WiiM Mini Streamer

[Music1969]

Unfortunately, the latter is also not true from my experience. Not only the WiiM Home app plays back AM tracks with gaps at the moment but their buffer handling apparently is buggy, so when the track ends, app would wait for a second then start playing next track for a fraction of second, then stops again and only after that starts playing new track continuously from the beginning again. Sorry, it's a long explanation for something very transient but very annoying at the same time. I had to stop using WiiM app with AM altogether because of that.

Lossy Amazon Music via WiiM Home is properly gapless for me.

Firmware ending in 430

Playing Above & Beyond Group Therapy 483 which is a continuous mix

So if bitperfect 24/192 comes even to Amazon via WiiM Home, that's a good thing for the occasional times I play an album like this.

Gapless is obviously not necessary with playlists and track radio discovery mode (but works properly with Airplay...)

Browsing Amazon Music via WiiM Home app feels like back in the day of browsing hard drive music connected to my old Denon AVR yuck.

But it works.

Gapless coming after they first stabilise and release bit perfect 24/192 from the proper Amazon Music app - that's the dream !

 

[Music1969]

Those using "casting" from Amazon Music app direct to WiiM Mini, whether lossly or lossless, and want to see improvements with casting:

I sent the below via the Amazon Music app, on iOS or Android (not Desktop):

Click the cog wheel in top right Go to "Contact Customer Support" -> Amazon Music Unlimited -> Additional Help -> E-mail

If more people can send this or similar, it might get someone's attention there.

If it's just me, nobody will care. You can change or edit as you like or just copy and paste and send from your own accounts.

But I think these 4 things need their attention and really should not be that hard:


There are features not working at all in the Amazon Music app on iOS or Android, when "casting" to Alexa compatible speakers or streamers

Can you please forward this to the engineers developing Amazon Music app, so that they can be made aware and possibly try to fix / improve these things.

I would love to use Amazon Music HD going forward but there are some major functionality issues.

I am casting straight from the Amazon Music iPad and iPhone apps to Alexa streamer which is LinkPlay’s WiiM Mini (“Works with Alexa”).

I believe Amazon Music / Alexa engineers will be aware of LinkPlay:

https://www.linkplay.com/products-powered-by-linkplay

These issues below are directly related to when casting from the iOS Amazon Music app (using Alexa casting - I am not using Airplay) to this Alexa

1. When casting from Amazon Music app on iPad, “Autoplay” does not work. Autoplay is one of the best ways to discovery new and un-heard music. Why this is not functional when casting? It doesn’t make sense to make Autoplay not working when casting.

2. When casting - when I play an album or playlist and there is a play queue, I can’t add individual tracks or albums as ‘play next’ or ‘add to queue’. So I can’t build or change the current play queue ‘on the fly’. This is such a cool feature that for some odd reason gets disabled when casting. Just like Autoplay. I find this strange to disable when casting. Can you please allow this when casting.

3. When casting music - the HD or UHD symbol of the currently playing track shows but when I press HD/UHD, the sample rate and bit depth info of the track is not available. Why? You will see below, having this information showing for the now playing track, is really useful for those of us that want this info.

The above issues only happen when casting. They work fine when not casting but casting is such a useful feature, I’m not sure why these 3 useful features need to disappear when casting ?

The LinkPlay WiiM Mini streamer is currently the first Alexa cast streaming I am aware of that allows up to 24-bit / 192kHz casting straight from the Amazon app to the WiiM Mini, without upsample or downsample like other streamers do.

This device is currently in beta for the WiiM Mini but you can see in the photo at the forum below link, that a user is casting 24bit / 96kHz from his iPhone to the WiiM Mini and his DAC (which connects to the WiiM Mini via TOSlink) is showing the correct 24/96 sample rate. There is no downsample or upsampling. There are no cables between iPhone and DAC showing incoming sample rate. It is done via casting. You can see the casting message “Playing on Charle’s SR-X40A_BETA…". See it here:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/wiim-mini-streamer.31182/page-75#post-1210766

This is such a cool Alexa speaker for getting HD and UHD audio straight to our DACs in our HiFi system with the correct original bit depth and sample rate of the music FLAC file. We care about this.

This is where knowing the original track sample rate would be helpful when casting - the same way the app normally shows you if playing to iPad/iPhone built-in speakers for example.

