WiiM Mini Streamer

[Music1969]

Might not be popular for audiophiles obsessed with lossless audio.

But Chromecast is very useful for non-Airplay users (there's hundreds of millions of people) that want to cast from phone to streamer.

And you should be able to use Qobuz iOS app and Chromecast to WiiM Pro - that will be lossless. No need to use WiiM Home app or other 3rd party app.
We'll see about gapless.

For me, I love to use Soundcloud and Mixcloud and podcasts, when not using lossless streaming , for music discovery.

In my case I can use Airplay to WiiM Mini because I use iOS.

But for someone using Android, now Chromecast on WiiM Pro opens up so many more options to cast, all in one device.

Don't need to use a 3rd party app.

So it is a big deal for lots of people.

Look at Bluesound forums for years of requests for Chromecast.

 

[Music1969]

Exactly. There is no distortion in the digital domain, such thing simply does not exists. So what @onlyoneme and @morillon are talking about could be either problems with their equipment (DAC, processor, measurements rig, etc) or a malfunctioning WiiM Mini TOSLINK transmitter chip (possibly due to bugs in the firmware). The latter explanation I have really hard time imagining since distortion they are observing is obviously input signal level-dependent, which rules out things like clock inconsistency. Then we are left with power supply but that's also quite unlikely to produce such effect.

Just connected my Cosmos ADC to my RME ADI-2 XLR output.

Audirvana playing REW created test files, to USB input of ADI-2 and then also to WiiM Mini (UPnP).

Both USB and optical (WiiM Mini) look the same looking at the ADI-2 analogue output... for 24/44.1 and 24/96 and everything.

Turning up the volume on my ADI-2 more causes distortion to USB input also.... (this is clipping, inter-sample overs). So no-one ask me to increase volume of the ADI-2 because it doesn't make any sense to do so.

WiiM Mini set to fixed output of course.

If someone is seeing distortion on analogue output of DAC, you have a faulty unit I guess.

I'm not bothering with this anymore. RME bit perfect test does it's job - as does DSD over PCM test.

 

[morillon]

the level if your 1khz?
we need a 1khz 0dbfs ( 1v)

 

[Music1969]

the level if your 1khz?

0dBFS test file - for both UBS and optical input of RME DAC.

RME ADI-2 XLR level is 4Vrms

This is more information than you have provided about your testing ;-)

I'm not testing anymore - there is no issue with my unit.

Bit perfect tests all pass for my unit. Analogue out is clean.

Maybe yours is faulty. See what WiiM tell you.

 

[morillon]

thank you
so we are already two...
I've just been waiting for this kind of feedback for several days....
for who is equipped, only takes a few minutes....basic mesurements.... less time than writing many posts
(this generator "wav" of rew is nice, isn't it?
;-) )

others who can investigate the case...
rew is free and also does generator wav and fft

;-)
I already said
if not set by firmware
it will go in the trash
already could not use deezer
stay the radios
now no radio
back to the chromecast which does it just as well via hificast bubble etc.
I kindly invite everyone to try, because the onlyoneme files are simple, to find out if the same scenario, in the absence of measures..
childish
;-)

 

[onlyoneme]

0dBFS test file - for both UBS and optical input of RME DAC.

RME ADI-2 XLR level is 4Vrms

This is more information than you have provided about your testing ;-)

I'm not testing anymore - there is no issue with my unit.

Bit perfect tests all pass for my unit. Analogue out is clean.

Maybe yours is faulty. See what WiiM tell you.

Your -5,9 dBFS was in fact 0 dBFS as sent to WiiM? If so your device doesn't seem to be affected the way our devices are.

 

[Music1969]

Your -5,9 dBFS was in fact 0 dBFS as sent to WiiM? If so your device doesn't seem to be affected the way our devices are.

Yes of course. It is showing as -5.9 there because I haven't gain matched DAC output with ADC input. To change gain, need to get a small tool to change 'dip switches' on the Cosmos ADC.

See my comment about USB input above.

I can't be bothered. Only had time for quick test.

And I've seen enough (RME test, DSD over PCM, MQA test - all good bit perfect tests) to not care about this.

Analogue output is clean.

For my unit.

Maybe WiiM have a comment about some of your units.

 

[mediocrebutarrogant]

I've made similar tests before and I know they pass ADI-2 tests. However I don't know what exactly ADI-2 does internally to verify such files. That's why I'm looking for the proof with real song files.

i have tested with real flacs, and its working bitperfect

 

[morillon]

It was working fine for me before...
it is now that it is no longer.....
;-)
the files produced by onlyoneme are very good and allow everyone to take stock of the problems that he and I encounter
so easy to test....

WiiM Mini Streamer

If you want, could you redo this test, with wiim adjustable volume on and few tick below maximum? Sure. For volume level 0.94 I got -4.03 dBFS instead of -2.52 dBFS at full volume. Test file was the same:

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[onlyoneme]

Yes of course. It is showing as -5.9 there because I haven't gain matched DAC output with ADC input. To change gain, need to get a small tool to change 'dip switches' on the Cosmos ADC.

