Jump to content

You can now pre-order the WIIM AIO amplifier - a real Bluesound Powernode challenger at 349€


DuckToller

Again bad news for the established brands like Cambridge, Moon or Bluesound that offer veritable AIO devices at equally veritable pricepoints.
 

WIIM, the Linkplay brand with an impressive pipeline of affordable and (inter)-connectable products, like the WIIM mini. WIIM Pro and WIIM Pro+,  during the last 2 years, have launched the pre-sales information for their latest product:
An amplifier using the TI TPA325x chipset - well known from Aiyima, Fosi and Topping  (you may want to have a look chez @Archimago ) - in combination with their Pro+ platform).  That device ships to you for 349€. Couldn't find announcements from North America, yet.

 

wiim amp 2.jpg


While the WIIM Support clearified some mystical mistakes in the first @Audiophonics announcement, they also discussed the design options of the new device, as you can see in the pics up here. Looking at them my only concern would be about heat dissipation from that sweet outfit. Topping did work on that topic specifically for the 2nd incarnation of their PA5 amplifier with the same chip. I've bought one of them last week - thus I am so happy to read  the first part of Arch's  review today. ;-)

I may agree that the powernode offers a lot of functionality for short of 1k bucks - thus not the performance we may see with Audiophonics of Cambridge AIO devices using nCore amplification, but at least it was still exiting in 2021!
However, fitting your house for multitoom purposes with Bluesound technology or Sonos devices is without doubt a budget intensive project.
 

 

2732-e00ecabf5c56113df0e09d4e395fbcb3.jpg
 

Multiplying it by 4 - i.E. - may give you a financial advantage of 2.6k € for the WIIM Amp (x4) with perhaps a more performant amplifier section and a already proven technolgy-base, accompanied by an exciting support forum plus an amazing company culture (listen and learn!) to be perceived by customers (until now!). Looking over the EDGE allows us to gain 1.2k Euros approximately- in comparison.

 

Assuming that the device - perfomance wise - will match the levels we have seen from the other WIIM products, all seems to be well in multinode audio lamd ;-) .. for the budget focussed minds. You may want to think twice before it's allright to buy something else ;-)

specs wiim amp.jpg

1 Comment


Recommended Comments




×
×
  • Create New...