WiiM Talks: Building the WiiM Bar | Behind the Design
Welcome back to WiiM Talks, where we go behind the scenes with the people building WiiM products and explore some of the thinking, decisions, and challenges that shape them.
This time, we're talking about WiiM Bar, our first soundbar and our first product designed from the ground up to bring home theater into the WiiM ecosystem.
WiiM Bar combines a 3.0.2-channel Dolby Atmos and DTS:X system with music streaming, RoomFit room correction, a 2.1-inch touchscreen, and the ability to expand into a larger wireless WiiM home theater.
But why a soundbar? Why now? And what does building one look like for a company that started with music streamers and amplifiers?
To find out, Ryan sat down with the WiiM Bar Product Manager and Product Designer to talk about where the Bar came from, the decisions that shaped it, and how the team approached bringing WiiM into the living room.
From WiiM streaming to home theater
Ryan: WiiM has primarily focused on streamers and amplifiers in the past, with the Sound, Sound Lite, and Sub Pro speakers coming more recently. Why did you decide it was time to build a soundbar?
Product Manager: Like many of the products we've built, this really started with feedback from our community.
As WiiM grew, people started putting our products in more places around their homes. The WiiM Ultra, and our amps, especially the Amp Pro, and Amp Ultra were often used with TVs, including the sub-out port for immersive audio setups. We kept hearing from users who already had WiiM streamers, amps, or speakers and were building whole-home systems, but had a gap when they got to the living room and TV.
For a long time, a soundbar was one of our most requested products.
There was a personal element to it as well. We wanted something simple that could provide a Dolby Atmos experience for TV while also being a genuinely good system for music.
Those things came together. We weren't looking to build a soundbar simply because it was another product category to enter. Our users were asking for a way to bring their TV spaces into WiiM, and we saw an opportunity to fill a missing piece in the ecosystem.
Ryan: Once you decided to build one, what did the WiiM Bar absolutely have to get right?
Product Manager: There were three things we kept coming back to.
First, it needed to be flexible enough to fit into most homes. Not everyone has the space—or the desire—for an AV receiver, separate speakers, and cables running around the room. Though we’ve definitely heard some requests for those options too.
Second, it needed to sound great for music as well as TV and movies. Music has always been at the center of WiiM, so we didn't want the Bar to become something you only use when the TV is on.
And third, it needed to feel like a WiiM product. That means the WiiM ecosystem and software experience, of course, but increasingly it also means a screen-forward design and simple interaction.
Starting with the sound
Ryan: Soundbars have some pretty severe physical constraints. Did you start by deciding what the Bar should look like and then design the acoustics around that?
Product Manager: We started with the sound. How much could the Bar do on its own? We wanted music and everyday TV to sound satisfying without assuming everyone would add a sub right away. The Bar was designed with three front mid-woofers, three front tweeters, two up-firing full-range drivers on top, and four passive radiators. This is to support a wide soundstage that has clear vocals, height effects, and strong bass performance all packed into a single soundbar.
But we also knew people would want customization, so the Bar is built flexible through software, so for those that want deeper bass and more impact, you can wirelessly connect the Sub Pro.
Our target for the Bar was around 50 Hz at the −6 dB point. That helped us work out how much space the cabinet needed inside, which shaped its size. This was done with some incredible engineering work, and I’m proud of what the team accomplished here. We could have made it smaller, but we would have given up some bass performance.
Ryan: That leads naturally to the 3.0.2 configuration. Why did you settle on that particular architecture?
Product Manager: We wanted WiiM Bar to provide a complete experience on its own before you add anything else. We knew that dialogue was often hard to hear from many soundbars, and designed the center channel to be clear.
There are three front channels—left, center, and right—which give us a strong front soundstage and a dedicated center channel for things like dialogue. Then we have two top-firing full-range drivers providing dedicated height channels for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.
Altogether there are eight active drivers: three mid-woofers, three tweeters, and the two height drivers. We also use four passive radiators, with two at the front and two at the rear, to help extend the low-frequency performance from the enclosure.
The result is a native 3.0.2 system with up to 135 watts of system power.
But 3.0.2 is also deliberately a starting point. We wanted the Bar to work really well by itself while giving people somewhere to go if they decide they want to build a larger system later.
