- WiiM launches its first sound bar for $479 / £449 (around AU$840)
- 8-driver array with dedicated drivers
- 3.0.2 channels, expandable to 5.1.2 with WiiM wireless speakers
WiiM has been building its rival ecosystem to Sonos for a while now. The impressive WiiM Sound wireless speaker was launched last year and now the company has unveiled its first sound bar. Based on its price, the new WiiM Bar is being positioned as a direct rival to the Sonos Beam (2nd Gen)… but on paper it appears to surpass it in a few key areas.
The WiiM Bar is a Dolby Atmos 3.0.2 soundbar with an array of eight drivers, including height speakers, which the Sonos Beam lacks. It features automatic room correction, multi-room grouping, and support for over 20 streaming services, and you can expand it to a full surround system with the WiiM’s other speakers and its subwoofer.
Unusually, there’s a glass-covered 2.1-inch touchscreen on the front. This is an interesting option when many people do not want any additional lighting near their TV screen.
We spoke to WiiM CEO Dr. Lifeng Zhao about the soundbar, and he told us that the screen is mainly there for people playing music through the soundbar (it will show album art, like other WiiM devices do) and you can turn it off to watch movies or shows. Trust that some people will find it valuable anyway.
“In fact, we debated a lot internally,” says Dr. Zhao. “So we’re really saying two things. One is that if you don’t really need the screen, you can turn it off. Another thing is that we really want instant feedback. If you just have an LED light there, with so many inputs/outputs and functionality, how do you know the status of the device? It’s really confusing, even for me. We want to give people simple, intuitive control and instant feedback.”
WiiM Stick: Key Features and Pricing
The eight-driver array features four passive radiators and a combination of front mid-woofers, front tweeters, and the aforementioned full-range up-firing height drivers.
It’s 3.0.2 channels, expandable to 5.1.2 channels with surround speakers and a subwoofer, and possibly more channels in the future. When we asked about support for more satellite speakers or subwoofers, Dr. Zhao told us that “potentially with a software update we can expand further” and that support for Dolby Atmos FlexConnect is “on our radar.” However, he made it clear that we should not expect any improvement in the short term.
The WiiM Bar supports Dolby Atmos and DTS:X audio (DTS is another benefit over the Sonos Beam, in addition to the improved drivers), and features RoomFit room correction. There are two additional audio modes: AI-powered dialogue enhancement and a night mode to help you be friendly to your neighbors.
Streaming support includes almost all the big names – Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect, Qobuz Connect, Google Cast and Roon – and streaming via the WiiM app brings the number of supported streaming services to more than 20.
However, as with other recent WiiM releases, this doesn’t include Apple Music or AirPlay 2. We’ll cover this later, but we asked Dr. Zhao why WiiM hasn’t included AirPlay, and his answer, which we’re not entirely convinced about, implies that it’s AirPlay audio compression.
“If you’re using Spotify, we want you to use Spotify Lossless instead of a compressed format [stream]good? That’s why we’re seeing a lot of confusion among people using Spotify Connect versus the other options you just mentioned. [AirPlay 2]” he said, referencing the fact that AirPlay 2 is still limited to compressed streaming through official support.
Spotify Lossless has been around for less time than WiiM has been eschewing AirPlay support, so the timeline doesn’t really work for this specific explanation, and WiiM offers Bluetooth and its compressed audio quite happily, but this is all the answer we’ll officially get.
The WiiM Bar has HDMI eARC, but it doesn’t have a pass-through port, so you’ll have to give up using one of your HDMI ports. “We think people will connect most of their devices through the TV because the TV has multiple HDMI ports,” says Dr. Zhao. Pass-through was considered, but the decision was made to keep things focused on “simplicity”, which is Sonos’ stated reason for not offering pass-through as well, but has never really convinced our team (having to change the HDMI cables on the back of your TV because you’ve run out of ports doesn’t help the simplicity).
This may be the company’s first sound bar, but Dr. Zhao doesn’t consider it to be WiiM’s first home theater product: the company’s amplifiers can be used as an HDMI-ready sound system, albeit in 2.1 channels. The sound bar is intended as a standalone device for people who, like Zhao, want great sound without a lot of devices taking up space.
“We don’t want to create a legacy AVR. People want a powerful all-in-one device in their living room.” Among those people is Dr. Zhao: “I want something easy to use, I really like Dolby Atmos, and I want it to satisfy both my music and my TV experience,” he says. “So it’s both for our own use and a request from our community.”
It’s an impressive spec and the price is decent too – the official price is $479 / £449 (around AU$840). The WiiM Bar will launch in July with pre-orders starting June 3, 2026. It will be really interesting to see how it compares to the equivalent Sonos when we test it out.
Lifeng Zhao is the founder and CEO of Linkplay Technology Inc., a technology entrepreneur with extensive experience in connected devices and audio/video networking. Prior to founding Linkplay, Zhao served as Chief Software Officer at InterVideo Inc. and then as President and Co-Founder of Nemochips Inc., gaining deep experience in multimedia software and application integrated circuits. In 2014, he founded Linkplay Technology, leading the development of the Linkplay audio streaming platform and the WiiM brand, technologies that are now integrated into more than 10 million smart home and connected audio products worldwide. Zhao has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California, more than 30 U.S. and international patents in audio, video, and networking, and has contributed to products recognized by the CES Innovation Awards, Red Dot, iF Design Award, and Japan Good Design Award.
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