WiiM Mini AirPlay 2 Wireless Audio Streamer, Multiroom Stereo, Preamplifier, Works with Alexa and Siri Voice Assistants, Stream Hi-Res Audio from Amazon Music, TIDAL and more

I got this little gem only today. I have an SMSL AD18 class D amp that has served me very well since 2019. It is connected to a pair of Q acoustics 3020i and a Presonus Eris subwoofer. The amp is connected to my PC and Mac through USB. The sound quality I have always considered excellent, at least to my non-audiophile ears. However, music through the amp's 4.2 Bluetooth connection has been acceptable but non-satisfying. I decided to upgrade the AD18 within a budget of less than £200. I settled on the Aiyima A80, based on extensive reviews and the fact that it came with Bluetooth 5.1. It turned out, very surprisingly, the Bluetooth sound quality was far worse than that through the AD18. I promptly sent the Aiyima back to Amazon. Though over my initial budget, I contemplated getting a WiiM amp but found out it cannot connect to a computer through USB like the AD18 and the only way to input sound from my PC/Mac was to use a USB A to optical adapter. I did not want to that. I lost the zeal to try other amps and decided to stick with my dependable AD18 and find another way of wirelessly streaming from my iPhone. I did more research and decided to try the AirPlay 2. I was genuinely surprised at how small it turned out to be. It came with 4 cables: a USB C to USB C, optical, 3.5mm male to RCA and 3.5 male to male. Setup was extremely easy. I downloaded the WiiM Home app through a QR code provided in the instruction booklet. The app connected the AirPlay 2 to my wi-fi with no problem. I then connected the AirPlay 2 to my AD18 amp through the optical cable. I already had Spotify on my phone and the WiiM Home app recognised this without a hitch. I apologise this is cliched - but I was very much blown away. The sound now coming out of my Q Acoustics/Presonus has been of a far better quality than that produced by my Mac through a USB A cable. It is rich and the clarity and bass revealing. I had thought that £89 for such a small product (without a remote control) that only streams audio would not be at all worth it. However, the AirPlay 2 has given a completely new life to my sound set up. It is the little thing that could, and then some! I have not tried its Alexa compatibility and at this time, I do not believe I need to purchase the separate WiiM remote control. Of course - it is early days yet and I will have to wait and see if it turns out as reliable as my trusty SMSL AD18. At this time, I am extremely satisfied with my purchase. I will update if any problems crop up!

Having owned and loved the Chromecast Audio, I watched John Darko Audio’s review and discovered that this device is gapless, meaning there are no artificial gaps inserted between continuous tracks on say a live album or where an artist chooses to continue to play from one track to the next, a frustration for owners of the Chromecast. The reported quality is also at a higher sample rate and bit depth (up to 24 bit it’s at 192 kHz subject to source). Whilst it works brilliantly with Spotify, I chose to take out a trial for Tidal and Qobuz and while I’m at it, Roon as a layer over the top. After a small bit of confusion on my part, they all play well together through the WiiM no matter what you play from (phone, tablet, PC). If you’re like me (hopefully you are not) then this cost me more money in the end as I now have Spotify for the family and Qobuz + Roon and an extra Roon NUC server; the result? Despite being a skeptic, I can honestly say my HiFi has never sounded better. I’m using the DAC in my Audiolab 6000A, so can’t say how this sounds with its internal DAC to analogue out but it sounds great through my amp and B&W 603 S2 speakers. I’m now faced with a dilemma as Roon are putting their prices up I 2023, but that’s another story - you don’t NEED any of these services, honest! I don’t tend to use the WiiM app to control music because I get more information from the services I mentioned, but whenever I’ve used it, it is simple, clean and intuitive to using. This is a great little product and packs a lot of punch for the cost - especially when it is on a discount (I got mine for little over £70). ** Update ** This product goes from strength to strength, despite the modest price this product is continuously being updated with improvements including Roon ready due in Jan 2023, so I look forward to that. I did however make a mistake in my review above, I still use my Chromecast Audio in my office and to my surprise found that it is indeed gapless with Roon out of the box, unlike Spotify Connect, there you go you learn something new everyday.

