Oops, you're right. It was Tidal Connect in the Wiim Home app that was acting clunky. I downloaded the official Tidal app and searching was much better.
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WiiM Mini Review (Streamer)
- Thread starter amirm
- Start date
When ?
Finally supports PEQ
Hi fellow WiiM Mini users,
I’m looking for advice. For some reason my WiiM Mini streamer plays Qobuz hi-res content as CD quality only. The software is up to date and SPDIF output resolution is set to 24/192 (Max).
Any ideas what could be the problem?
I’m looking for advice. For some reason my WiiM Mini streamer plays Qobuz hi-res content as CD quality only. The software is up to date and SPDIF output resolution is set to 24/192 (Max).
Any ideas what could be the problem?
In the Wiim home app, open the Qobuz page and choose the three bar hamburger menu, and under that choose streaming quality and set the highest resolution there as well.
Many thanks @Brantome! Hi-res is there now.
howdy, my wiim mini used to work great but now it plays internet radio, or qobuz, or my music files for about a minute than it stops working. I have the latest updates and have my phone and wiim mini on the same wifi freq 2.4 GHz. It also will not work on 5 GHz. I asked for help from them but they so far cannot fix it. Gee I was going to buy the pro version but, any ideas, kind regards, thanks
I made the mistake of updating one of my Wiim pucks to the latest firmware - it has bugs. Sometimes songs will stop playing after 20 sec. other times part of the track skips. It's a bit of a mess when I use it with Audirvana and my local music. I have another Wiim puck with old firmware and it works fine with the same setup and tracks. Every Wiim firmware release is a roll of the dice.
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Is there a possibility your WiFi router (or speed) acts up?
Mine has no issue with 5GHZ however I have had to split my routers 2.4ghz and 5GHZ bands otherwise I was having big issues with the Home app connecting to the wiim. 2.4Ghz should be ok generally but might struggle with some high bit rate hires content. Does your WiiM actually show as connected to your router (via your routers homepage). How far from the router is it?. Maybe you are having interference from external sources…you could try switching the channel that 2.4Ghz is working on (via your routers config pages), I sometimes have to do this as I have occasional similar issues with a Firestick.
I’m being lazy, but is the digital output from WIIM Pro variable (ie controllable by Roon)?
My dream streamer has Roon, Airplay, and Chromecast, and has variable digital output (or a DAC with dynamic loudness a la RME, but that’s still non-existent)
My dream streamer has Roon, Airplay, and Chromecast, and has variable digital output (or a DAC with dynamic loudness a la RME, but that’s still non-existent)
The WiiM volume control is digital so you will lose quality by using it, not advisable if you are driving a half decent hifi, maybe acceptable if it’s say just driving a smart speaker or similar.
ClassicGuy
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The WiiM app has an option to set the digital output either fixed or variable. I set mine to variable and control the volume via my tablet.
Technically - but any quality loss will be inaudible.
Wouldn't you implement the volume using more than 16bits per word, thus solving the problem of degraded sound quality at lower volume?
I would assume they add pad up with zeros to 24 or 32 bit internally, then attenuate.
Might be inaudible for the first few db, but far from inaudible once you are 30 or 40 db attenuated.
I guess in theory that might be doable, but it Doesn’t seem to be done like that, and certainly not at this level of product. I don’t think that would work anyway unless your product had a noise floor supporting that amount of bit depth, which lets face it nothing does. In reality if a higher quality volume control is implemented it tends to be done in the analogue domain.
Actually not - as you turn down the volume you effectivly reduce the signal against the quantisation noise floor, without turning down the noise floor.
However, if you cannot hear the noise at the amplifier gain/voluime setting you use accross the digital volume range, then you can't hear it.
It doesn't matter how much you turn down the volume digitally - if the amp gain stays the same you still cannot hear the noise. Youve reduced SNR, but by reducing the signal (which is what you want to do) not by increasing the noise.
As long as you are unable to hear the noise, you have lost nothing.
Oh, and with the volume control done in 24bit or better processing (it always is), you can reduce the volume 48dB and you still have a 16 bit resolution and still have a quantisation nose floor 94+ db down from your already very quiet signal.
That’s not really the comparison you want though is it. To get the same volume at the listening position you might have 100% from the digital stage and then gain X from your amp system. Or you might get -47db from the digital section and Gain X+47db from the amp…ie noise levels 47db greater.
Bamyasi
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That's exactly what @antcollinet was saying: as long as you have gain set in your amp/preamp to a level at which its noise is inaudible, it does not matter what amount of digital attenuation you apply to the input signal. The noise in the output will still be inaudible. Just as will be part of the lower dynamics content in the signal, but that would happen with any kind of volume attenuation applied. Only if you attenuate signal digitally and increase amp gain at the same time to compensate then you will be reducing affective dynamic range of the system. But why one would do this?
RIght - but let's look at a real world use case.
You set your amp volume/gain so that with the WIIM at full output you get the maximum volume you will ever want to listen to at your listening position. Lets say that is around 90dbA (More than that and you are risking your hearing).
Now listen to the quiet section between songs. Assuming a decent DAC, the noise floor is going to be down at least 100dB (-120dB for a good DAC). Your DAC noise floor is therefore at -10dbA (10 dB below human hearing capability and 40dB below an average listening room noise floor). You really can't hear this.
In this scenario you can turn your volume down digitally as much as you like - -40dB - -80dB - doesn't matter, you still can't hear the noise.
Based on a typical room noise floor of 30dbA you could have a DAC40dB worse SNR than the one I've proposed above - or an Amp with 40dB more gain than you want so needing to start with the DAC at -40dB - and you still don't have a significant problem.
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