WiiM Mini Streamer

I learned about the Wii Mini from a Darko review on YouTube and decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, my personal impressions of the console are not as favorable as his review.

My thoughts: it's horrible, at least on the systems and in the rooms that I've used it in. But let's start with the good stuff: it has one of these…

A 10-band equalizer! Awesome, right? This means I can make my speaker system sound like any kind of speaker, right? Well, not exactly.

I connected the streamer to a pair of Totem Kin Play powered speakers. I spent the night fiddling with all of the audio adjustments, but most of my time was spent with the EQ. I had a blast playing different tracks, cycling through the presets, tweaking them, and creating custom curves. I ended up with a custom curve in the shape of an M. It's science! (Do I need to say "tongue in cheek" here?)

After being blown away by the transformation of the natural sound signature of the Totems into a pristine audiophile voicing reminiscent of Donald Fagen, I was eager to replicate the process on my main system. This system consists of Rotel 15 series mk1 separates and Bowers 705 s2 bookshelf speakers.

The experience was quite different from what I expected. I had used a custom EQ that worked well with my Totems, but it sounded somewhat horrific on my main system. I thought I could make a few adjustments to the EQ to improve the sound quality, but that was a false assumption. Nothing worked, and the high frequencies were abrasive and piercing. Even removing the EQ between 4kHz to 16kHz did little to improve the situation. I then compared it to my Bluesound Node 2i, and that was the end of it. The Node sounded better in every way. It had full-bodied sound with smooth high frequencies (I use the tone controls on the Node and the Rotel RC1590 preamp). In contrast, the WiiM sounded hollow and gutless with spiked treble.

Don't get me wrong, the streamer has a great feature set and a lot of value. Many people will enjoy it on the right system. However, I personally did not enjoy using it on my system.

As a last ditch attempt to give the WiiM Mini a chance to impress me, I brought it back to the Totem System and compared some of my favorite tracks...

... while switching back and forth between the WiiM and an Amazon Dot connected via analog cables. I didn't want to like the Dot more, but it sounded better to my ears. This left me with the conclusion that, once again, first impressions in the audio world should not be trusted.

So there you have it, my experience with the WiiM Mini falls flat, and I'm left scratching my head, wondering why other reviewers find it so incredible. I'll give credit to the fully functional app that controls the streamer, but this little streamer lost me on its ability to reproduce the sound quality I'm used to. For that reason alone, it's a dealbreaker for me.

Thanks for reading. Happy listening!