WiiM’s Vibelink integrated amplifier is a little perplexing

I will admit to being a little confounded by WiiM’s latest product announcement. Teased at the Bristol Hifi Show last month, the Vibelink comes with: an unconventional name; the press release cliché double-whammy of “room filling sound” and “studio quality sound”; 100wpc of TI’s TPA3255 Class D power into 8 Ohms; 200wpc into 4 Ohms; an internal DAC built around a 24bit/192kHz ESS ES9038Q2M chip and accessible via TOSLINK and coaxial (but no USB); a single-ended RCA analogue input; an aluminium wrapped whose form factor echoes the WiiM AMP/Pro. Price? US$299.

Entirely MIA from the Vibelink is the streaming functionality found in all other WiiM products. In a very short time window, the Chinese/American company has shown itself to be a formidable player in the streaming world, offering a connectivity suite that competes with units selling for two, three – even ten – times as much. That’s not reviewer hot air designed to flatter the manufacturer or help cash-strapped buyers cope. WiiM’s software system gives us Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, Google Chromecast, Roon Ready with Apple AirPlay 2 available in selected devices. We also get support for Squeezeboxen and Plex (but not Plexamp); and in the WiiM AMP/Pro/Ultra, we find PEQ-based room correction and bass management that directly low-passes the subwoofer and high-passes the speaker outputs — extremely useful for 2-way monitors. You don’t get all of that from Cambridge’s CXN100, Eversolo’s DMP-A8 or Naim’s NDX 2.

But perhaps most impressive of all is how WiiM has added and refined its streaming functionality and WiiM Home app in less than two years, often adding features suggested by end users within a matter of weeks. WiiM is incredible at software!

However, as a standard integrated amplifier containing only an internal DAC, WiiM must now duke it out with more established players: Marantz, Rotel, Denon and NAD. Only time will tell us how the Vibelink will fare.

But let’s return to the press release: “Designed for efficiency and longevity, it also features advanced heat dissipation, an anti-pop noise design, and the same compact dimensions as the WiiM Ultra for easy stacking.” Putting an Ultra on top of a Vibelink shows two volume controls, suggesting that the Vibelink as a power amplifier might have been a tidier move, functionally and visually.

But wait! Did anyone notice the WiiM subwoofer on the floor at the Bristol show? I think most people missed it. This raises the most obvious of questions: why would WiiM make a subwoofer when it doesn’t make streaming active loudspeakers? 😉 The answer, no doubt, will come at Munich High-End 2025.

Further information: WiiM

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