Wiim Mini and Pro

[mondo]

I got a Wiim pro a few days ago. As i posted on the Upnp Bridge thread, LMS/Upnp bridge version 2.12.11 works well with the Wiim after changing the gapless setting to "force". Also, as an experiment, i plugged the output from my Squeezebox Duet receiver into the Wiim Pro input - and voila, native LMS client via the Wiim. (That is not my planned use case, but for those who have a spare Squeezebox, it would be an option pending any implementation of Squeezelite by Wiim.) Overall, i think the Wiim Pro seems to have good build quality and functionality for the price.

I have 3 Duets that I am thinking about replacing with the WiiM Pros/Mini's. My main gripe with the Duets is that the volume is low compared to my Roon endpoints (HiFiBerrys). Are the WiiM's an upgrade to the Duets?

Also, I was thinking that once the WiiM's are Roon certified, I can use them for Roon and convert the HiFiBerry's to Squezeboxes and see how they compare to the Duets. No idea why the volume is so low with the Duets. I like the Roon interface for some things, and the Squeezebox interface for other things. Thoughts?

[slartibartfast]

I have 3 Duets that I am thinking about replacing with the WiiM Pros/Mini's. My main gripe with the Duets is that the volume is low compared to my Roon endpoints (HiFiBerrys). Are the WiiM's an upgrade to the Duets?

Also, I was thinking that once the WiiM's are Roon certified, I can use them for Roon and convert the HiFiBerry's to Squezeboxes and see how they compare to the Duets. No idea why the volume is so low with the Duets. I like the Roon interface for some things, and the Squeezebox interface for other things. Thoughts?

According to Archimago the Duet Receiver output is lower than the Touch with a peak output voltage of 2.4 Volts vs 2.9 Volts for the Touch.

http://archimago.blogspot.com/2013/06/measurements-squeezebox-duet-receiver.html?m=1

[d6jg]

I’d caution against replacing at this stage.

Recent firmware update has changed how the WiiM deals with gapless playback. While these relatively frequent firmware updates are occurring it’s too risky.

[CJS]

My main gripe with the Duets is that the volume is low compared to my Roon endpoints (HiFiBerrys). Are the WiiM's an upgrade to the Duets?
...
No idea why the volume is so low with the Duets. Thoughts?

If you notice a significant difference in audio volume between the Duet Receiver and your HifiBerrys when using Roon, I doubt if this is caused by the hardware. My suspicion is that it is a setting somewhere. I don't use Roon, so I can't help you with player settings in Roon. I would expect that to get equal audio volume you need to increase the Roon volume setting of the Duet Receiver, or decrease the Roon volume setting of your HifiBerrys.

According to Archimago the Duet Receiver output is lower than the Touch with a peak output voltage of 2.4 Volts vs 2.9 Volts for the Touch.
http://archimago.blogspot.com/2013/0...eiver.html?m=1

In this article I see a signal amplitude of 2.4V (i.e. 4.8Vpp) for a 0dBFS square-wave at the analog output of the Duet Receiver. Assuming a similar amplitude for a sinewave, this amplitude equals 2.4V/sqrt(2) = 1.7Vrms. This is not very low. The 2.9V amplitude of the Touch equals 2.05Vrms for a sinewave. A CD player usually outputs 2Vrms full scale. The 1.7Vrms of the Duet is only 1.4dB lower than the standard 2Vrms full scale output of a CD player (20 log (1.7/2) = -1.41 dB).

[slartibartfast]

If you notice a significant difference in audio volume between the Duet Receiver and your HifiBerrys when using Roon, I doubt if this is caused by the hardware. My suspicion is that it is a setting somewhere. I don't use Roon, so I can't help you with player settings in Roon. I would expect that to get equal audio volume you need to increase the Roon volume setting of the Duet Receiver, or decrease the Roon volume setting of your HifiBerrys.


In this article I see a signal amplitude of 2.4V (i.e. 4.8Vpp) for a 0dBFS square-wave at the analog output of the Duet Receiver. Assuming a similar amplitude for a sinewave, this amplitude equals 2.4V/sqrt(2) = 1.7Vrms. This is not very low. The 2.9V amplitude of the Touch equals 2.05Vrms for a sinewave. A CD player usually outputs 2Vrms full scale. The 1.7Vrms of the Duet is only 1.4dB lower than the standard 2Vrms full scale output of a CD player (20 log (1.7/2) = -1.41 dB).