Ryan: You mentioned that music couldn't be secondary to movies and TV. How do you tune one product for such different kinds of listening?
Product Manager: The Bar had to work as a music system too. Plenty of people will use it with the TV off, so we couldn't think only about movie effects.
For Dolby and DTS content, there are sound modes people can choose. Music Mode keeps things more balanced; Movie Mode gives effects more weight. And if you want to make it your own, you have RoomFit and EQ, including per-source EQ where it's supported.
Ryan: So if someone mostly listens to music and only occasionally watches movies, why would they choose WiiM Bar instead of a pair of stereo speakers?
Product Manager: It depends on what matters most to them and how they want the room to work.
A good pair of stereo speakers can provide greater physical separation and a more traditional two-channel listening experience. If music is your only priority and you have the space for separate speakers and amplification, that's still a great way to build a system.
WiiM Bar is designed for someone who wants one system to handle both music and everything happening on the TV without adding that complexity.
On the music side, you have WiiM streaming, RoomFit, EQ, and multi-room listening. That's all there whether or not the TV is on.
Then when you turn on the TV, that same system gives you a dedicated center channel, Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, dialogue enhancement, and dedicated height channels.
It won't replace every stereo system. It's for someone who wants their music and TV setup in one place.
Ryan: Let's talk about the most obvious design choice. Why does a soundbar need a touchscreen?
Product Designer: A lot of soundbars leave you guessing about what's playing or which input you're on. The screen lets us show that directly. It also makes the Bar feel at home alongside WiiM Sound, Ultra, and Amp Ultra.
There is quite a bit to show on a connected audio product: the source, the sound mode, or the track you're listening to.
A screen is more direct than asking people to learn what a blinking LED pattern means.
And because it's a touchscreen, you can make a quick change without opening the app.
For music, it can show album artwork and track information. You can also use it for playback, EQ, Smart Presets, Recently Played content, and a clock.
At the same time, this is a soundbar underneath a TV. We don't want the display competing with a movie you're watching. It should be there when it's useful and get out of the way when it isn't.
Ryan: Once you decided on that circular display, how much did it influence the rest of the physical design?
Product Designer: Quite a lot.
We didn't want the screen to look like something that had simply been inserted into the front of a rectangular soundbar. We wanted the form of the product to grow naturally around it.
The top cover follows the curved profile of the touchscreen. For that shape, we took some inspiration from the tensile qualities of leaves in nature—the way those forms can feel both structured and free-flowing.
That gave us the organic curved surface you see around the display.
We carried the same idea into the front metal acoustic grille. The grille is manufactured through multiple stamping processes to create a rhythmically changing pattern, and that pattern echoes the curvature of the screen's outer frame.
So even though the overall product is intentionally minimalist, there are details that tie the different surfaces together.
Ryan: There's an interesting tension there. You're describing “ultimate simplicity,” but this is also a pretty technologically dense product. How do you keep those two things from fighting each other?
Product Designer: Simplicity doesn't necessarily mean removing capability. It's about deciding when that capability needs to be visible.
The top controls are a good example. The capacitive controls are there when you need direct access to things like volume or playback, but they're designed to visually recede when they're not needed.
The same idea applies to the display.
The technology can be quite sophisticated underneath, but the user shouldn't have to think about all of that sophistication every time they want to watch TV or play music.
Ryan: Another interesting decision is HDMI. You could have added several HDMI inputs and made the Bar a switching hub. Why didn't you?
Product Manager: Most people already connect their devices to the TV, so we let the TV handle switching.
One HDMI cable from the TV’s ARC/eARC port to the Bar gets the basic setup going.
Extra HDMI inputs would give you more switching options, but also more to manage.
The Bar didn't need to become another switching hub in the room.
We kept optical and line-in for people with other equipment or older TVs.
Have More Questions?
That wraps up Part 1 of our look behind the scenes of WiiM Bar! A big thank you to our Product Manager and Product Designer for taking the time to share some of the thinking and decisions that went into bringing WiiM Bar to life.
And thanks to everyone reading! As always, we love hearing from our community, and we know there's plenty more to talk about.
If you have questions about WiiM Bar, its design, features, or the decisions behind it, drop them in the comments on our Community! We'll collect your questions and bring them back to the team for more answers.
Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more WiiM Talks!
