Soundquality hard cold and washi?

[Jensano]

I got the Wiim Amp a week ago and I was happy because it match 100% of the functionality I was searching for.
Airplay 2, Volumecontroll by Airplay, Ethernet, Device is on by inserting powercable. automatic on with Airplay after Standby. I like this functionality so much so I am unable to decide to stay at Wiim AMP or my old stuff.

But I am realy frustrating about the soundquality. Wondering because in many reports on youtube the people are very impressed about it.

I have Dali Oberon on wall speakers.
Before the Wiim Amp I used a 30 year old Technics Receiver with an Airport Express. The sound was warm and clear. The low frequencis can be heard clearly and gives warm touch to the music. And the upper frequencis make a detailed sound in which you can hear voices very good an clear without any distortion.

I am not an audiophile but with the Wiim Amp I can‘t match this, equal which settings in EQ I use. The sound has a lot of distortion particularly the voices up to the higher frequencies. It increases with higher volume and music with a lot of different frequencis like Eurodance, Techno, Rave. Things like Cat Stevens, Proclaimers, Rupert Holmes sounds better but it is a bit washi too and missed the warm touch. Sound is more a bit hard and cold on Wiim Amp.

As my Wiim Amp arrives the box in which it was shipped was broken. Could it be that there is something damaged that this sound quality affects because of a havy shaking?

Or what are your impressions in comparing it with your old music stuff?

 

[ExDr]

I got mine today morning. And I have the same impression. I like the look and the app. But the sound is not so rich as my previous device provided, more drier, I'd say. I used Cambridge Audio Minx Xi. It was the great unit with AB class amplifier but too big and with no HDMI ARC. I use Dali Zensor 5 speakers.
Some people say that class D amplifiers used Infineon chips sound better. But these devices have no such support as WiiM provides.

 

[Woody]

When I first received mine in December, I thought it sounded decent, but I described it as vailed, like a sheer curtain in front of the speakers. I'm using large Thiel 3.5 speakers.
I made some adjustments to the pEQ settings (very small actually) and it made a significant difference for me.
Also, might just be in my head, but it felt like the Amp needed some break-in time too.
3 months later and I would say I'm very happy with the sound.

 

[Wiimer]

@Jensano, @ExDr,

Hi,
Have you already tried PEQ for WiiM?
Lowering the treble a little in PEQ's HS may change the sound impression slightly.

Reference values:
HS
Fleq: 6000hz (4000 ~ 6000hz)
Gain: -2dB (-1 ~ -4dB)
Q: 0.25

 

[MikeyDee]

I just got my new Wiim Amp the other day. My old setup was a Wiim hockey puck streamer through optical to an external dac via rca cables into old 90s Onkyo receiver into a pair of vintage 90s JBL J2080 floor-standing speakers (8 ohms to 125 watts).

So, I connected the new Wiim Amp to my JBLs and tried both the wifi connection and ethernet connection (I'm using Apple Music). I noticed that I like the ethernet connection sound better than WiFi and it definitely drives my JBLs efficiently at 8 ohms. I didn't like the sound initially compared to my old setup, but after creating a custom EQ setting in the Wiim app, it sounds much better. I was occasionally getting dropouts with the WiFi, but with the ethernet setup, that doesn't happen. I'm getting 300bps down from my modem/router, so my connection is very good.

I'm going to tweak the pEQ a bit to see if that helps.

 

[ExDr]

Thanks all for your replies and recommendations! The fact was that after some listening hours with some EQ adjustments the sound became better. Or my ears adapted to this one ) In overall the device is very convenient

 

[Jensano]

I tried EQ and PEQ with different settings equal which settings I use I can‘t match the soundquality with my old Technics.

ExDr you are right that with listening along time with the Wiim Amp the sound seems to become better. But I think our ears get fooled. After that time now I switched back to my Technics Receiver and the sound is much better. My ears remember that there was some higher soundquality before the Wiim.

Overall I think the Wiim could to do a great job. Particularly when you had no high fidelity equipment before, the sound is great. But when your ears are used with very good class a/b stuff before you could get in trubble.

So for me I will look at the Marantz NR1510. Class A/B with Airplay 2 built in. Yes it is a bit bigger but the price is only 80€ more. So I hope I get the functionality of the Wiim with the soundquality I had before.

