
WiiM's first smart speaker looks like a HomePod for audiophiles
The WiiM Sound features playback controls on the top as well as a 1.8-inch high-res touchscreen on the side that can also be used for navigating playlists and menus, selecting presets, or just displaying album art for whatever's currently playing. Using a four-inch woofer and 'dual-balanced mode radiator tweeters' the Sound delivers 100W of power or more with two of them configured as a left and right stereo pair.
Image: WiiM
The speaker uses a built-in microphone to measure the acoustics in a room and optimize its sound output for the space, but it can also be customized using a 10-band EQ or one of 24 different preset sound profiles. With Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, and an ethernet port, the WiiM Sound can stream from over 20 different music services or from apps on other devices using Chromecast, Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect, DLNA, or Alexa Cast.
Hands-free operation is made possible through Alexa, Google Assistant, or an included wireless remote that supports voice commands. WiiM expects the Sound to be available sometime in the third quarter of 2025 through Amazon and 'select retailers,' but says it won't reveal pricing for any of the products it announced today until they launch.
If WiiM's smart speaker doesn't deliver enough low-end performance for your ears, it can be paired with the new Sub Pro which features an eight-inch driver and a Class-D amplifier that works in the 25-200Hz frequency range.
Connectivity includes Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, ethernet, and an RCA input for connecting to home theater gear, while the Sub Pro offers the same customizability as the Sound smart speaker with automatic room correction and a 10-band EQ available through WiiM's mobile app.
Image: WiiM
Wiim calls its new WiiM Amp Ultra its 'most refined streaming amplifier yet.' Featuring a unibody aluminum chassis with a 3.5-inch touchscreen on the front, the amp uses audiophile-grade components including an ESS ES9039Q2M Sabre DAC and can deliver 100W of power per channel to drive up to four passive speakers simultaneously.
Dual antennas help ensure fast and stable streaming over a Wi-Fi 6E or Bluetooth 5.3 connection, even while listening to high-res music at 24-bit/192kHz quality. Through the WiiM Home app the WiiM Amp Ultra can stream from several popular services including Spotify and Amazon Music while support for Google Cast, Alexa Cast, DLNA, Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect, DLNA, and Roon facilitates streaming from other apps.
The amp also supports voice controls through Alexa, Google Assistant, and its bundled wireless remote, includes an HDMI ARC port with support for Dolby Digital decoding, and has a dedicated subwoofer output so it can be paired with WiiM's new Sub Pro.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
14 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Bill Belichick roasted during Hall of Fame dinner speech over Jordon Hudson
Longtime Cleveland Browns reporter Mary Kay Cabot absolutely roasted former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick while accepting an award from the Pro Football Writers of America. Cabot earned the prestigious 2025 Bill Nunn Memorial Award at the annual Enshrinees' Gold Jacket Dinner in Canton, Ohio, on Friday night, and she used part of her acceptance speech to rip into Belichick's alleged past treatment of her reporting. Cabot reflected on the times Belichick allegedly called to yell at her for her Browns reporting back when he coached in Cleveland. "If Bill didn't like something I wrote, he'd call and yell at me," Cabot shared in her speech. "If you asked a dumb question, he'd call you out. Eventually, I had to learn to stand up to him." She recalled how, during one alleged yelling match, Cabot challenged Belichick to treat her with the same respect of her male colleagues. She then delivered a devastating zinger about his relationship with the much, much younger Jordon Hudson. "Now, I totally understand why Bill gave me such a hard time," Cabot joked. "I was 28 at the time, and he just couldn't relate to a woman that old." The roars of laughter from the crowd said it all. That is a truly devastating one-liner, and Cabot deserves another award for how thoroughly she trolled Belichick for allegedly giving her such a hard time in Cleveland . This article originally appeared on For The Win: Bill Belichick roasted during Hall of Fame dinner speech over Jordon Hudson
Yahoo
14 minutes ago
- Yahoo
If You'd Invested $1,000 in Solana 5 Years Ago, Here's How Much You'd Have Today
Key Points Solana runs on a proof-of-stake network that is one of the fastest in the crypto world. The network is already processing thousands of transactions per second. The technical strength of the network has made it a home run for investors. 10 stocks we like better than Solana › Only launched about 5.5 years ago, Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) is now the sixth-largest cryptocurrency in the world with a market cap of over $96 billion as of July 30. Many investors see immense potential in Solana's network. It's one of the few cryptocurrencies to operate on a proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanism to govern the network. After realizing how energy-intensive the traditional crypto-mining, proof-of-work (PoW) system had become on Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, several crypto networks transitioned to PoS. Instead of using high computing power to solve a puzzle like with PoW, PoS has investors stake their tokens to the network, and then assigns them at random to validate transactions and mint new tokens. The more tokens one stakes, the higher the chance they have of being selected and also earning rewards. Even more unique, Solana's network also has a proof-of-history mechanism that essentially creates a sequential record of transactions, enabling even faster transactions on the network. As a result, Solana's network can process thousands of transactions