I love the WiiM Pro. Until I got the WiiM, I was sitting on the sidelines with streaming, other than having a Spotify account for playing music in the car or on my iPhone when I'm on the go. It seemed too complicated and expensive to me to buy any complicated streaming hardware for my home system.
This year I decided to look again at the home streaming options to see if I should get onboard. I read about the WiiM Pro and decided to try it. I'm glad I did. When combined with a high-rez music streaming service, it's amazing how good streaming music can sound, and the cost barrier to entry is now incredibly low with the WiiM Mini and Pro. Assuming you already have some kind of music system, that's all you need (along with a streaming service).
I got the Pro over the Mini because of the extra inputs and outputs, and especially the wired Ethernet cable option.
I don't have a whole lot to add to other reviews, but in my review I want to explain how I hooked up my turntable to one WiiM Pro so I could broadcast that signal to my other WiiM Pro in a different room using WiiM's multiroom functionality. I have a ton of old records that aren't on any streaming service and I thought it would be nice to be able to listen to them in different rooms, since I only have one turntable. Buying two WiiMs made this possible!
I connect my turntable to a vintage stereo preamp with a phono stage in the conventional way through the preamp's phono inputs. My preamp has "tape out" output jacks and I run a stereo RCA interconnect cable from the preamp "tape out" into the WiiM Pro's "line in" RCA inputs. The setup would be similar if you have an integrated amplifier (preamplifier + amplifier combined in one component) or a receiver.
For that WiiM Pro, in the WiiM Home app, set the "audio input source" to "Line in". (Remember to set it back to WiFi or Ethernet when want to switch back to streaming from a music service). Play a record, and on your preamp set the "source" to phono. If your preamp has "tape out" outputs like mine (it might also be called something like "record out") then the preamp will send the music signal into the WiiM. You want to use the preamp's "tape out" outputs and not the "line out" outputs that you would send into an amplifier. This is because the "tape out" occurs after the phono equalization stage in the circuit, but before any volume, tone or balance controls; it's basically the pure unprocessed music signal.
Next, in the WiiM Home app, follow the instructions in the online manual to configure multiroom audio. The included paper manual in my box was very basic and didn't explain this.
As of my writing this review (Feb 2023) the way to do this is in the WiiM Home app (iOS) is to first make sure you have both WiiM's already setup. Next, start with the WiiM that's connected to your turntable. In the "device" setup area, you should see both your WiiMs. Tap the WiiM that's connected to your turntable to select it then press the nearby "link" icon (looks like two connected chain links) for that WiiM. This open a little chooser where you can see the other connected WiiM's in your network. Press the checkmark next to the other WiiM(s) that you want to play the same signal being broadcast from the first WiiM. Now go listen to your music.
A few more notes and details:
* With a setup like this you can plug any source, not just a turntable, into a WiiM (via a preamp or possibly directly) and play it on your other WiiM. For example, a CD player. FM tuner. Cassettes. Your beloved 8-track tapes. R2R tapes. Maybe a 78 rpm turntable?
* In my configuration, playing a record, sending the signal through a ADC, into the first WiiM, streaming it over AirPlay 2 (I think that's how it goes?) into the other WiiM, and then decoding it back through the DAC in the other WiiM (or your own external DAC) is undoubtedly losing resolution compared to playing that same record through an all analog system. But it still sounds pretty darn good. I haven't compared playing a record this way vs playing the same album via a streaming service (like TIDAL, Amazon Music, etc.) but I would guess they are fairly similar in resolution and quality. If that album is in HD (like 24/92 or higher) on the streaming service, the steamed album might beat the vinyl album once it's downsampled over AirPlay. But my old albums are either not on a streaming service or if they are, they are probably in 16/44.1 or lower so it may be a wash.
* One benefit of multi-room audio is to be able to play the same song in multiple systems and be able to go room to room and hear the same song seamlessly. With my configuration, I wasn't able to play the record in my main system (turntable -> preamp -> amp -> speakers), while also broadcasting it to the other WiiM, without unacceptable latency. The downstream WiiM was around 1 second behind my analog system. If you think about it, the main system is playing the signal instantaneously while the other WiiM is getting a slightly delayed broadcast. So I'm not criticizing WiiM for this, there is nothing they can do about it. By contrast, if you use both WiiM's to stream music as receivers, they are able to stay in sync because both WiiM's can "work together" to sync the music, but not when one of the two systems it not even playing through the WiiM. If the systems are close enough that you can hear the speakers from both systems at the same time, then it will be unlistenable because of the delay. But if they are far apart then you might be OK.
* Earlier in this review I wrote that I am outputting my stereo preamp directly into the WiiM. Later, I placed an external analog-to-digital converter (ADC, not to be confused with a DAC which does the reverse) between the preamp and the WiiM. I ran an interconnect from the preamp "tape out" into the ADC, then connect the ADC from its digital SPDIF (optical) output into the WiiM's SPDIF input, and in the WiiM Home app, I changed the "audio input source" to SPDIF. This is purely optional but I'm putting it out there as an option for anyone who has a ADC.
* I haven't done any critical listening to see if my external ADC is better than the WiiM's own internal ADC but If I get around to that, I may update my review. My ADC is a cheap Hdiwousp $17 device I got on Amazon.com which claims to convert to digital up to 96 kHz. I can't confirm that.
* Finally, I left this out of my review above, but before I got the WiiM, I bought a Bluesound Node. I regret that. The WiiM is just as good. The only advantage the Node has is the HDMI input and subwoofer output which personally I'm not using. Maybe the Node app is better. The DAC in the Node might be better but I have an external DAC anyway. But you pay $450 more for the Node. I am selling my used Node on an online auction site now.
Report