WiiM Mini Streamer

[Smartplug]

Hopefully this week will get some updates, there was none last week.

 

[Bamyasi]

I do have DNS server set to 8.8.8.8 in my WiiM Home app (although this did not change anything in its behavior). My usual test case is DSOTM by Pink Floyd. The version available on Amazon Music is a 24/96 HiRes remaster. While playing this album from the beginning:

a) first track (Speak to Me) plays normally;
b) as soon as the first track ends the playback will pause; this pause may last from less than one second to several seconds (2-3);
c) after that, a short fragment of noise is played back (less than one second in duration) which sounds like some random excerpt picked from another track (or maybe the previous one?) mixed with some digital noise (buffer underrun?);
d) second track (Breathe / In the Air) then starts playing; sometimes (not always) up to first 30 seconds of it are skipped;
e) after the second track ends playback stops; no amount of clicking on the play button in GUI of either of the apps (AMHD or WiiM Home) would make it proceed to the next track;

My phone is Samsung Galaxy S10e (updated to Android 12 by Samsung).

 

[Bamyasi]

Oh and most of the issues I described existed from the beginning (over three public firmware versions now) and they have been reported and confirmed by WiiM developers ("we are working on a fix"). New with the firmware version 831 are random skips at the start of second track and the stalled playback afterwards. That's what renders casting from the AM phone app unusable to me.

 

[Music1969]

I do have DNS server set to 8.8.8.8 in my WiiM Home app (although this did not change anything in its behavior). My usual test case is DSOTM by Pink Floyd. The version available on Amazon Music is a 24/96 HiRes remaster. While playing this album from the beginning:

a) first track (Speak to Me) plays normally;
b) as soon as the first track ends the playback will pause; this pause may last from less than one second to several seconds (2-3);
c) after that, a short fragment of noise is played back (less than one second in duration) which sounds like some random excerpt picked from another track (or maybe the previous one?) mixed with some digital noise (buffer underrun?);
d) second track (Breathe / In the Air) then starts playing; sometimes (not always) up to first 30 seconds of it are skipped;
e) after the second track ends playback stops; no amount of clicking on the play button in GUI of either of the apps (AMHD or WiiM Home) would make it proceed to the next track;

My phone is Samsung Galaxy S10e (updated to Android 12 by Samsung).

I actually reported that playing first track pauses for me very early in this thread - but only using Amazon in WiiM Home app. I tried WiiM Home app a couple times when UHD came to it. I just wanted to see if it suffered from gaps (which it still does).



But never had this issue with casting from Amazon Music app. Only issue i have with Amazon Music app casting is gaps and small pop with changing sample rates but neither of these is enough to make me stop using it and WiiM devs have reproduced both issues.

 

[Rottmannash]

Haven't read through the entire thread and it may have already been mentiond but Stereophile (Jim Austin, I believe) reviewed this little device in the current issue and it got a passing grade.

 

[Ralph_Cramden]

Haven't read through the entire thread and it may have already been mentiond but Stereophile (Jim Austin, I believe) reviewed this little device in the current issue and it got a passing grade.

@John Atkinson reviewed it, actually, and quite thoroughly.

 

[Brantome]

I do have DNS server set to 8.8.8.8 in my WiiM Home app (although this did not change anything in its behavior). My usual test case is DSOTM by Pink Floyd. The version available on Amazon Music is a 24/96 HiRes remaster. While playing this album from the beginning:

So “completely broken” for you because it has issues with gapless playback? Does it play other albums ok?

 

[derek13]

Oh and most of the issues I described existed from the beginning (over three public firmware versions now) and they have been reported and confirmed by WiiM developers ("we are working on a fix"). New with the firmware version 831 are random skips at the start of second track and the stalled playback afterwards. That's what renders casting from the AM phone app unusable to me.

As someone else mentioned, have you done a factory reset and set up from scratch. That fixed issues I was having with AM.

 

[AyGee]

Since I have both android and ios devices in my household, I noticed the following:
Even when casting directly from the Amazon Music app to the wiim mini, the connection from ios devices is more stable in my experience.
Amazon casing via android device led every now and then to the fact that the connection was broken and I could not reconnect from the android device (via casting).
But, in these cases, I was able to reconnect using the Amazon app from an iOS device.

I just wanted to ask if anyone else has noticed anything like this?

