- Wiim announces 3 new streaming audio products
- Wiim Sound is Hi-Res Wi-Fi and Bluetooth speaker
- Wiim Sub Pro Subwoofer and AMP Ultra AMP also revealed
Wiim has just announced that it is doing its first speakers. The company has previously released a number of well-received music flow units and amps and had collaborated with Audio Pro on Wiim-activated versions of this company’s speakers, but this is its first self-made speakers.
It introduces a wireless speaker called Wiim Sound, and a subwoofer called Wiim Sub Pro – plus a new, powerful streaming amplifier called Wiim AMP Ultra.
The Wiim sound is very similar to a competitor to the Sonos era 100 and has a similar speaker setup that packs in two tweeters and a four-inch woofer-and promised 100W in total speaker power.
This is not much of a surprise-like since Sonos’ catastrophic app launch last year, Wiim has benefited from the situation and threw himself as the heir to people who want streaming with more rooms and don’t trust Sonos anymore.
But it was hard to do, as Wiim only made amps and the additions of the part of having a speaker that handles everything is the key to Sonos’ popularity. This may be the last step.
Wiim Sound is a very similar size like Sonos ERA 100 at 5.7×5,7×7.5 inch (146x146x193mm) and has a touch controls on top for play/break and jumping track, again a lot like a Sonos ERA 100 or most of the best wireless speakers.
But it has a nice design feature that Sonos does not have: a cool circular touch screen on the front that can show art, show what comes up in the queue, show Retro VU meter and can control playback.
There is a built-in space correction for the sound and hi-res sound flow support up to 24-bit/192 kHz.
The Wiim app delivers multi-room support and you use it to stream audio to the sound from over 20 different music services, including like Qobuz, Amazon, Tidal and Spotify. You can also stream to it from other apps using Google Castify Connect, Tidal Connect or DLNA.
You may notice a name and feature that is missing what I have said so far: Apple Music and AirPlay 2. This is basically the only big wireless speaker that does not have AirPlay 2 built -in and Apple Music is not supported in the Wiim Home app.
This will be a real bank for many people using the Apple ecosystem and putting Wiim in a major disadvantage of Sonos for them. However, there is Bluetooth support here to stream to it from almost everything.
You have the option of pairing two Wiim Sound speakers in a stereo configuration, or it may even act as part of a 5.1-channel speaker system wirelessly if you use a Wiim AMPS HDMI connection. I will be interested in digging more in this in the future.
You can see that Wiim refers to this as a smart speaker, but I would not classify it in that way-it can be controlled by Alexa or Google Assistant, but it does not have these services built in with MICs. You will need to use another device to trigger them, such as an Echo Dot.
The other obvious lack of feature here is a line-in-port-there is not mentioned this in Wiim’s info. A nice feature of Sonos’ current speakers is that you can connect one of the best turntable right into them and get instant multi-room support for your vinyl. But you need one of Wiim’s other streaming addances to it.
However, there is another catch to be excited about this outside the lack of Apple support: the price or lack of them. We do not know what it will be until it is closer to its release, which is said to be in “Q3 2025” – then somewhere between July and September. I suppose this will be more expensive than the Sonos era 100 considering the addition of the touch screen, but we will find out later.
Subbing in
Wiim Sub Pro is a Subwoofer with 250W Class-D reinforcement and can work wirelessly with Wiim products or cable for something with a sub-production via RCA.
There is an eight -inch driver and it is a rather compact sub of 15,7×11,8×12.7 inches but still will not be so easy to hide away.
Because it is designed to pair with basically all speakers you want, whether it is Wiim or not, there are detailed adjustments to crossover -tuning in the Wiim app as well as EQ settings and space correction.
Once again there is no price, but again it is created for a Q3 release.
Amping up
Wiim also announced a powerful yet compact new streaming amplifier, called Wiim AMP Ultra. It is capable of 200W current per Channel at 4 ohms or 100W per Channel at 8 ohm. It has connections to four speakers as a result, making it neat and flexible.
When it comes to input, you all have Wiim’s streaming forces, including all major music flow services and casting options -again, with the exception of Apple’s services. Hi-Res-streaming is supported for up to 24-bit/192kHz, but the ESS9039Q2M Saber DAC inside is capable of decoding up to 32-bit/384khz.
There are USB and Ethernet ports for these higher quality files and there is an RCA input, plus an HDMI-arch port to use it for the home theater sound.
There is also a touch screen on the front of lovely works of art and direct playback control, plus a volume call that you could expect from any self -protective powerful amplifier.
And once again there is no price yet, and the release is promised in the 3rd quarter.