I have replaced multiple Google Chromecast Audio pucks with these Wiim Minis. Whilst slightly larger than the Chromecast, they look a bit more professional and seem to be very solid. It's provided a much better multiroom sound option that supports various lossless options and the sound quality to all of the active speakers has increased as a result. They also provide me a method for streaming audio from my turntable to any of the sets of speakers in the house, which makes listening to vinyl so much more accessible, and is significantly easier to use than some of the other solutions I've tried. They'd get 5/5 for this alone. The app is also very easy to use, allowing easy set up of connectivity to appropriate mesh access points. I'd fully recommend the Wiim system to others as a great way to open up multiroom sound at a low entry price.

I bought this to replace a Yamaha WXAD10 as Yamaha left that device without Airplay 2 support and iOS 16 no longer seems to like Airplay devices so I had to use the MusicCast app to play tunes on my iPhone. The final straw was having to run setup periodically because the WXAD10 just seemed to drop off the network. Thankfully this is a nice, compact alternative. Setup is very easy with the WiiM app on my iPhone. I had it on my network in a couple of minutes (Eero 6 mesh). I’m running it through a Cambridge Audio DAC Magic 200M to a Yamaha AS-500 200W amplifier with bi-wired Mission MX-3 towers and an old Sony subwoofer from a surround setup and the sound is amazing. I obviously cannot comment on the device’s built-in DAC, but the app is quality and is used to update firmware on the WiiM Mini, so I’m hopeful support will be better than what I had with the device it replaced. Things to note: includes all the cables you might need: RCA to Mini-jack, mini-jack to Mini-jack, TOSLINK and USB-A to USB-C (for power). NB The USB-A to C cable is only 1m long (thankfully I had a 1.5m one handy) and there’s no power supply included, so either you’ll need to use it with the idea of periodically having it recharged or get yourself a USB power supply or surge protector with a USB port to connect to.

Great product, easy to use and works exactly as expected. I have it connected via the supplied optical cable and the sound is excellent via AirPlay and the aux input. Highly recommended.

I got this so I could listen to Spotify and Amazon Music on my 'old' hifi system which pre dates internet music. It will do much more than that, including Bluetooth and streaming hi res quality from your 'NAS' or WiFi linked computer, but I haven't done that yet. I was using an old Echo Dot for this, using the 3.5mm jack connection but wanted something purpose made. There's a lot of low quality stuff on the market but this is the real deal. Set up was really easy. Download an app, plug in the device, connect the device to my amplifier using the provided cable and follow the app instructions. It finds the device, connects it to your WiFi, updates itself and then you can link any existing music streaming accounts from the app. I then just set up my Echo using the Alexa app (which recognised the WiiM after a short delay/refresh as an audio device) so that when I tell it to play music, it will use the WiiM as the preferred speaker...and it just worked. No mucking about, very slick. Device has volume and play/pause touch sensitive buttons on top and a tiny unobtrusive status LED. In the box, you get the device (small), a USB power cable (no plug adaptor) a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable, a 3.5mm to phono plugs, and an optical cable. All look decent. Wish I had know this as wouldn't have purchased another cable. It's got an optical output, a 3.5mm output and a 3.5mm input as well as the USB C power socket. It sounds good, I trust it's got good hardware inside it. Now to experiment with some hi res music on the computer...

I am using the optical output into a high-end DAC, and the sound quality is very good. I had to repeat a few steps in the initial setup, but nothing too taxing. The unit is tiny, but performs wonderfully. I am using Amazon music in UHD and the unit doesn't struggle. I was sceptical about the room setup facility, but it worked amazingly well. The unit generated test tones whilst you hold your phone at ear level in your chosen listening spot. The unit then optimises the output to produce the best sound at that point taking into account the rooms acoustic profile. When I listened to music afterwards, there was a clear and immediate improvement.

Bought this for the improvement in sound quality. There is minor improvement over bluetooth streaming to a budget audiophile speaker (Argon Audio Fenris 5 a £450 speaker pair). Tested on Spotify connect at "lossless" streaming quality. The improvement is a bit more seperation and clarity of the instraments in the music. Makes it more pleasent to listen to. Its a bit like the difference between a cheaper vs more expensive speaker. At lower volumes it is negligable difference. Will not play Youtube. I did not buy to use the other features other than sound quality improvement so cant comment on that. Has lost connection to wifi a couple of times. Had to then power off and go through full set up agian ( appx 5 mins). Not dissapointed, but deffinatly not overly impressed.