Streamers that support FIR? (without PC in the chain)

[MKR]

Hello all … I love my WiiM Pro, but the lack of support for FIR is annoying. Yes, I know there is a 4 band PEQ, but not sufficient.

Is there a streamer that supports all of the below:
- wireless control (from iOS) (not wireless streaming, wireless control)
- dig volume control (no need for preamp)
- support of REW, HouseCurve, etc generated EQ files WITHOUT Mac/PC in the chain
- AES dig out

Seems the only unit that may support all of the above criteria is the miniDSP SHD studio? Any others?

Thanks

 

[mdsimon2]

SHD Studio has no user defined FIR capability.

Why not add a digital output Flex or OpenDRC-DI to the WiiM pro? OpenDRC-DI is actually a bit more powerful than the Flex from a FIR perspective as it can be run at 48 kHz. Of course a small computer with a digital I/O USB device would blow away both the Flex and OpenDRC in terms of FIR capability.

Michael

 

[MKR]

SHD Studio has no user defined FIR capability.

Why not add a digital output Flex or OpenDRC-DI to the WiiM pro? OpenDRC-DI is actually a bit more powerful than the Flex from a FIR perspective as it can be run at 48 kHz. Of course a small computer with a digital I/O USB device would blow away both the Flex and OpenDRC in terms of FIR capability.

Michael

Thank you. You cannot use EQ app generated convolution filters with SHD? Guess I fully misunderstood that.

Seems to me there is just no way to do what I want to do without a PC somewhere in the chain. The big one for me is to be able to control the streaming wirelessly. I do not want a cable running from me sitting in my listening position all the way to the streamer (or DAC) in my equipment rack.

So let’s change my criteria … MacBook using REW generated EQ -> Qobuz -> wireless control of streamer. How do I do this?

 

[Jimbob54]

Thank you. You cannot use EQ app generated convolution filters with SHD? Guess I fully misunderstood that.

Seems to me there is just no way to do what I want to do without a PC somewhere in the chain. The big one for me is to be able to control the streaming wirelessly. I do not want a cable running from me sitting in my listening position all the way to the streamer (or DAC) in my equipment rack.

So let’s change my criteria … MacBook using REW generated EQ -> Qobuz -> wireless control of streamer. How do I do this?

Roon.

 

[MKR]

Roon.

Can you please provide additional detail how I would do this? What would the app/HW chain look like? Especially the wireless control connection to streamer/DAC?

 

[Purité Audio]

The streamer shows up in Roon as your output device, any device on the same network, you can use peq for each device Roon is very sophisticated.
ipad to control , wireless to the streamer.
I use the Roon’s peq capability to add filters to the Mantas at the moment, although they have their own built in peq.

Keith

 

[MKR]

The streamer shows up in Roon as your output device, any device on the same network, you can use peq for each device Roon is very sophisticated.
ipad to control , wireless to the streamer.
I use the Roon’s peq capability to add filters to the Mantas at the moment, although they have their own built in peq.

Keith

Right, but you still have to have PC somewhere as the endpoint. So now I have iPad plus MacBook then to streamer. This is a pain in the a$$. Never understood why Roon requires PC as endpoint.

 

[Purité Audio]

You could just use the Eversolo the A-6 now has peq, you could use just its touchscreen .
Keith

 

[MKR]

You could just use the Eversolo the A-6 now has peq, you could use just its touchscreen .
Keith

Get up and down from my couch just to change the track? No thanks, far too lazy for that

Seems the only way to do what I want is just build my own Raspberry Pi based server, been thinking about doing that for a while anyway. There is no off the shelf solution that will suffice (very hard to believe no one has done this yet with a commercial offering)

 

[Jimbob54]

Right, but you still have to have PC somewhere as the endpoint. So now I have iPad plus MacBook then to streamer. This is a pain in the a$$. Never understood why Roon requires PC as endpoint.

Macbook running roon (anywhere in the house) iPad /iPhone as remote /navigator, wiim pro plus or upwards as streamer.

