I tested WiiM’s Wi-Fi speaker against the Sonos Era 100 – here’s which I think is worth buying
SOURCE:TechRadar|BY: Josh Russell
I tested the WiiM Sound and Sonos Era 100 side by side to see which offers the best sound.
(Image credit: Future)
I’ve tested a whole load of wireless speakers in my time at TechRadar and as a result I’m always excited to see new entrants into the wireless speaker space. That’s why I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the newly released WiiM Sound to see how it stacks up against some of the other speakers I’ve put through our testing process.
Given the WiiM Sound is a mid-range Wi-Fi speaker with multi-room functionality, it was inevitably going to draw comparisons to Sonos’s speakers, as the brand has been delivering some of the best wireless speakers for two decades. That made my decision to test the WiiM side-by-side with one of Sonos’s speakers a total no brainer.
And while the $299 / £299 / AU$499 WiiM is about halfway between the $479 / £449 / AU$749 Sonos Era 300 and the $219 / £199 / AU$319 Sonos Era 100, the latter feels like a more apt comparison. The main reason for this is the Era 300 offers a fancier speaker array designed to deliver Spatial Audio, while the form factor of the Era 100 more closely reflects that of the Sound.
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WiiM Sound VS Sonos Era 100: features
(Image credit: Future)
Looking under the hood, these wireless speakers offer a fairly similar array of drivers. The WiiM Sound packs in a four-inch, 50W long-throw woofer for handling bass, while a pair of angled, full-range 25W tweeters give it a decent stereo field. Similarly, the Sonos Era 100 rocks a mid-woofer for both mid-range and bass and two angled tweeters, this time with a waveguide frame in front of them to disperse sound across 180 degrees per tweeter.
The WiiM Sound offers excellent connectivity – albeit with one major exception. It’s capable of hi-res streaming at up to 24-bit/192kHz, while you can also connect to over 20 streaming services directly in the WiiM Home app – including Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, TIDAL, Qobuz, Deezer, Napster, Pandora, Plex, SoundCloud, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, and more – and analog wired sources via its 3.5mm jack. Unfortunately, it doesn’t offer access to Music or AirPlay 2, which is likely to be a deal-breaker for anyone invested in Apple’s ecosystem.
Fortunately, the Sonos Era 100 has you covered if you’re an Apple fan. Not only can you stream over both Wi-Fi 6 and AirPlay 2 but the Sonos Era 100 allows you to stream directly from all the services listed above, plus Apple Music too. In terms of quality, the Era 100 tops out at 24-bit/48kHz but for most practical purposes, you won’t be able to detect a real difference here. Unlike the WiiM Sound, it doesn’t offer a dedicated line in but you can spend extra on an adapter for its USB-C port that will allow you to plug in an ethernet cable or 3.5mm jack.
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(Image credit: Future)
Perhaps the biggest gulf I noticed between the two speakers is when it comes to room correction. Fundamentally, the WiiM Sound’s AI RoomFit just isn’t as smart as I would hope. Despite showing you a target curve and the raw signal, the actual noise correction it applies goes nowhere near far enough. I tried it four times with the speaker near a wall every time it only actually corrected frequencies above 0 on the magnitude scale, leaving smaller spikes and major gulfs in its frequency profile uncorrected.
In fact, it was only when I repositioned the speaker and ran the room correction again that I was able to get less problematic – albeit not perfect – results. And, fundamentally, if room correction only works in certain parts of the room, it’s not true room correction.
By contrast, the Sonos Era 100’s room correction felt fiddlier but rewarded me with far better results. Once you’ve initiated the process, the Era 100 will play its calibration noise while you walk around the room moving your phone in slow circles so it can calculate the acoustics of the room. My living room is quite awkwardly shaped and it failed on my first attempt because apparently windmilling my fist like an old-timey boxer was ‘too fast’. But once I’d completed my second attempt, the Sonos calibrated really well, not showing a hint of distortion or reverberation.
So, with everything else being largely equal, the Sonos Era 100’s superior room correction means I’ve gotta give it first place when it comes to features.
WiiM Sound VS Sonos Era 100: sound quality
(Image credit: Future)
This has been one of the harder audio comparisons I’ve had to do. On the surface level, the WiiM Sound and the Sonos Era 100 sound very similar. But once you dip beneath the surface and get into the nitty gritty, each of them portrays its own set of sonic idiosyncrasies that stands at odds with the other. And, honestly, I’m not sure either has the balance quite right.
Let’s start with treble. Playing Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac, both speakers had decent control of the high end, with the guitars and drums having plenty of presence without feeling harsh or overdriven. However, the WiiM can occasionally prove to be a little overexcitable – when listening to I Want You by Moloko, I noticed a slight brittle edge creeping in to the sound of the cymbals and snares.
Probably the most polarized these two speakers get is in how they handle bass. Trying them both out with Tensoon by O’Flynn, the WiiM was able to conjure up a decent hint of the bass and a punchy enough kick to drive everything forward, but I was surprised how much of a drop off there is in the lowest frequencies, leaving things feeling a pretty top heavy. Conversely, the cheaper and slighter Sonos did a more impressive job of rendering that low end – it feels more dynamic, with a satisfying pump to each kick and the pulsing bass buoying the whole mix up.
