Hi-Fi: in praise of WiiM.

[SpokeyDokey]

What fantastic equipment and amazing vfm from this Californian manufacturer.

Been running a WiiM Pro Plus streamer for some time now and for such a low price point (£219) it has amazing performance.

A WiiM Pro is also available at just £149 - minisculey lower quality dac chip and no remote (both can be controlled by the very slick WiiM App anyway).

A great upgrade or starter unit for serious streaming. Highly recommended.

A couple of things:

The 'Roomfit' function is really very good. It electronically tailors a 'base sound' that tunes the output sound with relation to room acoustics.

This can be used 'as is' or overlaid with a number of equalisation settings which work really well.

As someone more used to running amplifiers with 'studio sound' output (flat with no bass or treble controls) I was pleasantly surprised by the sound achieved. I settled on Roomfit + Dance (Eq) the changes being far more subtle than a simple bass lift and treble decrease.

We are going to have a demo of the WiiM Sound & Sound Lite active speakers soon, as we want a non-Sonus housewide system integrated with our current set-up. They get very good reviews.

The new WiiM subwoofer is getting good reviews too... maybe, maybe!

Other hi-fi stuff...

Spotify Lossless is really very good and a step up from 320kbps. Guzzles data so probably not good for other than listening via WiFi.

You are never too old to learn! The balance control simply attenuates the left channel relative to the right channel, the volume of the latter remaining static. This is not how I thought it worked!

 

[Drago]

Some clever stuff about. I'm tight so pipe Alexa into my amp and stream through that, but a decent alternative might be in my future.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

I am out of my depth here but mightly impressed.

@Grok - Please translate all this stuff for me.

 

[VinSumRox]

I've got Yamaha Musiccast boxes which are very similar but strangely now discontinued by Yamaha. They are plugged into 2 vintage hi fi systems and an all in one hifi system.
Have got most of music on a hard drive, but just trying Qobuz streaming at the moment, excellent sound.

 

[Drago]

@Grok - Please translate all this stuff for me.

Translation: hes used witchcraft to connect his gramophone to Dial-A-Disc.

 

[Dan Lotus]

A very interesting thread.

I have one of these Yamaha CD player - sad to hear they are now discontinued :-(
CD-NT670

I have a mahoosive 4TB HDD plugged into it, and browse that for all my ripped CDs via the remote.
It also has a built in tuner, both DAB and Aerial, obviously a CD Player, and it has various streaming options, including Spotify which my partner uses a fair amount.
Frustratingly there is no easy interface/app to be able to send or cast if you prefer, music from a phone to it - I guess that is why they have ceased production, as in that respect it was a little too clunky.

Not heard of WiiM at all, so will look into that with interest.
EDIT: Delighted to see it is available from Richer Sounds, my supplier of choice since the late 80s!

My parents who live in Spain, have their TV on many many hours each day to get music into their house, so if there is a good streaming option available, that could be just what they need.

Question for you @SpokeyDokey , and I do appreciate I am being lazy, but thought you might know off the top of your head.

Is it viable to connect a HDD like my 4TB one directly to this box, and then would I be able to browse the folders via the phone app, and play folders, shuffle tracks etc if I wanted?
Can you even go so far as to create playlists from the media?
I can see you can wire this into an amp which is what I would be looking to do.

EDIT 2: On closer inspection it seems like to achieve that my Dad would need the £320 WiiM amp - however looking at their forum, the app is apparently not very good/usable at being able to view and play the folders from the attached USB media :-(
Otherwise it sounds almost perfect.
He has no separates anymore, so bolt on a pair of speakers and he would pretty much be away, as I think it has internet radio as well, presumably accessible via the app - I need to find some more video reviews.

I have a decent, and much loved separates setup, so regrettably it would seem like neither would work for me and my HDD, unless I can find a way to connect my HDD to a router, but then I don't want it powered up all the time, so connected to the device what would be accessing it would be far more preferable.

If there was a system whereby I could browse through a decent app, the folders of the HDD, and create and save playlists, that would be the device I would want, and the Yahama could be demoted.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

A very interesting thread.

I have one of these Yamaha CD player - sad to hear they are now discontinued :-(
CD-NT670

I have a mahoosive 4TB HDD plugged into it, and browse that for all my ripped CDs via the remote.
It also has a built in tuner, both DAB and Aerial, obviously a CD Player, and it has various streaming options, including Spotify which my partner uses a fair amount.
Frustratingly there is no easy interface/app to be able to send or cast if you prefer, music from a phone to it - I guess that is why they have ceased production, as in that respect it was a little too clunky.

Not heard of WiiM at all, so will look into that with interest.
EDIT: Delighted to see it is available from Richer Sounds, my supplier of choice since the late 80s!

My parents who live in Spain, have their TV on many many hours each day to get music into their house, so if there is a good streaming option available, that could be just what they need.

Question for you @SpokeyDokey , and I do appreciate I am being lazy, but thought you might know off the top of your head.

Is it viable to connect a HDD like my 4TB one directly to this box, and then would I be able to browse the folders via the phone app, and play folders, shuffle tracks etc if I wanted?
Can you even go so far as to create playlists from the media?
I can see you can wire this into an amp which is what I would be looking to do.

EDIT 2: On closer inspection it seems like to achieve that my Dad would need the £320 WiiM amp - however looking at their forum, the app is apparently not very good/usable at being able to view and play the folders from the attached USB media :-(
Otherwise it sounds almost perfect.
He has no separates anymore, so bolt on a pair of speakers and he would pretty much be away, as I think it has internet radio as well, presumably accessible via the app - I need to find some more video reviews.

I have a decent, and much loved separates setup, so regrettably it would seem like neither would work for me and my HDD, unless I can find a way to connect my HDD to a router, but then I don't want it powered up all the time, so connected to the device what would be accessing it would be far more preferable.

If there was a system whereby I could browse through a decent app, the folders of the HDD, and create and save playlists, that would be the device I would want, and the Yahama could be demoted.

You could connect your HDD to a networked router or PC. The WiiM (on the same network obviously) can then access and browse your folders via the WiiM phone App.

WiiM has an excellent forum for more info.

https://forum.wiimhome.com/forums/-/list

AFAIK you would not be able to create playlists within the App. Spotify is your friend, here. My guess being that you create playlists from your HDD in the Spotify Desktop App. And then use the WiiM with Spotify as the source.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

I've got Yamaha Musiccast boxes which are very similar but strangely now discontinued by Yamaha. They are plugged into 2 vintage hi fi systems and an all in one hifi system.
Have got most of music on a hard drive, but just trying Qobuz streaming at the moment, excellent sound.

Spotify Lossless is superb and costs us just £10.99 pm.

 

[VinSumRox]

Spotify Lossless is superb and costs us just £10.99 pm.

Qobuz is high resolution and costs about the same.

 

[FishFright]

Spotify Lossless is superb and costs us just £10.99 pm.

Unless you're a musician of course

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Qobuz is high resolution and costs about the same.

Thanks. I hadn't realised that.

 

[Drago]

Qobuz is high resolution and costs about the same.

Lossless on amazon music with the correct kit. I have no real ideology on the choice of provider, but Mrs D pays for Amazon Music so that's what I use.