But for some reason when casting specifically, the Amazon Music app disables the above 3 listed features I mentioned when casting.

Can you please address these issues with the Amazon app when casting?

4. Seperate to casting, we really need the ability to sort an artist’s album and singles release by date. In fact they should default to sort by release date, from newest to oldest.

This is how Apple Music, Spotify and Tidal display an artist discography. It is basic expectation for how we want to see a discog.

Amazon Music’s way of sorting by ‘popularity’ really makes finding an album difficult. It’s a mess to look at. Sometimes the most recent album needs scrolling all the way to the end.

It’s a very tedious process. And it looks like a mess.

I hope these things can be fixed / improved.

There’s many user forum complaints about the mess that artist discography is presented.

I hope your app Engineers can properly consider my feedback.

 

[Music1969]

Fyi WiiM are fixing current beta firmware bugs this week and will then add more people to beta for the next beta firmware version, maybe next week.

Sounds like a good approach to me (even though I've missed out in being in the first group).

 

[Brantome]

Fyi WiiM are fixing current beta firmware bugs this week and will then add more people to beta for the next beta firmware version, maybe next week.

Sounds like a good approach to me (even though I've missed out in being in the first group).

Yeah, I’ve been hoping to get updated firmware since I first got it a few weeks ago - they’ve twice said they‘d send me an updated beta ‘this week’ with a note of bugs fixed, but nothing as yet - I’m still on 427.

 

[amper42]

Yeah, I’ve been hoping to get updated firmware since I first got it a few weeks ago - they’ve twice said they‘d send me an updated beta ‘this week’ with a note of bugs fixed, but nothing as yet - I’m still on 427.

Have you tried leaving the Wiim mini plugged in over night? I did that two days ago and the Wiim firmware automatically updated to 4.6.419430 with a 20220608 build date. It was much improved over the April version that arrived with the Wiim. The Qobuz player in the Wiim mini Home app is better than I expected. It's not Audirvana, but it turns the iPad into it's own very usable player.

I'm setting up an RPI4 running Moode on the Topping D90SE USB port and the Wiim mini on the optical so I can easily switch inputs on the DAC to A/B the sound. It will be interesting to see if I can tell a difference in a blind test. I also want to see if powering the Wiim with the Allo Nirvana SMPS makes a difference. Has anyone else tried the Nirvana SMPS for powering the Wiim via USB power port?

​

 

[Brantome]

Have you tried leaving the Wiim mini plugged in over night? I did that two days ago and the Wiim firmware automatically updated to 4.6.419430 with a 20220608 build date.

It’s on 24x7, but I’m not overly concerned about an update as WiiM said they‘d push a new beta firmware version when they have sorted out some of the AMHD bugs I reported

 

[murzik]

I noticed that through native WiiM application, Amazon only play 16/44.1 for all tracks.

 

[Music1969]

I noticed that through native WiiM application, Amazon only play 16/44.1 for all tracks.

Yep for now.

Were you expecting different? This is what we've been discussing the last 40 pages

 

[Brantome]

I noticed that through native WiiM application, Amazon only play 16/44.1 for all tracks.

Yip, and lossy 16/44.1 SD tracks at that. Lossless AMHD HD and UHD playback is coming though, and already work while casting from the Amazon Music app using beta firmware (If you’re device has been whitelisted).

 

[Ralph_Cramden]

I also want to see if powering the Wiim with the Allo Nirvana SMPS makes a difference. Has anyone else tried the Nirvana SMPS for powering the Wiim via USB power port?

The optical output is bit-perfect to 24/192. A different power supply won’t change that. How could it possibly sound any different? This makes no sense at all.

 

[morillon]

must see if upstream of the toslink it works better? if less jitter? whether the analog output is cleaner?
etc
;-)
here
even an ap555b heals all its power supplies

with such resolutions 192 etc....a audio equipment at the top etc...it will no longer be a detail!
;-)))

 

[Music1969]

must see if upstream of the toslink it works better? if less jitter? whether the analog output is cleaner?
must see if upstream of the toslink it works better? if less jitter? whether the analog output is cleaner?
etc
;-)
here
even an ap555b heals all its power supplies

with such resolutions 192 etc....a audio equipment at the top etc...it will no longer be a detail!
;-)))

If you have a DAC like shown in link below, which has no jitter optical input, then no jitter to worry about.

Jitter only matters right at the point D is converted to A. Not before.