 

[jxrxme]

If you like the sound of your current amp you could also keep it and connect a WiiM Pro (Plus) to it (if you don’t need HDMI Arc).

 

[Jensano]

For simple listening music that will work. But it would be the same functionality like I already have with my Airport Express connected to my amp.

The restrictions for me, and it would be the same with the Wiim Pro, is that I have no full functionality with Airplay 2 for example turn the device on or adjusting the full volume control. With the Airport Express I have to set up a ground volume on my amp and this will multiplied by the volume of the Airplay transmitter. The amp has to be on at any time. Furthermore I have two power connectors and two devices in my cupboard. The volume control is the worst restriction of them.

For this the Wiim Amp is best device I found which has nothing of the mentioned restrictions.

 

[deanerino]

I have the Wiim Pro Plus and just yesterday discovered the "filters" menu in the "audio out" section of the app. I don't know if the Wiim Amp has this, it may?
Also, I being in the "plug in in, it'll be fine" percentile, I was powering the Wiim Pro Plus with an Amazon 1 amp charger. Bad. Just bad bad bad.
Heck I didn't know. I thought my speakers were schitt. No! Just for grins I found the correct charger power supply, plugged it in and lo and behold an acoustic bass sounds like it's supposed to. Yeah! Who would've thought?
If the pre-amp, (analog section in the Wiim) isn't getting at least 2 amps, it can clip and you'll hear it for sure especially on an acoustic bass.

 

[jxrxme]

For simple listening music that will work. But it would be the same functionality like I already have with my Airport Express connected to my amp.

The restrictions for me, and it would be the same with the Wiim Pro, is that I have no full functionality with Airplay 2 for example turn the device on or adjusting the full volume control. With the Airport Express I have to set up a ground volume on my amp and this will multiplied by the volume of the Airplay transmitter. The amp has to be on at any time. Furthermore I have two power connectors and two devices in my cupboard. The volume control is the worst restriction of them.

For this the Wiim Amp is best device I found which has nothing of the mentioned restrictions.

Yeah that’s why I‘m a big fan of the WiiM Amp. Another option could be a WiiM Pro Plus with Fixed Output Volume connected and triggering an amp of choice with the 12V trigger.

 

[harkpabst]

No distortion with my WiiM Amp and KEF LS50 in voices and upper frequencies, even at elevated sound pressure levels.

Sounds like a faulty device or the Dalis may be an unfortunate match (which on paper they should not be).

 

[WWH]

...

Or what are your impressions in comparing it with your old music stuff?

My experience is quite difference. I listen in a relatively small room (11 x12 ft) with a 14 ft ceiling.

My Wiim Amp replaced a Yamaha RX-385 (circa late 90s) receiver. The Yamaha is rated 45 watts per channel @ 8 ohms. The analog input was from Apple Music (Apple ALAC, lossless 24bit/48 KHz) on a Mac-Mini M2 Pro using the on-board DAC and headphone jack with a 3mm stereo jack to RCA adapter cable connected to the RX 385 line-in jacks.

I have vintage (circa 1999), bookshelf Polk S4 speakers (8 ohms). The S4 is speced at 91 dB sensitivity and has a 6 1/2" driver. I ran a SONY SA-CS9 active subwoofer (60 watts, 28-200 Hz) using the Yamaha B channel.

This setup was ok, but it didn't become acceptable until I installed the Boom app on the MacMini. Boom uses DSP (before the MacMini DAC) to provide a 31 channel EQ.

My WiiM uses the same Apple Music content and speakers. However, the Boom app is disabled and the subwoofer is driven using the WiiM sub-out. The MacMini output is native digital via USB and converted to an optical signal using a simple, Toss-Link, SPDIF adapter.

Once I dialed in the WiiM equalizer and subwoofer the results turned out to be significant superior to the Yamaha set up. The subwoofer performance in particular is superior. The mids sound fuller and highs are crisper and cleaner.

In my experience high efficiency speakers are well-suited to the WiiM Class D amp. For background listening the WiiM volume LEDindicators are typically one LED fully lit with 3-6 clicks of gain for the second LED (about 9-12 total LED steps). About 10 more steps of volume gain is the maximum I use and fidelity is maintained.

The WiiM EQ and sub-woofer parameters were set to not pass low frequencies (90 Hz crossover) to the S4s. The idea is to minimize energy to the S4, 6 1/2 " drivers in order to minimize driver overheating at high volume levels.