The Chromecast Audio Ultra we never got

Smart speakers are a dime a dozen anymore, and a lot of them sound great. But many of us still have regular ol' dumb speakers kicking around, plenty of which easily outperform their smarter cousins on audio quality. The $149 WiiM Pro streamer bridges that functionality gap by adding support for streaming audio through Chromecast, Alexa, AirPlay, and more to legacy audio setups. It won't appeal to everyone, but I think this thing is great: it's more or less the Chromecast Audio Ultra I've always wanted Google to make.

ANDROID POLICE VIDEO OF THE DAYSCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT

Source: WiiM

WiiM Pro

The WiiM Pro is a great way to add streaming capabilities to non-smart audio setups. It's feature-rich, easy to use, and integrates easily into smart home setups built around Google Home, Amazon Alexa, or even Apple's HomeKit.

Dimensions 5.5 x 5.5 x 1.65"

Audio outputs Line-out, optical, coax

Integrations Google Home, Alexa, AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, DLNA

Bluetooth codecs SBC, AAC

Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac dual-band

Ethernet Yes

Pros Super simple to use

Works with a wide range of streaming protocols

Support for high-fidelity playback

Physical remote control is a separate purchase

Automatic input switching isn't always as quick as it could be

Price and availability

The WiiM Pro costs $149, and in the US, it's available solely through Amazon. There's an optional hardware remote control that you can pick up for an additional 20 bucks, also from Amazon.

Design and hardware

The WiiM Pro is a five-and-a-half-inch square of matte black plastic. There's a handful of capacitive touch inputs (volume up and down, play/pause, and a Preset button for quick access to playlists) and an indicator LED on the front, a debossed WiiM logo on top, and a bunch of inputs and outputs on the back (more on that in a bit). It's a simple and inoffensive look, but the hardware does feel a little plasticky and cheap.

Connectivity and audio

The WiiM Pro is Wi-Fi-connected and compatible with Google Home, Alexa, AirPlay 2, and more, meaning any speakers you hook up to it have access to a wide selection of streaming audio sources in just about any way you might want.

I've mainly been using the WiiM Pro as a Chromecast receiver for the bookshelf speakers on my office desk, which both saves me the (admittedly mild) hassle of firing up my computer when I just want some background music and allows me to integrate those speakers into my existing groups of other Chromecast-enabled devices.

You can do the same things with Alexa- and AirPlay-based speaker groups, but Chromecast functionality is a key selling point of the WiiM Pro: WiiM's smaller, less expensive WiiM Mini streamer is compatible with Alexa and AirPlay, but not Chromecast.

There's Bluetooth input, so you can easily connect whatever gadget you're listening to or watching on to your speakers. Between wired input and Wi-Fi streaming, I haven't really needed it, but the option might be useful if you really want to, say, get audio from a YouTube video on your phone to your big speakers. There's only support for SBC and AAC codecs, though, which may leave pickier listeners wanting.

Sound quality will vary depending on what speakers the WiiM Pro is connected to, of course, but WiiM describes the streamer as "audiophile-grade," with support for 24-bit audio at up to 192kHz. That means the WiiM Pro should be able to take full advantage of high-fidelity tracks from services like Qobuz.

Honestly, I couldn't identify an audio file's bit depth by ear if my life depended on it, and music playing from Spotify through my midrange JBL speakers isn't exactly straining the WiiM Pro's capabilities. That said, to my ears, audio streaming over Wi-Fi through the WiiM Pro sounds the same as it does through a wired connection on the same speakers, and I take that to be a good thing.

You can connect a wired audio source to the WiiM Pro through either analog stereo inputs or digital optical input, then output that audio through analog stereo, digital optical, or a coaxial cable. My testing setup has been a MacBook connected via a 3.5mm-to-stereo RCA cable to the WiiM Pro, which connects to a cheap desktop amp that powers my passive desk speakers. It's made for a fairly seamless experience whether audio is coming from my laptop or directly from a streaming service.

Software and user experience

You'll set up and manage the WiiM Pro through the WiiM Home app. The app is fine for device management tasks, like getting the WiiM Pro connected to your Wi-Fi network, configuring the equalizer, changing the device's display name, and manually switching your audio input.

You can link streaming services directly to WiiM Home, allowing you to browse music and control playback using that app instead of the Spotify (or Amazon Music, or Tidal, or whatever) app. I'm not sure what the benefits of doing that might be, though, given the device supports so many common wireless streaming protocols accessible from your preferred services' apps. WiiM's app also looks a little dated and has some bungled translations here and there, and I just generally didn't want to use it much. Thankfully, I didn't have to.

After the initial setup, you don't often need to interact directly with the WiiM Pro or its companion app if you don't want to. The box is always at the ready to accept audio streams, and it's smart enough to automatically swap between wired and wireless audio sources on the fly — though that can take a beat or two longer than it should. I've missed the first few seconds of audio in a lot of content playing on my laptop while the WiiM Pro worked out that it should switch from streaming to wired audio. This has been a very mild frustration, though.

You can disable the WiiM Pro's software volume control, which is helpful when it's connected to other devices that can adjust your audio's volume (in my case, both my laptop and my desktop amp). You can also program the box's Preset button to start playlists of your choosing with a couple of taps, though that requires linking your services up to WiiM Home.

Really, though, the experience of using the WiiM Pro is noteworthy in that you probably won't notice you're using it at all most of the time. It'll appear in lists of Chromecast (or Alexa, or AirPlay) speakers, along with any others you might have. Still, given how little input the device itself requires, you could easily tuck it away out of sight, invisibly adding streaming capabilities to whatever audio system you've dropped it into. I've been using the WiiM Pro daily for a couple of months now, and aside from the occasional hiccup in automatically switching between audio inputs, I haven't experienced any friction or frustration to speak of.

Competition

If you don't need the WiiM Pro's Chromecast functionality and could get by with aux as the only wired input and output, WiiM's other streamer, the WiiM Mini, might be a better option. It supports the same 192kHz/24-bit audio quality as the Pro, plus AirPlay and Alexa streaming, for a more affordable $109 MSRP. But, again, the WiiM Mini doesn't support Chromecast for audio streaming and has more limited I/O selection.

For a more premium option, there's the Sonos Port, which comes in at a hefty $449. The Port lets you integrate legacy audio equipment into a Sonos setup and to broadcast audio from a wired source like a turntable to other Sonos speakers on the same network — something the WiiM Pro can't do. Sonos's option supports AirPlay 2 but doesn't come with Alexa or Chromecast streaming like the WiiM Pro. The Port won't make sense for you unless you're already deep in the Sonos ecosystem.

Should you buy it?

In many ways, the WiiM Pro feels like the grown-up Chromecast Audio sequel Google's evidently decided we don't need. Like that device, the WiiM Pro grafts modern audio streaming capabilities onto existing speaker setups with very little fuss, revitalizing aging audio systems that may still sound great, but that aren't natively compatible with services like Spotify or Tidal.

Unlike the Chromecast Audio, though, the WiiM Pro supports many different streaming protocols, Bluetooth, and wired audio input, making it a significantly more versatile option. If you've got any decent-quality non-smart speakers around and you'd rather spend a little money on modernizing them than replace them outright, the WiiM Pro's a great way to do it.

Source: WiiM

WiiM Pro

The WiiM Pro is a great way to add streaming capabilities to non-smart audio setups. It's feature-rich, easy to use, and integrates easily into smart home setups built around Google Home, Amazon Alexa, or even Apple's HomeKit.

Source link
https://aisocio.com/the-chromecast-audio-ultra-we-never-got/