per second (TPS), but it has the theoretical potential to process up to 65,000 TPS, if not more. This gives Solana and its network immense potential to disrupt the global payments system. Investors have done well While volatile like most cryptocurrencies, Solana has been a huge winner for investors that bought the token five years ago. The technical strength of its network has made Solana one of the few altcoins that investors see a strong use case for. Roughly five years ago, Solana traded for just $1.73. Today, it trades for over $179. That's a gain of roughly 10,264%. So, if you invested $1,000 in Solana five years ago, you now have $103,636! That's simply incredible. Investors aren't likely to find too many investments like that in their lifetime. Should you invest $1,000 in Solana right now? Before you buy stock in Solana, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Solana wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $624,823!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,064,820!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,019% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 178% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 29, 2025 Bram Berkowitz has positions in Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin and Solana. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. If You'd Invested $1,000 in Solana 5 Years Ago, Here's How Much You'd Have Today was originally published by The Motley Fool


Forbes
16 minutes ago
- Forbes
You Want To Speak Memorably? Try These Smart Tips
In today's high-stakes professional world, the ability to communicate isn't just a competency—it's currency. Are you leading a team? Strong communication skill is one of your most important tools. Pitching a product? Ditto. Navigating a job interview? Ditto. In most every workplace situation, your presentation style can be the defining factor between influence and invisibility. Bill McGowan understands this better than most. This Emmy Award-winning TV journalist and bestselling author is a top communications advisor to leading names in business, tech, entertainment, sports, and finance. He's coached the founders of Amazon, Meta, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Spotify, Snapchat, and Airbnb … as well as Oscar, Emmy, and Grammy winners and World Series, Super Bowl, and Olympic champions. McGowan's latest book is Speak, Memorably: The Art of Captivating an Audience. His experience in TV journalism underscored many of the lessons he now provides as a coach. For example, when McGowan worked on ABC's popular '20/20' show, the executive producer would share the minute-to-minute ratings of a segment. Any time an on-camera personality told a story, viewers' interest spiked. Stories, McGowan learned, are much more compelling than statistics. You want to break out of the conformity zone? McGowan recommends avoiding 'corporate speak' and communicating concisely with clarity and simplicity. And at every opportunity, use pertinent stories. While it's important that every part of a presentation be interesting and relevant, McGowan highlights what psychologists call the primary-recency effect: people tend to remember the first and last items in a sequence better than those in the middle. That's a clue on where compelling stories, challenges, or facts should be in a presentation. To underscore the importance and power of simplicity, McGowan tells of a CEO who was in a media interview about a struggle his company was experiencing. The interviewer asked the CEO, 'Why do you think your IPO underperformed vis-à-vis the other companies in your competitive space?' McGowan says that instead of blaming the market or a poor valuation or even suggesting that they didn't have the right financial institution leading the offering, the CEO simply said, 'We underperformed because we failed to come up with a narrative that could fit on the back of a cocktail napkin.' McGowan used that story to kick off a speech he made to a group of communication clients. Using a 'through line,' the connective tissue that helps explain the relevance of a story, he spoke on the subject of simplicity. Citing research studies, McGowan says factual information embedded within storytelling becomes 22 times more memorable 'than if you just fire hose talking points and data points.' McGowan coaches his clients to communicate the visual, the specific, and the anecdotal. When you speak abstractly and theoretically, it's pictureless, he says. 'We human beings have this movie reel spinning in our heads at all times. If a speaker doesn't give us imagery to work with, that movie reel keeps spinning in our head—only now it's spinning with the images we've created. That's what daydreaming is.' In what ways has the rise of remote work and virtual meetings affected the way people communicate? In addition to what many people now call 'Zoom fatigue,' McGowan talks about 'Zoomnesia.' That occurs when people attend a seemingly endless string of remote meetings in which they're sitting in the same room with the same potted plant on their desk and the same view out the window and with no contextual clues. That circumstance makes it even harder for people to retain information, and it underscores the value of well thought-out communication practices that engage people's thinking. McGowan frequently uses metaphors in his coaching. For example, he talks about what he calls the 'pasta sauce principle.' You put a pot of tomato sauce on the stove and cook it down for about three hours. You then have something with about half the volume but a lot more flavor. 'But it takes time and effort to get that reduction going,' McGowan says. 'The same is true for speaking.' It wouldn't be accurate to say McGowan has written a cookbook. But Speak, Memorably certainly provides the ingredients for welcome servings of appetizing communication. Whether you're giving a TED talk, speaking at the local Rotary Club, or just trying not to lose people in your Monday morning staff meeting, McGowan offers insight that will boost your communication mojo.