 

[telemike]

Since I have both android and ios devices in my household, I noticed the following:
Even when casting directly from the Amazon Music app to the wiim mini, the connection from ios devices is more stable in my experience.
Amazon casing via android device led every now and then to the fact that the connection was broken and I could not reconnect from the android device (via casting).
But, in these cases, I was able to reconnect using the Amazon app from an iOS device.

I just wanted to ask if anyone else has noticed anything like this?

Yes, this is with Beta

It looks like the connection between WiiM mini and Amazon Music Casting Server is disconnected at one moment, our engineers will look at it carefully.


Best,

WiiM Support

On Sat, Jul 2 at 4:33 AM , xxxx wrote:

Everything seems to be working great. Sometimes the Amazon app seems to disconnect from what’s playing. The WiiM app is still playing music and controls after the Amazon app stops showing what’s playing

1738:2244771

 

[AKR]

While waiting for the WiiM update that will allow Bluetooth transmission from Wifi input ( I need this for an outdoor patio set of speakers that are BT only ( TWS works quite well) - my question is are there any other streamers that have BT transmission capability ( from Wifi input).

 

[Ralph_Cramden]

Community interest is pretty amazing for this quirky, not-recommended, non-Roon supporting device.

 

[Brantome]

Just noticed that the WiiM homepage is advertising an “extra 20% discount” lightning deal on amazon.com during Prime Day tomorrow/ Wed. Shame they aren’t doing that in other regions too…

 

[Bamyasi]

So “completely broken” for you because it has issues with gapless playback? Does it play other albums ok?

What do you mean "other albums"? All albums should be played back exactly as they were mastered, without added random length pauses between tracks, pops, chirps, noise, without random tracks skipping or some tracks refusing to play. Rather obvious requirement for a decent streaming service implementation, don't you think so?

EDITED: And yes, other albums besides DSOTM have this kind of problems too. Not always exactly the same (e.g., playback stalling on different tracks) obviously but the gap between tracks/noise or pop sound before upcoming track, this issue is always present. You might not notice it when you listen to a more "traditionally" mastered albums, where tracks are gradually faded out into silence at the end while upcoming tracks all have small period of silence before actual recording starts. This masks out the problems with WiiM playback because there is a period of silence between tracks anyway. But many more albums are not mixed/mastered this way, at least not anymore.

 

[John Atkinson]

Rottmannash said:
Haven't read through the entire thread and it may have already been mentiond but Stereophile (Jim Austin, I believe) reviewed this little device in the current issue and it got a passing grade.

@John Atkinson reviewed it, actually, and quite thoroughly.

I recently updated the Wiim Mini's firmware, to the most-recent version, 4.6.42.1831, dated 20220701. Now, when I played hi-rez files from my iPhone or streamed 24/96 and 24/192 audio from Qobuz, the problems with arbitrary word-length truncation that I found in my review no longer happened. I have added a postscript mentioning this to the on-line reprint of the review, which will be posted to the Stereophile website the week starting July 18.

John Atkinson
Technical Editor Stereophile

 

[Smartplug]

There’s a new firmware updates on Wiim website, did anyone got their updates?

 

[Brantome]

There’s a new firmware updates on Wiim website, did anyone got their updates?

No, I’m still on the latest beta and we know from experience that it can take a few days for them to rollout new firmware across all users

Edit: Release notes
4.6.422564
(Latest)
Release date:
7 / 8 / 2022
This update involves the following:

• Fixed - Fix the audio clipping issue for certain preset EQ modes
• Fixed - Inability to play TIDAL Master with the WiiM Home app
• Fixed - Incorrect metadata display for Amazon Music on WiiM App
• Fixed - The default audio latency setting for the AirPlay 2 synchronization
• Fixed - Incorrect audio quality display on the WiiM App for Deezer

 

[Scot_Douglas]

It's funny; I just received my Schiit order of a Modius DAC yesterday and hooked it up optically to my WiiM.

Between every AMHD song, you can hear a relay clicking off, then back on as the next song begins. Slightly annoying, but it sounds like the WiiM cuts the optical signal between songs.

DAC sounds wonderful compared to the Sanskrit 10th anniversary Mk2 it replaces. Wider soundstage and more detailed, which surprises me.

 

[Brantome]

Between every AMHD song, you can hear a relay clicking off, then back on as the next song begins. Slightly annoying, but it sounds like the WiiM cuts the optical signal between songs.

I think this has already been reported to WiiM and they acknowledged it as a bug, but it’d do no harm if you raised a ticket too to let them know it’s (still) there

 

[Ralph_Cramden]

There’s a new firmware updates on Wiim website, did anyone got their updates?