See my comment about USB input above.

I can't be bothered. Only had time for quick test.

And I've seen enough (RME test, DSD over PCM, MQA test - all good bit perfect tests) to not care about this.

Analogue output is clean.

For my unit.

Maybe WiiM have a comment about some of your units.

It looks like additional (post)processing being performed on WiiM. I would suspect something related to that fix:
"Fixed - EQ clipping when using the fixed volume option or playing music in high volume"
as it happens only for high level signals.

Still no clue why only some units are affected. Can be hardware differences (revisions?), can be sort of parameters being processed but not visible in the UI.

 

[Jpdelaney.tml]

Is there any relationship to the output voltage selection? Are all units with distortion set to 2V on analog out?

 

[onlyoneme]

Is there any relationship to the output voltage selection? Are all units with distortion set to 2V on analog out?

No relation. Can be any voltage.

 

[W@P]

So i have an issue. And i am pulling my hair out. Whenever there comes a song on that has MQA my Ifi Zen One Signature DAC jumps between formats and the music stutters. I have tried different optical cables. The one cable would give me a white noise when i select 192kHz and 24bit playback on the test sound. Changed the cable to the Wiim-supplied one and that one plays the 192/24bit test song fine.

Right so i have set my playback to all possible options and it still does the same.

WTF is up? What else can i try?

Update: Wiim downgraded my firmware and all is good.

 

[morillon]

No relation. Can be any voltage.

news of your request to wiim to return to an old firmware.. which would allow progress understand of this story of distortions?
(I will go back quite far in time as a precaution..)
(no new of this announced for 31/10)

 

[onlyoneme]

news of your request to wiim to return to an old firmware.. which would allow progress understand of this story of distortions?
(I will go back quite far in time as a precaution..)
(no new of this announced for 31/10)

Nope, nothing. I've raised another ticket.

 

[Merifon]

That's disappointing...
Not having available my sound card, a trivial Yamaha AG06, I decided to try the 70-800 -1.8dB audio test in the crudest way possible, that is with the mobile phone microphone placed in front of the speaker, to see the results with the spectroid app. Certainly nothing reliable or decisive but still disturbing. The file was in loop with the wiim app. I checked the results first with the volume blocked at maximum and then with the enabled control turned down by a click. Net of the alterations introduced by the reproduction system, i.e. wiim toslink-DO100-Nad Amp-speaker-microphone, here are the results, at first max volume, then a little lowered...
A screenshot of how wiim volume was set follows.
Adjustable volume to max, did the same as fixed level.
I do not know what thinking about, other than hoping Tidal keeps peaks a couple of dB safely and waiting for upcoming release...

 

[onlyoneme]

That's disappointing...
Not having available my sound card, a trivial Yamaha AG06, I decided to try the 70-800 -1.8dB audio test in the crudest way possible, that is with the mobile phone microphone placed in front of the speaker, to see the results with the spectroid app. Certainly nothing reliable or decisive but still disturbing. The file was in loop with the wiim app. I checked the results first with the volume blocked at maximum and then with the enabled control turned down by a click. Net of the alterations introduced by the reproduction system, i.e. wiim toslink-DO100-Nad Amp-speaker-microphone, here are the results, at first max volume, then a little lowered...
A screenshot of how wiim volume was set follows.
Adjustable volume to max, did the same as fixed level.
I do not know what thinking about, other than hoping Tidal keeps peaks a couple of dB safely and waiting for upcoming release...

Did you hear the difference other than sound level change between -1.8 and -3.0 when played on WiiM?

Your first screenshot seems to indicate that your WiiM can be affected as there is a peak of 3rd harmonics possible at 210 Hz.

 

[morillon]

I had confided in a light way to onlynone that could also be observed easily with a simple software like spectroid in fft at the level of the speakers of course..
me quickly at 5cm from the tweeter with 1k...is observable
but its dual has listening or fft .. is very effective ...

 

[Merifon]

Did you hear the difference other than sound level change between -1.8 and -3.0 when played on WiiM?

I played only the - 1.8dB file and no particularly listening difference was among the two wiim volume settings , this could be explained by the low reletive level of harmonics related to 800 Hz and the presence anyway of some distortion produced by the speaker cone for the 70 Hz.

 

[onlyoneme]

I played only the - 1.8dB file and no particularly listening difference was among the two wiim volume settings , this could be explained by the low reletive level of harmonics related to 800 Hz and the presence anyway of some distortion produced by the speaker cone for the 70 Hz.

You can hear the difference when listening to my example "bad" and "good" files on any equipment other than WiiM. That will show you what to expect when listening to test files on WiiM. Those distortions were obvious for me especially on headphones.