These are not the same size of amplifier: WiiM Amp has roughly 2.7x the power of Audioengine N22. That is about 4.4dB, so it is a question of room size and how hard your speakers are to drive, not of one being the better amplifier.
| Area | Better | Why |
|---|
| Power | A | WiiM Amp has more power - 60W against 22W into 8 ohms. That is about 4.4dB, so it plays usefully louder before it runs out and has more in hand on peaks. |
| Room size | depends | We rate WiiM Amp the better fit for a very large room, and Audioengine N22 for desk or near-field listening. Match the amplifier to the room you actually have, not the one you want. |
| Noise floor | A | WiiM Amp is the quieter design on paper - 98dB against 95dB. Audible mainly with sensitive speakers in a quiet room. |
| Built-in DAC | A | WiiM Amp has a DAC on board; the other needs an external one, which is another box, another power lead and another purchase. |
| Streaming | A | Only WiiM Amp has AirPlay 2, Chromecast and Roon. |
| Room to grow | evenly matched | The same expansion options on both. |
| Amplifier class | depends | WiiM Amp is Class D and Audioengine N22 is Class A/B. Class D runs cool and draws almost nothing at idle; Class A/B runs warm and is the long-established mainstream choice. Modern examples of both measure well - judge by the rest of the page. |
| Shelf space | depends | Audioengine N22 takes up about 52% less shelf area (202cm² against 420cm²), and it is 26mm shallower, which is the measurement that decides whether a rack door shuts. |
| Price | B | Audioengine N22 costs less - $199 against $299 at list. |
| Watts per dollar | A | WiiM Amp is the cheaper watt - about $5 per watt against $9. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A WiiM Amp B Audioengine N22
depends neither is better in the abstract - it turns on your room, your system or how you will use them. Only specs published for both amplifiers are judged; anything missing on either side is left out rather than guessed.
Which should you choose?
The usual trade-off: WiiM Amp measures better, Audioengine N22 costs about 33% less. With most speakers in most rooms that gap is smaller in practice than it looks here. Start with the room. In a large or open-plan room, or with speakers that are hard to drive - low sensitivity, or an impedance that dips - WiiM Amp has the headroom, and headroom is what stops an amplifier hardening up on peaks. At desk distance or in a small room, 22 watts is already more than most people ever use, and the extra 38 watts would be headroom you pay for and never hear. If you already own a DAC or a streamer, the built-in one is money you are paying twice for, and Audioengine N22 becomes the more rational buy.
What a spec sheet cannot show: how either sounds with your speakers, how the controls feel day to day, and what the app is like to live with - which is where most all-in-one amplifiers are actually won or lost. Power figures are the manufacturers' own and are not measured to a common standard, so treat small differences as noise. If you can hear both, that will tell you more than any row above.