WiiM Mini Streamer
WiiM Mini is a $90 streamer that is capable of satisfying most streaming needs at high fidelity. That's all I have to say about that.
...
What? Not convinced? Oh, okay.
You see, WiiM Mini supports many major streaming services, and is able to output the music lossless via its optical output. Which means, your DAC will get a bit perfect rendition of the music. And that's as much as you can ask a music streamer as far as sound quality goes.
There are many streamers out there, but most of them are either very expensive, or have bad sound quality, or both. Many of them also do not support Amazon Music. The cheap streamers tend to have a bad DAC, resulting in bad music. The various software implementation pitfalls means that there is no guarantee an expensive stream would get you a good result.
WiiM Mini is created by Linkplay. Linkplay provides the underlying technology for many music streamers, so they have a technical advantage in terms of overcoming some of these streaming hurdles. With WiiM, they are able to avoid some of the typical software pitfalls, and achieve lossless streaming.
WiiM Mini has 2 outputs: 3.5mm aux or optical. The internal DAC is just okay, resulting in somewhat lackluster aux output. However, the optical output delegates the rendering to the external DAC of your choice, thus bypassing the internal DAC completely.
As mentioned before, not many streamers support Amazon Music. WiiM Mini is one of the few exceptions. Linkplay seems to have done extensive research on Alexa Cast. WiiM Mini can act as a Amazon Music casting target, supports multi-room streaming, and can be controlled via Alexa.
In terms of music quality, WiiM Mini is pretty much perfect, because you cannot beat lossless streaming. However, it has some drawbacks in terms of features.
It does not support wired network, only WiFi. You might run into stutters or difficulties if the home WiFi is not good enough. It does not come with a remote, so everything has to be controlled via the phone (or via Alexa). To get the best sound quality a competent external DAC is needed, which adds another $100 or $200 to the expense.
Also, it only supports casting from Amazon Music, Spotify, and Tidal. If you are using Qobuz or Deezer, you would have to use the WiiM app, which streams the music through your phone.
It uses about 1 watt when running, quite efficient. You can compare power usage with other components here.
Pros:
- Lossless streaming, no loss of fidelity via resampling
- Supports Amazon Music
- Supports Tidal Connect and Spotify Connect
- Has optical output, which bypasses typical internal DAC problems
- Supports Airplay 2 (I have not used it personally)
- Also supports Bluetooth
Cons:
- No remote
- lackluster internal DAC, thus lackluster aux output
- External DAC adds to expense
- no ethernet port, WiFi only
Alternatives
- WiiM Pro is the upgraded version that supported wired connection and Chromecast audio protocol, plus having optical and coaxial outputs
- Phorus PR5 is not as capable, but if you prefer a streamer with better internal DAC and only uses Spotify, you can check it out