So the main thing is to have a good DAC that deals with jitter on optical like this ;-)

WiiM Mini Review (Streamer)

Maybe, the way it works right now is pretty useless. For reference, how long after a reboot until it shows up in tidal and as airplay device? It's about 10 minutes for me, but I need 5-10 attempts until tidal is connected, and I can play something. @Music1969 maybe it's the same problem. Since...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Ralph_Cramden]

must see if upstream of the toslink it works better? if less jitter? whether the analog output is cleaner?
must see if upstream of the toslink it works better? if less jitter? whether the analog output is cleaner?
etc
;-)
here
even an ap555b heals all its power supplies

with such resolutions 192 etc....a audio equipment at the top etc...it will no longer be a detail!
;-)))

You’re quite confused about digital audio.

 

[Brantome]

Those using "casting" from Amazon Music app direct to WiiM Mini, whether lossly or lossless, and want to see improvements with casting:

I sent the below via the Amazon Music app, on iOS or Android (not Desktop):

Click the cog wheel in top right Go to "Contact Customer Support" -> Amazon Music Unlimited -> Additional Help -> E-mail

If more people can send this or similar, it might get someone's attention there.

If it's just me, nobody will care. You can change or edit as you like or just copy and paste and send from your own accounts.

But I think these 4 things need their attention and really should not be that hard:
…..

You should try posting on amazonforum.com too - you’ll no doubt get some uninformed responses from their front line support, but hopefully they will pass the request on. I’ve done that for the U.K. version of the site.

 

[Ralph_Cramden]

Email from Arylic's customer service (not engineering, so...) this morning. I'd still like to try their DSP software with the WiiM - but don't have a Windoze PC. Guess I'll have to wait for WiiM to include PEQ, or at least 10-band EQ, in their app. @WiiM Support, a 10-band EQ like the one in VLC would be great. It's quite simple to use.

Hello Sir

Thank you for your message.

But the Acpworkbench cannot compatible with the WiiM Mini device.

Sorry.

---
Best Regards
Coco

Customer Service at Arylic Audio

 

[Brantome]

Email from Arylic's customer service (not engineering, so...) this morning. I'd still like to try their DSP software with the WiiM - but don't have a Windoze PC. Guess I'll have to wait for WiiM to include PEQ, or at least 10-band EQ, in their app. @WiiM Support, a 10-band EQ like the one in VLC would be great. It's quite simple to use.

It’s on their roadmap already:
”Future updates
New Features:

• EQ to set bass, mid-range, and treble and 10-band parametric EQ
• Audio balance left and right channels
• Support SMB for music sharing
• Support landscape mode on tablets
• Gapless playback for DLNA render (from 3rd party controller)
• New music services such as SoundCloud, Pandora, SiriusXM, Radio Paradise, Nugs.net, etc.”

 

[Brantome]

Email from Arylic's customer service (not engineering, so...) this morning. I'd still like to try their DSP software with the WiiM - but don't have a Windoze PC. Guess I'll have to wait for WiiM to include PEQ, or at least 10-band EQ, in their app. @WiiM Support, a 10-band EQ like the one in VLC would be great. It's quite simple to use.

I guess if the WiiM Mini were Roon compatible, we could use its DSP

 

[Ralph_Cramden]

I guess if the WiiM Mini were Roon compatible, we could use its DSP

Roon is also on their roadmap, at least according to their FAQ.

Is Roon supported? Print​

Modified on: Tue, Feb 22, 2022 at 1:27 PM

---

Not yet. We have a plan to enable Roon on this product later this year with an automatic software update. Please stay tuned.

Until then, re: Roon support - since WiiM Mini supports AirPlay 2, it should work with Roon as the endpoint.

 

[Music1969]

I guess if the WiiM Mini were Roon compatible, we could use its DSP

For a bit more than the cost of a Roon lifetime subscription, just buy a miniDSP box.

Plug WiiM into miniDSP via optical.

Loads of DSP powah.

And don't need to be forced into another 3rd party app to use Tidal and Qobuz.

Tidal Connect is already supported by WiiM.

Qobuz Connect is happening and I'm sure will come to WiiM when it launches.

 

[AllDigital]

At least in my case it is working correctly using SPDIF, streaming local 192kHz files and it switches fine to 44.1kHz when it should.

So far, so good. The absolute best I could find for 90€.

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