Listening and comparing
Contents
The first thing we notice in the Vega Trail track, using the WiiM as source, is that the saxophone sounds dark and the sound is smeared. This is in the first test scenario. In high notes, blown with some force, the saxophone becomes shrill. The reverb of the church is audible when the saxophone still sounds loud, but diminishes rapidly. The double bass is messy and sounds booming at the bottom end.
With the Primare, the sound is much lighter and open. You hear more detail, there is texture in the sound of the instruments and, especially in the transients, the speed of the response is adequate: the different strings of the double bass can be distinguished. The difference between the two streamers is far from subtle.
Laura Marling’s voice is placed at the very front with the WiiM. The instruments are somewhat diffusely placed around her and you can hear that the reproduction of the cello is not quite right.
With the start of the track the Primare shows that it is rhythmically on point. A few moments later, the sound of a wooden drumstick on the metal rim of a drum stands out, the sound is unmistakable. Most importantly, all the instruments are positioned nicely around her voice. The voice leans much more into the music, forming a whole with the instruments. Details, like the subtle sound of a shaker, are not heard with the WiiM and can be heard with the Primare.
The conclusion of this round of testing is that the Primare has a much lower noise floor, no smearing of the sound and the WiiM does not perform very well.
The second test scenario
We plug the Dodo into the WiiM Pro+ and the Dlink switch and listen again.
The WiiM steps up, the stereo image becoming more transparent. A harsh edge to the instruments remain in the Laura Marling track, and they continue to sound quite flat. The stereo image is not as restless though, but that seems mainly due to the switch’s power supply. There is improvement, but the smearing of the sound remains.
The Primare jumps a big leap forward. Rhythmically, the sound is greatly improved; the Vega Trails track sounds more immersive. Particularly striking is that the SMSL sounds so much better. Laura Marling sings with more intimacy in her voice, as if she is performing this song especially for you. The shaker, the cymbals, the cello, the guitar strings, everything sounds razor-sharp with fine detail. The sound has become much softer and rounded in the highs.
The take-away is that character of the Primare NP5 Mk2 and the character of the SMSL SU-10 match well. Invest in a better power supply for the streamer and for the switch and you have a combination that allows you to enjoy listening for hours. But that is not what this comparative test was about, it is a nice spin-off finding though.
Conclusion
The conclusion, maybe unfortunately, is that the WiiM Pro+ is not the affordable diamond using it as a streaming bridge. Building a streamer at this price point forces a manufacturer to choose where to cut corners and that is clearly audible. The limits of the WiiM Pro+ performance are found pretty quick.We value the WiiM Pro+ analogue out, it really delivers great value for money. But when you invest in a better DAC, you also need to invest in a better streamer to get return on that investment. The WiiM Pro+ just falls short and is not a good budget conscious choice to pair with a better DAC.
I am always using chromecast into my WIIM pro, because I think it sounds much better than using the wiim app.
Interessante review maar ik herken de resultaten niet. Toegegeven, er zijn veel variabelen maar ik denk dat jullie opstelling niet optimaal was.
In de review is er veel aandacht voor de voeding maar software en instellingen zijn niet besproken. Dit suggereert dat hier geen aandacht aan besteed is. In mijn ervaring is met digitale apparatuur de software juist een veel belangrijker factor dan voeding.
Sinds de review is bovendien de WiiM software ge-updated: volgens de documentatie is het nu bit transparant en worden hogere bitrates ondersteund (24/192 ipv 16/44 cq 16/48) wat veel kan verklaren. Uit de documentatie krijg ik daarnaast de indruk dat de WiiM meer geoptimaliseerd is voor Tidal dan voor Qobuz. Ik gebruik Tidal en een ander product, de WiiM Mini (€85), via Wifi.
Mogelijk werkt Toslink toch beter dan coax omdat daarmee alles galvanisch gescheiden is – analoog en digitaal zijn zo goed gescheiden. WiiM ingesteld op 24bit/192kHz, aangesloten via Toslink op een Weiss DAC202. Voor de WiiM gebruik ik de meegeleverde USB voeding.
Hello Marcel. Since you comment on the english version of this article, I’ll respond in English (there’s a language switch in the menu bar, a Dutch version of this article is available).
The software we used was a bit perfect version, so no, it doesn’t explain the differences. The limits we talk about is in the hardware, so not solvable with software. I think we are quite transparant in how we tested.
@Maty Could you please post stuff in one comment? Also good to know: we auto-moderate on comments with lots of links. We do this to prevent spam…
Thanks for your understanding.
Thank you so much for this! Great job showing that it isn´t as simple as buying the cheapest streamer and try to pimp it up. These types of tweaks and comparisons are very interesting since there is not much out there about these things. Keep up the good work!
You are welcome. I guess a lot of people simply don’t realise that streamers are build with electrical components and that a digital stream is nothing but an electrical signal representing the data encoded in a binary from. Just as with amplifiers, cd players and record players: the quality of the components matter, not only the power supply.
750€
WiiM Pro + €249
SMSL D0400 €499 (11x OPA161 ES9039MSPRO DAC and F0 aka no PCM filter)
EverSolo DMP A6 €859
You can buy a better external power as iFi iPower2 €69
You can just get the WIIM pro if you are going to use an external DAC anyway. Why pay for a DAC you are not going to use it?
I agree
WiiM Pro €169
WiiM Pro+ €249
Topping D70 Pro OCTO (8 CS43198 DAC chips) €600
BTW, ESS 9039*, ESS 9068* and CS43198 allow to disable PCM filters. AKM nope.
Same with the “old” WiiM Pro. Much better with Loxjie D40 Pro and without any filter (F0).
3 Best Buy Music Streamers Comparison, EverSolo A6 vs. Matrix i4 vs. WiiM Pro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nbwc7FBf5c
-> 16:46 WiiM Pro & Loxjie D40 Pro (F0)
Much better sound that EverSolo A6 and Matrix i4 (with internal DAC).
I totally agree with Maty. I have a combo Wiim Pro Plus (249 euros) with IFI Power X power supply 5V (100 euros) used like a streaming bridge to external DAC Loxjie D40 Pro (350 euros). In terms of price it is low end or Mid-FI combo but in terms of sound quality it beats any laptop, RPi streamer, IFI Zen Stream, Eversolo DMP-A6, Bluesound Node and in my system NAD C658 which is streamer DAC with 2000 euro price point. For example, Auralic G1.1 would be a better streamer DAC in SQ but then we are already at a 3000 euros price point. For the money and even up to 1000 euro price range for streamer Wiim Pro Plus has a lot to offer. For me personally, the only downside would be the lack of native DSD support. Big plus is a nice Wiim Home app and easy setup.
I think you have to add that for you it is better than all the options you mention. As we tested it, the WiiM Pro Plus is not a very good quality digital bridge.