Asking Alexa to play on WiiM only plays at 44kHz

[HatOfTheCat]

Set up my WiiM mini yesterday and all is ok but I noticed when I ask Alexa to play a track from Amazon Music that is actually 96 kHz (their UHD) it only plays at CD quality 44 kHz on the WiiM. If I play the same Amazon Music track from within WiiM app it plays on the WiiM at 96 kHz. I have output on the WiiM set via SPDIF at 24/192 and tested fine with my amp handling it. Is there a settings option I need to set to make it use the higher resolution ? ...or this just an anomaly with using Alexa rather than the WiiM app to initiate streaming a track on the WiiM ?

 

[Brantome]

Have you toggled on HD/UHD in the Alexa settings in the WiiM app (under the cog on the Alexa page)?

 

[Wiimer]

Set up my WiiM mini yesterday and all is ok but I noticed when I ask Alexa to play a track from Amazon Music that is actually 96 kHz (their UHD) it only plays at CD quality 44 kHz on the WiiM. If I play the same Amazon Music track from within WiiM app it plays on the WiiM at 96 kHz. I have output on the WiiM set via SPDIF at 24/192 and tested fine with my amp handling it. Is this just an anomaly with using Alexa rather than the WiiM app to initiate streaming a track on the WiiM ? ...or is there a fix on the way (?)

Make sure that
The gear in the Devices tab > Amazon alexa settings > Amazon music hd/uhd is turned on.

 

[HatOfTheCat]

Thanks Wiimer and Brantome, I was literally just looking at that very setting when your replies popped up. Wondering what it did and why it was set to OFF Set it to ON now and playback of track initiated from Alexa now playing at the 96kHz

​

 

[Brantome]

That setting should be set to off if you are playing in an Alexa multi room group - the mini doesn’t have the hardware to support HD/UHD multi room playback, only lossy SD. If you leave it on during multi room, you’ll get no output.

 

[HatOfTheCat]

That setting should be set to off if you are playing in an Alexa multi room group - the mini doesn’t have the hardware to support HD/UHD multi room playback, only lossy SD. If you leave it on during multi room, you’ll get no output.

I'm just using Alexa echo speaker in same room as voice control for the WiiM, can't see me ever wanting a multiroom setup with SAME music playing in every room etc. ... makes no sense to me that the "Amazon Music HD/UHD" option seems to have been set to OFF by default as wanting "UHD" quality playback to feed through my HiFi amp & floor standers is more likely than someone going out and buying multiple WiiM for different rooms day one. Reason for buying the WiiM was ability to get better quality sound in my living room than the pair of Amazon Echo with Echo Sub can deliver, other Echos around my apartment are mainly for controlling lights etc. and "casual" listening in kitchen, bedrooms etc. Luckily via this forum and your and other replier's help this oddity was easily sorted though

 

[Brantome]

I should also have said that the almost unique ability for a WiiM device to join an Alexa multi room music (MRM) group with echos (that some users do use), their ability to be cast to from the Amazon Music app and their support for Alexa are all down to WiiM’s Amazon Music HD/UHD support being implemented using the Amazon MRM development stack - they all are part of the same parcel.

 

[chopingman]

Set up my WiiM mini yesterday and all is ok but I noticed when I ask Alexa to play a track from Amazon Music that is actually 96 kHz (their UHD) it only plays at CD quality 44 kHz on the WiiM. If I play the same Amazon Music track from within WiiM app it plays on the WiiM at 96 kHz. I have output on the WiiM set via SPDIF at 24/192 and tested fine with my amp handling it. Is there a settings option I need to set to make it use the higher resolution ? ...or this just an anomaly with using Alexa rather than the WiiM app to initiate streaming a track on the WiiM ?

Yes. It's a nightmare. I'm having similar problems. Seems Airplay limits streams to 16bit/44khz. I'm finding that play had to be initiated from within the Wiim app to achieve lossless playback of higher bitrate files. You problem I believe is initiating playback from outside the Wiim app.
I have no interest in streaming anything off the internet. In my case I have an extremely large library on a server running iTunes AND Plex. It's been easy for years to just use the Apple "Remote" app on the phone to search the large library and airplay to an AirPort Express. I thought the Wiim Pro was going to solve all my problems re high bit rates. So close but so far away.
If I use Apple Remote or the Plex app to feed the Wiim via Airplay, everything is capped at 16bit. If I use the Wiim app playing from the Plex DLNA Home Share stream I can confirm 24bit/196khz. What is driving me absolutely mad is the fact that the Wiim app won't search the DLNA Home Share stream! When I click into the search function while in a shared library Wiim starts giving me results from Amazon Music! Nothing from the Plex Share!

 

[Brantome]

As you say, Airplay is called at 16/44.1 and there’s nothing WiiM can do about that.

Re the search - where are you running that from, the search icon on the Wiim Home app bottom bar, or from Home Music Share/ Plex-server-name and the search icon in the top corner of the screen? I find the latter works best for my UPNP servers, as I think there might be a bug in the former.

If you’re having problems, you should try submitting a ticket thru the feedback section of the WiiM Hime app when you hit the issue.

 

[chopingman]

As you say, Airplay is called at 16/44.1 and there’s nothing WiiM can do about that.

Re the search - where are you running that from, the search icon on the Wiim Home app bottom bar, or from Home Music Share/ Plex-server-name and the search icon in the top corner of the screen? I find the latter works best for my UPNP servers, as I think there might be a bug in the former.

If you’re having problems, you should try submitting a ticket thru the feedback section of the WiiM Hime app when you hit the issue.

Thanks for the quick response.
I'm searching from Home Music Share/ Plex-server-name and the search icon in the top corner of the screen.
I'm in the process of setting up a small Jellyfin library to see if that will work. It could be a problem with Plex and not Wiim. That's not great as I have a lifetime license. The idea Wiim works as well as it does is pretty impressive. Almost no one has a library the size of mine.
The bottom line is as I'm learning, if you're playing or casting to the Wiim from anything you're locked at 16bits. If I can get to where I want to go inside the Wiim app and initiate playback from there, it's bit perfect. Trouble is I'm not interested in seeing anything that's not in my library.
I hope I'm wrong, I'm not holding much hope this will be addressed. Todays world is all about streaming. You can't even ask Siri to play from your library. It will only work if you're subscribing to Apple Music and are streaming from there.

 

[Brantome]

Thanks for the quick response.
I'm searching from Home Music Share/ Plex-server-name and the search icon in the top corner of the screen.
I'm in the process of setting up a small Jellyfin library to see if that will work. It could be a problem with Plex and not Wiim. That's not great as I have a lifetime license. The idea Wiim works as well as it does is pretty impressive. Almost no one has a library the size of mine.
The bottom line is as I'm learning, if you're playing or casting to the Wiim from anything you're locked at 16bits. If I can get to where I want to go inside the Wiim app and initiate playback from there, it's bit perfect. Trouble is I'm not interested in seeing anything that's not in my library.
I hope I'm wrong, I'm not holding much hope this will be addressed. Todays world is all about streaming. You can't even ask Siri to play from your library. It will only work if you're subscribing to Apple Music and are streaming from there.

I’d try something like Minimserver or AssetUPNP instead, or take a step sidewards and use LMS and its UPNPBridge plugin and Material Skin (until WiiM release their Squeezelite client). You may have much better results with them.

 

[Mr Ee]

And / or maybe a different app?
Bubbleupnp or mconnect or hifi cast or ...