 A year ago I reviewed the WIM Mini Streamer and found it to be high value for money. Recently WIM introduced a $149 pro version that has RCA and TOSlink in and outputs, an internet connector and now also Chromecast. According to WIM the pro was a reaction on consumer demands. Like the Mini it uses link play technology that is on the market since 2014 and that is licensed to other brands too. The WIM implementations probably are by far the most affordable incarnation. Let's see how the WIM pro is to be used. Since the pro is a digital extension to an analog stereo, it needs an amp and speakers or a set of active speakers. The connection to the amp is over a pair of RCA cables. The network is to be connected over either Ethernet, cable or Wi-Fi. This way it will receive streaming services and internet radio. If a computer or NAS with music content is connected, that music can be played using several protocols like DLNA, AirPlay and Chromecast. You control the WIM players using an app on your Android or iOS phone or tablet. An optional $20 remote control can be used too. Since the WIM has both digital and analog inputs, you can have your TV, game console, tuner and other audio sources connected to it. Adding a DAC to this setup can further improve the sound quality or if your amplifier has a DAC integrated you can use that too. Just connect a 75 ohm RCA cable or optical tossing cable between the WIM and the DAC or amp. The plastic black housing measures 140 x 140 x 42 mm and weighs 0.33 kilos. On the front we see an LED and four pictograms that mark touch control services. On the list starting with volume down, then play pause, an LED indicating the status of the player, preset select and volume up. The presets can be created in the app to have direct access to your favorite playlist or internet radio station. On the rear we find a network connector, a spidive output on RCA, a trigger output that can switch on a power amplifier with a trigger input, a toss link output, a toss link input, the built-in microphone for voice control, the USB-C power input, a pair of analog inputs and a pair of analog outputs. Remarkably, the toss link connections are named spidive while the RCA digital connections are named coax as they are normally named spidive. The pro comes with a simple USB-C wallboard power supply. The pro can't be opened by the consumer and has no need since there are no serviceable parts inside. But that didn't stop me of course. When the bottom is removed we see three circuit boards, the digital audio board, the analog audio board and a small board for the touch buttons on the front, not visible here. Let's first look at the analog board. Here we see the Everest ES7243 analog to digital converter that does 192 kW. It digitizes the incoming analog audio when used. All processing and volume control are done in the digital domain. The digital to analog convergent is done with the Texas Instruments Slash Burr Brown PCM 5121 chip. The digital board has the Realtek Ethernet controller taking care of the network. The piggyback mounted board here takes care of the streaming and processing, presumably including the spidive interfacing. The 4-core Amlogic microprocessor is the heart of the system and uses 4 gigabit DDR3 SD RAM. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are handled here. I used the pro together with the WIM Mini so I could use them in a multi-room setup. They were easily linked to the network using the WIM app. To set the Wi-Fi mode to the right country you have to agree with a one-time location access. The app then asks to check if the light on the WIM Pro is blinking after which it starts searching for the pro. When found it asks to select your Wi-Fi network. When chosen it connects the pro to that and will automatically set up the connection. This might take a minute or so. See my review of the Mini for more details. It will then check for updates, install them and consequently start setting Amazon Alexys up if you want. Then you can choose a source, like for instance Tidal, if you have an account and fill out the login details. But you can also play music from your smartphone or from a computer or NAS running a GNLA server. I used MinimServer on a 99 Euro Synology DS109J NAS with 3 TB storage. I further used Audivana on my Mac Studio, controlled with the Audivana app on an iPad. The Tidal & Coboose app, connected over DNLA and Roon over Chromecast protocol. You can also use Airplay 2, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, Chromecast Audio, Amazon Music, both HD and Ultra HD, Napster, TuneIn, Deezer, Pandora, Carm Radio, Virtuner, Radio Paradise, SoundCloud, SoundMachine, iHeartRadio and YouTube via Chromecast. The WIM can also work with Alexa, Google and Siri Forest Control. After starting up the app, the WIM players in the network are shown. Here the pro is selected. Tap the browse icon in the bottom strip and all sources are shown. This is where you can program your presets. If you want to play music from your computer or NAS and have a DNLA streamer running on it, just select Home Music Share and it will show up. I have several DNLA servers running and select my most popular one, MinimServer on the Syn8 NAS. Let's go for Artist and search for Pink. As you can see, I have four albums containing pink music. Selecting greatest hits so far and pressing play lets the music start. The codex output was selected. Let's change them to Lineout. The streaming services are shown here. Let's select Kubis and show you how well it all functions. For internet radio, you can use for instance TuneIn. It's a great app that is very responsive. I use setup 3 where the amplification is taken care of by the NAD C361BEE. The loudspeakers are the Dali Ogron ones, connected to the amp over Kimber 2 loudspeaker wires. The pro was connected to the amp over an RCA to RCA cable that came with the unit. Collection to the network was over WiFi to the TP-Link Deco M4 match network. Like with the RIM Mini, I was amazed that such an affordable streamer can be so versatile and so good sounding. There's a fair stereo image and resolution, deep lows and relatively clean mid-range. Simulance is better controlled than to be expected in this price category. It made me curious to see how it would survive in setup 2. Here the amplifier is the Marans PMKI Pearl Lite. It drives the acoustic energy radians 1 loudspeaker connected over Kimber 4PR loudspeaker cable. They are supported by the REL T5 subwoofer that is connected to the loudspeaker terminals on the Marans using the cable that came with the sub. The network switch is the Opton Audio Ether Region with Opton Audio UltraCaps 1.2 power supply. The pro was connected to the amp over Siltek London RCA cables and to the switch over a CAT6 patch cable. Here the limitations become more clear, although it's still amazing how well it sounds for the money. So I replaced the supplied low cost switch mode power supply with an Alonevano 5V 2.85 amps linear power supply that retailed for 59 euros. That opened the stereo image somewhat more. Clean up the mid-range and remove some stress from the music. Remember this is a $149 streamer that is used in a setup where the cheaper streamer is $600 and the separate streamer and DAC is around $2000. And still it is absolutely usable in this setup. There have been many positive comments on using the mini with an external DAC after my review. So this time I connected the Denofrips Aries 2 R2R ladder converter in between the amp and the speedive output of the pro. Again to put things in perspective, normally the 1400 euros Magna Mano Ultra MK3 Farad streamer is used here. And there surely is a clear difference in sound quality. The pro is limited in openness, stereo image, microdynamics and overall feel of engagement. But I know stream is costing twice the price of the pro that perform less. So it's only fair to say that the pro sounds a lot better than its price would suggest. At $150, excluding sales tax in the US and 180 euros including 21% VAT in Europe, it's a steal. It's not only sounding great for the money, it's also extremely versatile doing most popular streaming protocols, has a very good and easy to use app and is easy to install. There have been people saying that its sibling, the mini, connected to an external DAC sounds as good as streamers costing in few thousand euros. That's wishful thinking and or cognitive dissonance reduction. Again, it's a great streamer for the money or even double that sound wise. It's just above the sonar support and below the blue sound note, which is a good place to be in. Which brings me to the end of this video. As usual there will be a new video next Friday at 5 pm central european time. If you don't want to miss that, subscribe to this channel or follow me on the social media so you will be informed when new videos are out. Help me reach even more people by giving this video a thumb up or link to this video on the social media. It is much appreciated. Many thanks to those viewers that support this channel financially. It keeps me independent and lets me improve the channel further. If that makes you feel like supporting my work too, the links are in the comments below this video on youtube. I am Hans Beekhuyzen, thank you for watching and see you on the next show or on theHBproject.com. And whatever you do, enjoy the music.