderstanding here, you can pre-order WiiM Pro with Audiophonics. We updated our earlier message with the updated note.

 

[Brantome]

Ah, it's already been requested:

https://wiim.community.forum/threads/save-custom-eq-presets.6/

As someone who used to develop software many moons ago, it does bemuse me a little why some items like presets, network streams, favourites etc etc aren’t all treated as just types of lists that can be added to, deleted, amended, sorted, exported and imported etc via an almost standard subroutine interface…

 

[SiR]

We think there is a misunderstanding, we have been selling WIIM products for over a year. We buy them from the official distributor.
WIIM should be able to correct this information after verification.

WiiM Team clarified and noted that Pre-Order can be done with you, request you to update your website by indicating the price and Pre- Order option

https://wiim.community.forum/members/audiophonics.179/

 

[WiiM Support]

Will it be possible to connect two devices to the WIIM Pro at the same time? For example, Could I connect my TV via toslink and my amp via coaxil? That way, if i turn on my tv, it would play through my stereo system? And then when i switch inputs on my amp, I could listen to Amazon Music?

Hi, I guess you plan to connect your TV to WiiM Pro via TOSLINK and WiiM Pro to AMP via Coax. If so, this use case is supported. You don't need switch inputs on your AMP since it only uses the COAX input of your AMP.

 

[SiR]

I believe in PRO it is Bluetooth 5.0

Will there be an update in the Bluetooth versions in the form of Firmware updates in the future ?

 

[kevinek]

I believe in PRO it is Bluetooth 5.0

Will there be an update in the Bluetooth versions in the form of Firmware updates in the future ?

No, it is not.

 

[onlyoneme]

No, it is not.

I think it is based on the official advertisement.

Pro seems to have AP6256 wireless module which is BT5.0 compliant.

https://www.sparklan.com/product/ap6256-broadcom-bcm43435-sip-module/

 

[kevinek]

 

[Jim Shaw]

Pretty common for me. It could even hang in the worst case.

I have (possibly incorrectly) attributed these to WiiM's changes to support gapless playback. The skip, break, cease issues began at the same time WiiM introduced gapless. I have caused some frothing at the mouth here, by asking WiiM to give me a switch to shut off gapless.
This has been met with no response from WiiM, but much wild swinging from the gapaphobes. I am sorry for that, but I remain a proponent of switching gapless off in the app capability.

Gapaphobes could just switch gapless on.

 

[Mr Ee]

Perhaps a proper definition of gapless would help me here.
To me, gapless is simply not having an artificial gap between two tracks, primariilarly as a result of the product needing to 'reset' between one track ending and another starting.

From Wiim's own website, "With precise gapless playback, the playback timing is guaranteed to be identical to the source."
But it then goes on to say "Our player uses two decoders to remove the extra samples at the beginning and end of each file, and combine them".

I can see how having two decoders will prevent an artificial gap, but how can removing samples (what samples? ones with no 'sound'?) be the same as "guaranteed to be identical to the source"?
If a track flows seemlessly into another (in an album) then I definitely want that, but if a track has a second's silence on the end before the next track starts then I want that too.

Or is this mainly an issue with 'random', uncorrelated tracks, such as in a playlist, where one track might have no silence at all on the end and the next has no silence at all at the start, in which case there's no gap between them and they seem to blend together?
To me that's not a gapless problem, but wanting an artificial gap introduced between two tracks, which you might get if they were in a compilation album, for example.
But I can see how such blending could be undesired.

It would be great if Wiim could clarify their two, seemingly at odds with each other, statements on gapless.

 

[Perrym]

I have a Wiim Mini and love it. I am using the Toslink input into my DAC. What does the Pro offer that I don't have on my mini, aside from alternate inputs? As I understand it, my Mini is bit-perfect with the Toslink connection. So I assume I would not get better sound quality with the Pro. Am I correct? I may convert to the Pro down the road when I upgrade other components in my system and may switch to RCA inputs, but for now it seems I have all I need. Thanks.

 

[Mr Ee]

I have a Wiim Mini and love it. I am using the Toslink input into my DAC. What does the Pro offer that I don't have on my mini, aside from alternate inputs? As I understand it, my Mini is bit-perfect with the Toslink connection. So I assume I would not get better sound quality with the Pro. Am I correct? I may convert to the Pro down the road when I upgrade other components in my system and may switch to RCA inputs, but for now it seems I have all I need. Thanks.

Look at the bottom of either the mini or pro page on Wiim's (updated) website. It has a comparison chart of both products.

 

[onlyoneme]

Perhaps a proper definition of gapless would help me here.
To me, gapless is simply not having an artificial gap between two tracks, primariilarly as a result of the product needing to 'reset' between one track ending and another starting.

From Wiim's own website, "With precise gapless playback, the playback timing is guaranteed to be identical to the source."
But it then goes on to say "Our player uses two decoders to remove the extra samples at the beginning and end of each file, and combine them".

I can see how having two decoders will prevent an artificial gap, but how can removing samples (what samples? ones with no 'sound'?) be the same as "guaranteed to be identical to the source"?
If a track flows seemlessly into another (in an album) then I definitely want that, but if a track has a second's silence on the end before the next track starts then I want that too.

Or is this mainly an issue with 'random', uncorrelated tracks, such as in a playlist, where one track might have no silence at all on the end and the next has no silence at all at the start, in which case there's no gap between them and they seem to blend together?
To me that's not a gapless problem, but wanting an artificial gap introduced between two tracks, which you might get if they were in a compilation album, for example.
But I can see how such blending could be undesired.

It would be great if Wiim could clarify their two, seemingly at odds with each other, statements on gapless.

There is just one reason when removing something from the audio stream is wanted to get gapless playback and it's a case of MP3 padding. Empty samples here simply prevents gapless playback to be achievable.

Apart ot that I have similar understanding of gapless playback to yours - just playing one by one without any altering in the stream. If there are gaps here they are part of the stream data. If such behavior is undesired then artificial gaps can be inserted in between.

 

[brazen8]

I've seen mention of YouTube Music support. Will that be in the Wiim app or just via Chromecast, AirPlay, or Bluetooth? Also, when streaming via Chromecast, will you still be able to enjoy True gapless playback? Are there any differences in performance when using Chromecast vs. streaming via the Wiim app? I'm currently using a Chromecast Audio but am preparing for the day it kicks the bucket. Would love to use the Wiim Pro in my main system and use the CCA elsewhere.