You said this: "So let’s change my criteria … MacBook using REW generated EQ -> Qobuz -> wireless control of streamer. How do I do this"

The answer is Roon.

Edit. The Wiim remote will let you adjust volume and pause /skip in the above scenario. Changing playlist /album etc would obviously need a roon remote running on some handset.

 

[Purité Audio]

You can just import the REW generated filters in to the streamer.
Keith

 

[JustJones]

Right, but you still have to have PC somewhere as the endpoint.

No, the WiiM pro is the endpoint. You can still use the app to control everything. You run the Roon core on the PC which can be anywhere as long as it's on the same network.

I ran the roon core on a headless mini pc running ROCK in my home office. I used raspberry pi 4 running roopie as endpoint. Install the core on your computer it can be kept anywhere. The endpoint which in your case is the WiiM pro would stay just as it is. Install Roon app on your tablet/phone and control the WiiM pro through the Roon app. They simply need to be on the same network to see each other.

 

[Matias]

More PEQ bands are coming to the WiiM Pro eventually which should help a lot. But yes importing a FIR filter would be awesome.

 

[MKR]

No, the WiiM pro is the endpoint. You can still use the app to control everything. You run the Roon core on the PC which can be anywhere as long as it's on the same network.

I ran the roon core on a headless mini pc running ROCK in my home office. I used raspberry pi 4 running roopie as endpoint. Install the core on your computer it can be kept anywhere. The endpoint which in your case is the WiiM pro would stay just as it is. Install Roon app on your tablet/phone and control the WiiM pro through the Roon app. They simply need to be on the same network to see each other.

The issue is you need a PC to run Roon. Why? This is what is annoying and adds additional complexity. Yes, I have a MacBook, but to use my iPad as a controller (with WiiM as the endpoint) I have to have my MacBook sitting somewhere opened up and running. Again, annoying.

Would a Pi based system alone allow use of REW generated FIR and support wireless control via iOS? Or I still need a PC? Or to ask differently, is there a one box streaming solution that can accept FIR files that can be controlled via iOS?

Anyway, y’all have answered my question that there is no way to use FIR with the WiiM alone, more HW is needed. Thanks for that.

 

[voodooless]

Would a Pi based system alone allow use of REW generated FIR and support wireless control via iOS?

Yes, a Pi with Volumio and CamillaDSP should be able to do this.

 

[MKR]

Yes, a Pi with Volumio and CamillaDSP should be able to do this.

Thanks … feeling like a bigger project than I want to deal with. I still can’t believe there is not a one box (no PC needed!) streaming solution that allows for the use of user generated FIR and that can be controlled via iOS. Seems a pink unicorn.

 

[boxerfan88]

Would a Pi based system alone allow use of REW generated FIR and support wireless control via iOS? Or I still need a PC?

I use a Pi2 running Moode with CamillaDSP.
The CamillaDSP can take in the impulse WAV file generated by REW.
I control the Pi/Moode via the browser.
DAC connected to Pi. No PC needed.

 

[MKR]

I use a Pi2 running Moode with CamillaDSP.
The CamillaDSP can take in the impulse WAV file generated by REW.
I control the Pi/Moode via the browser.
DAC connected to Pi. No PC needed.

Thanks … when you say “browser”, what do you mean exactly? And what do you use for music file source? Qobuz, Tidal, etc?

 

[boxerfan88]

Thanks … when you say “browser”, what do you mean exactly? And what do you use for music file source? Qobuz, Tidal, etc?

I use my iPhone browser "Safari" to control the Pi/Moode. Below is a snapshot.

My music source is NAS (windows share). The Pi/Moode connects to the file share and plays off the local network.

 

[JustJones]

The issue is you need a PC to run Roon. Why?

Roon core is a processor intense program. There isn't a server version that runs on ARMs. The various raspberry pi solutions using Camilla DSP looks like your best bet.

The Eversolo DMP-A8 has PEQ and FIR. I'm not sure if they can be loaded from REW they should be able to tell you.