It would be equivalent to reducing the volume to 97 from 100 on a Squeezebox, not easily noticeable. Maybe the OP is using replaygain on the Duet but not the Hifiberrys.

[d6jg]

A recent firmware update buggered up the WiiM's ability to play nicely with the Bridge in passthrough mode but I have the beta firmware on my Mini now - 4.6.516229 - and using in conjunction with LMS UPnP/DLNA Bridge v2.2.1

The bridge has been reconfigured back from flow mode to simply pass the stream from LMS to the WiiM with no alteration at a max sample rate of 96,000 to match the optical input on my CD Receiver.

I have made some very limited tests in the time available but so far gapless playback of local FLAC has been fine - DSOTM has played straight through. I will let LMS's Don't Stop The Music do its stuff over the course of the day which will throw a mix of stuff from various sources at various bit rates and will report back but looking good.

[d6jg]

WiiM Mini firmware 4.6.516229 - LMS UPnP/DLNA Bridge v2.2.1

An hour and a half in and this is looking very promising. Don't Stop The Music has thrown up various 16/44.1, 24/96 and 24/192 tracks both from my own library and from Qobuz. I haven't had anything miss a beat yet. Stuff coming from Qobuz at 24/192 is being correctly downsampled by LMS to 24/96 before passthrough to the WiiM. Gapless where appropriate and short track handling has been correct.

While it is of no consequence to me as I am controlling via LMS/Material I have kept an eye of the metadata sent to the WiiM app by the UPnP/DLNA Bridge. It has updated correctly with one very very minor exception - kbps seems to be stuck and is displaying the data from the first track played. My ears tell me that what is actually reaching my DAC is correct.

[d6jg]

WiiM Mini firmware 4.6.517037 - LMS UPnP/DLNA Bridge v2.2.2

Playing local FLAC and Qobuz. Gapless seems to still be working in passthrough mode.

[d6jg]

WiiM Mini firmware 4.6.517037 - LMS UPnP/DLNA Bridge v2.2.2

Playing local FLAC and Qobuz. Gapless seems to still be working in passthrough mode.

An update.

WiiM Mini firmware is now 4.6.518747
UPnP/DLNA Bridge is stil 2.2.22

Gapless is working in both passthrough and simple transcoding modes. There is no need to apply "Flow".

I am transcoding to FLAC to enable ReplayGain support and Fade In/Out. The Qobuz plugin is getting ReplayGain soon.

In my case my Receiver only supports up to 24/96 over Optical and that is what I appear to be consistently getting. I say "appear" because I do not have a bit rate display and have to trust my ears.

Until/unless WiiM actually put Squeezelite on their devices this is about as good as it will get. Missing are Smart Crossfade and Player sync.

The ONLY things that the WiiM App has which LMS doesn't are Amazon Music / Amazon Alexa Cast.

[d6jg]

Fairly strong whisper received that WiiM are now seriously working on Squeezelite integration.

They have achieved Roon Ready status on the WiiM Pro and have released the beta firmware that enables it. I don’t have any inclination to run Roon but those that have it are reporting it works perfectly.

Fingers crossed for Squeezelite as we need some easily obtained pre built players other than DAC/DIGI32 and. SqueezeESP

[kidstypike]

Fairly strong whisper received that WiiM are now seriously working on Squeezelite integration.

They have achieved Roon Ready status on the WiiM Pro and have released the beta firmware that enables it. I don’t have any inclination to run Roon but those that have it are reporting it works perfectly.

Fingers crossed for Squeezelite as we need some easily obtained pre built players other than DAC/DIGI32 and. SqueezeESP

'm all excited!

[d6jg]

'm all excited!

Don’t hold you breath. Roon is 6 months later than they planned.

[kidstypike]

Don’t hold you breath. Roon is 6 months later than they planned.

'm all deflated.

[d6jg]

'm all deflated.

I didn’t receive any whisper about Roon - but of course I’m not really interested in that.
The whisper about Squeezelite comes from a good source and I’d expect it within a month or two given there is no certification required which was the major cause of delay in the case of Roon.
So don’t hold your breath but don’t be deflated either.

[kidstypike]

I didn’t receive any whisper about Roon - but of course I’m not really interested in that.
The whisper about Squeezelite comes from a good source and I’d expect it within a month or two given there is no certification required which was the major cause of delay in the case of Roon.
So don’t hold your breath but don’t be deflated either.

Nice. Please keep us informed.

Thanks.