WiiM Amp Pro Review: Name a better network amp, we’ll wait

The Amp Pro also plays nice with Alexa Cast, Google Cast, Spotify Connect, and TIDAL Connect, in addition to being Roon Ready and DLNA-compatible. It has access to an absolute array of music streaming services, internet radio providers, and anything you can access through WiiM Home app it’s free for iOS and Android.

The app itself can take a moment or two to catch up with itself if the device hosting it goes to sleep, and it’s not exactly the last word in logic when it comes to navigation, but otherwise it’s among the most thorough and useful examples of write around. As well as allowing access to Amazon Music, Deezer, Qobuz, vTuner and many other services, it features a room correction routine, a 10-band EQ (with a staggering 24 presets), room for a dozen ‘favorites’, a balance control and even an alarm clock.

Easy listening

The device comes with a pretty comprehensive remote control handset if you prefer to control your devices that way, and if you’re interested in just making your requests by voice, the Amp Pro is compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.

Photo: Simon Lucas

No matter how you prefer to operate it, the WiiM Amp Pro is a friendly and easy-to-use device. Provided you keep things reasonable and proportionate when it comes to the speakers it controls and the output gear it supports isn’t hard to listen to either.

Play to its strengths with a 24-bit/48-kHz FLAC file from “Common land” by James Holden via TIDAL Connect and Amp Pro proves to be extremely accomplished in a variety of ways. It achieves a lovely tonal balance, for example – there’s just a slight hint of warmth in the lower end of the frequency range, but nothing problematic. In every other area it is as neutral and natural as possible. And apart from a slight (and probably quite reasonable) deviation in the highest frequencies, the frequency response from top to bottom is also even and smooth.

In the lower end of the frequency range, the Amp Pro hits with real determination. It controls the attack of the bass sounds with an authority that allows the rhythms to be expressed with the necessary confidence. There’s authentic variation on the low-end stuff, lots of tonal and textural detail revealed, and it’s all placed in a convincing context.