You may remember that I bought a Sonos Arc for my TV setup in my little office last year over Black Friday. I’d hoped that it wouldn’t take up too much space, and that I’d get lovely, big sound for my TV. Upon delivery, however, I found a problem. While my small space can house a massive TV, it can’t house a large soundbar and Dolby Atmos. The problem is that the up-firing speakers can’t fire up and bounce the sound off the ceiling for the height — there simply isn’t the space.
So I boxed it up, sent it back to Amazon, and got a refund a few days later. Yet that left me without a soundbar to go with my brand new TV — and while its QD-OLED panel is stunning, the speakers leave a whole bunch to be desired. My issue is that while the best soundbars are excellent, they’re both too expensive for my budget, and too big for my little room. The best cheap sound bars fit my budget more, but they don’t quite have the sonic prowess that I’m looking for. Until I remembered something else I was testing.
Enter my solution
I have been testing the Wiim Amp Pro for the last little while, only I’d strictly been looking at the device as a streaming-enabled center for a HiFi separates system. For that purpose, my testing deduced that it’s very good — it sounds excellent, is very easy to use, and has a multitude of connection options for all your HiFi components. But there is one that connector suddenly stood out to me when I was taking pictures of the Amp Pro — the HDMI port.
“Could this be the answer to my TV audio woes?” I thought to myself. After all, the room is too small to really make use of surround sound and Dolby Atmos, so I’d realistically be looking at a 2.1 system at most. I’m an audio weirdo, so I have dozens of random bookshelf speakers lying around that I’ve accumulated from eBay over the years. The Wiim Amp Pro then — the $379 answer to my TV audio problems, and one that I’ve already got on hand.
Getting set up
Getting everything plugged in and working was about as simple as it comes. I just plugged the Amp Pro into the power bar behind the TV cabinet, got my chosen speakers situated and connected to the back, and hooked up the HDMI port to the ARC connector on my TV. It turned on automatically, and after a brief setup process in the Wiim app, I was away.
I’d like to touch on the Wiim app briefly, because I really like it. In a music streaming landscape that has had atrocities like SonosGate and other irritating apps, it’s refreshing that Wiim’s option is so reliable and easy to use. You’ve got a screen that gathers all your Wiim devices on one page, telling you what each one is playing. From there you can link them together so that you can have the same thing playing in different parts of the house, and adjust loads of different settings to really dial in their sound.
While the Wiim Amp Pro I’ve got here will mostly serve as a TV amp, it will still pull music duty for when I want to sit down and read somewhere that’s not my bed. The extra streaming features built-in are great, and the fact that it plays music at top quality is just the icing on the cake.
How is it a soundbar replacement?
So it’s all plugged in, and I’ve chosen the ARC output on my TV so that all the sound is sent through the Amp Pro. And, as a great sound system that doesn’t take up as much space as a soundbar, it’s perhaps one of the coolest things I’ve set up in my TV room.
A pair of stereo speakers is always going to sound better than most soundbars. They have larger drivers, higher-quality enclosures and deeper bass response thanks to bass porting. I think they look better as well, particularly when you go grill-less and show of those lovely drivers. As such, my little Wiim Amp and speaker combo sounds epic for all the TV-watching and video game-playing that I do.
While I might not have the virtual surround sound found on soundbars, I do have great stereo separation, which widens the soundstage for any kind of sonic application. The bass is more dynamic as the speakers have more low-end to them than any soundbar can muster. Vocals are crisp, and clear, and while there’s no center channel, they’ve never become difficult to hear over the rest of the audio ensemble. If I want more bass, I can grab a subwoofer and plug it into the sub port on the back of the Amp Pro, and get some seriously low stuff going. For my small room that would never fit a surround sound system (try though I might in the past) the Wiim Amp Pro has given me incredible TV audio that shows most soundbars the door.
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