WiiM announces two new wireless audiophile streamers — one with a touchscreen

WiiM has announced two new audiophile streaming devices for the high end of its wireless audio streaming devices. Called the WiiM Ultra and the WiiM Amp Pro, both support AirPlay 2, Chromecast, DLNA, and several other streaming protocols and will be available this summer.

Both devices are equipped with a 32-bit / 384kHz ES9038 Q2M Sabre DAC. (Last year’s Wiim Amp used an ES9018 Sabre DAC instead). They also use Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 for wireless connectivity, and they each sport the same shrunken-down Mac Studio look. WiiM says the two devices also automatically tune audio output to the room they’re in.

But the WiiM Ultra has a 3.5mm touchscreen on the front next to the volume knob, for displaying things like app widgets, album art, playback controls, and various audio and input / output settings. On the back side, it has an HDMI ARC port, has optical and RCA jacks, and is the only WiiM device with a phono input.

The WiiM Amp Pro, on the other hand, is identical to the WiiM Amp in most respects, except for some minor differences like Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 support. (The WiiM Amp is limited to Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0.) It’s also got a higher signal-to-noise ratio of 120dB, compared to 98dB for the Amp.

The WiiM Ultra will cost $329, while the Amp Pro will go for $369 when they’re released in the third quarter in the US. We’ve asked WiiM whether the standard $299 WiiM Amp will stick around in its lineup.