However, as we remarked in our Sonos Era 100 review, the speaker’s approach to low-end can sometimes get a little heavy-handed. When I put on Otherside by Maribou State, the Era 100 made both the bass and syncopated guitar sound wonderfully substantial, yet it left more delicate details like its fuzzy synthline blanching in its shade. By contrast, the WiiM really reserves the limelight for these mid-frequency elements: in particular, it lets those gorgeous vocals fully shine, rather than being eclipsed by the bass.
(Image credit: Future)
Fortunately, both speakers’ more extreme edges can be sanded off using their EQ settings, although by varying degrees. Dropping the Sonos’s bass setting by two steps, boosting treble by one and turning off loudness correction goes a long way toward bringing that bloated low-end in line. Results from the WiiM Sound were a bit more equivocal – boosting the lowest three channels and ducking the highest two helped rebalance it somewhat but it didn’t help it regain those lost sub frequencies.
One area I’ll happily hand the WiiM its dues though is when it comes to detail and definition. While it doesn’t have quite as spacious a soundstage as some hi-res Wi-Fi speakers, it definitely squeezes things far less than the Era 100. When playing Clair de Lune by Kamasi Washington, it renders that gorgeous trumpet line in gloriously honeyed tones but without tamping down the double bass and piano. Conversely, the Era 100 smothers the drums and bass, drowning the finer details in mud, which is a real shame.
While I admit I’m a little torn here, I’d say that the Era 100 just about comes out on top in terms of sound quality for me. Yes, its bass is a little doughy and it tends to compress details a lot more than its rival, but the WiiM is lacking enough in the low-end that my favorite tracks just ended up feeling like they were missing something. But your mileage may vary – if you’d rather have poise than low-end presence, you might find the WiiM a better fit.
WiiM Sound VS Sonos Era 100: design
(Image credit: Future)
When it comes to their looks, these speakers aren’t quite two peas in a pod but they certainly share a leguminous likeness. Both sit very much in the mold that many Wi-Fi speakers at this price point occupy. Monochrome? Check. Column-shaped? Check. Wrap-around grille, top-facing controls, metallic lettering spelling out the brand? Check, check, check.
Okay, I’m being slightly unfair here: there are some small variations beyond the aforementioned display. For example, the WiiM features rounded off edges surrounding its top face, while its grille is wrapped in cloth compared to the Sonos’s metal finish. And while lots of speakers echo this form factor, Wiim has at least taken a swing at something different with its porthole-style display.
Overall I’d say the WiiM’s built-in screen is a nice touch. It certainly opens up a lot of options for information, whether that’s picking sources, setting EQ profiles or displaying album artwork. As I’ve occasionally seen with other speaker screens, it doesn’t quite offer the best of modern display tech, lacking a bit of HDR punch and appearing a bit too reflective for my liking. But it’s nice that WiiM is trying to break with convention a little here.
While both devices have gone for similar control functionality – with touch-capacitive buttons that allow you to control the volume, pause or play content and skip backwards and forwards – there are a few slight differences. The WiiM’s controls are hidden most of the time, lighting up when you wave your hand over them, while the Sonos has no lighting at all. That gives the WiiM the edge when using it in darker rooms.
(Image credit: Future)
However, there’s a few minor areas the WiiM Sound loses out in my mind. Firstly, as its touch-capacitive panel is glossy rather than the Era 100’s matte, it’s an absolute magnet for fingerprints – I’ve only used the on-device controls for testing purposes and they’re already covered in oily prints. And, unlike the Sonos’s gentle sonic pips, the WiiM doesn’t offer any immediate feedback when you’re tapping, although I’ll admit that’s not a significant deal breaker.
Fortunately, you don’t always have to use your greasy hand sausages to control these speakers. Alongside its app, the Sonos Era 100 offers built-in voice control through Sonos Voice Control and Amazon Alexa. And while the WiiM Sound doesn’t offer voice control through the speaker itself, it does offer this functionality through its discrete remote – which is also exceedingly well built, with a sturdy aluminum body and satisfyingly clicky buttons.
All in all, despite my gripes about greasy marks, I’ll happily give WiiM the win when it comes to design. That screen and well-engineered remote edge out the Era 100 in my eyes.
WiiM Sound VS Sonos Era 100: verdict
(Image credit: Future)
Fundamentally, the WiiM Sound and Sonos Era 100 are hardly poles apart. They’re aimed at a similar slice of the market, have similar looks and driver arrays and share a lot of features. They also both have solid sound that exhibits a few imperfections.
But while the WiiM Sound takes a few more bold steps with its design, it also offers more flawed room correction features and its lack of low-end clout can make its sound feel somewhat neutered at points. When you factor in its higher price, coming in at $299 / £299 / AU$499 compared to the Sonos Era 100’s $219 / £199 / AU$319, I think you’re more likely to feel the latter has given you your money’s worth.
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Josh is Reviews Editor at TechRadar. With over ten years of experience covering tech both in print and online, he’s served as editor of T3 and net magazines and written about everything from groundbreaking gadgets to innovative Silicon Valley startups. He’s an expert in a wide range of products from Spatial Audio headphones to gaming handhelds. When he’s not putting trailblazing tech through its paces, he can be found making melodic techno or seeking out the perfect cold brew coffee.
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