New ecosystem dropping out and stuttering

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SkiPow

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Jan 21, 2024
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In the last 2 weeks, I purchased 3 minis and 1 Pro Plus to create whole-house audio and stream Amazon HD.

I started with 2 Minis with 3.5mmm out and things seemed fine. I added a Pro Plus to my nice 2ch via RCA. This is when the problems started.

The Pro Plus dropped out a LOT. When it wasn’t dropping out, it would stutter briefly or chucka about once per minute. I’ve update firmware on the units, my router, and rebooted all.

The Pro Plus is the closest to the router. My WiFi system has been robust otherwise including some heavy WFH use cases.

Then I added a Mini where the WiFi signal is slightly weaker. I hooked this unit up at < bit perfect by spdif. Then things became unusable. I got one error that “failed: speaker not found” that disappeared. (This unit is proximate to another router on my system, I have not experimented with synching over two network names, only on the same network name)

I have filed two tickets.

The original minis are now stuttering of dropping out about 1x per minute. When they do run, they stutter.

Anyone have a sense what happened here?

This was a little more trouble than I bargained for. Currently sitting next to my system that isn’t playing.
 
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Have you turned off HD/UHD playback for the Minis in particular under the settings cog on the Alexa page in the WiiM Home app as lossless Amazon Music isn’t supported for Alexa MRM on Minis?
 
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SkiPow said:
View attachment 4698
I’ll give this a try.

Does this mean that my Pro Plus can’t play lossless if I’m syncing? That would be a BUMMER!
Click to expand...
If it’s in a group with Minis, then it won’t be playing lossless as Amazon Music/ Alexa multi room music groups play at the lowest common denominator which would be the lossy Minis.

How are you grouping the WiiMs together - in the WiiM app?
 
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The HD toggle doesn’t seem to have improved the problem 😢 dropouts back already

But maybe I should ask - in the screenshot above, is the option on or off? Its not obvious to me
 
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Wiimer said:
@Brantome , @SkiPow,

My mini and Pro can play HD with MRM. 🙂

But I don't know the cause of your problem.
If possible, it's worth trying out the Pro plus's Ethernet connection.
View attachment 4702
Click to expand...


Yeah, I’ve just checked and I’m getting CD quality too grouping in the WiiM app - that’s something at least.

I’ve grouped my Mini, Pro and Pro Plus in the WiiM Home app and am playing a playlist at CD quality with no issues so far. They’re all in the same rack as my amp and router, with the Pro on Ethernet and the other two on Wifi.
 
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SkiPow said:
The HD toggle doesn’t seem to have improved the problem 😢 dropouts back already

But maybe I should ask - in the screenshot above, is the option on or off? Its not obvious to me
Click to expand...
It’s off in that screenshot. But that perhaps just impacts Alexa MRM, and not particularly Linkplay/WiiM groups which seem to be delivering lossless CD quality for me.
 
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Here are my wifi network settings for the Mini and Pro Plus - as you see, I’ve not really standardised them as fortunately I haven’t hit any network/device/playback issues but perhaps they might be useful for comparison

IMG_8484.jpeg IMG_8485.jpeg
 
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I tried putting the unit with farthest away onto my other router WiFi. There were no issues here. Just testing.

No improvement. Dropouts 1x per minute.

BTW, I’m starting to get a bit lost in the terminology in these kind responses!


What do the TX rate and SNR do? Those are different across units.
 
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SkiPow said:
BTW, I’m starting to get a bit lost in the terminology in these kind responses!
Click to expand...
Sorry, in Amazon Music speak HD is any lossless 16bit track (typically CD quality), while UHD is lossless 24bit hi res quality all the way up to 24/192. MRM stands for Multi Room Music and is an Alexa construct that Amazon Music uses for multi room typically grouping echo or Alexa enabled devices which includes WiiM.

Linkplay grouping (or multi room) currently only supports up to lossless 16/48, so that’s why CD quality (aka HD) is about the best you’ll get using Amazon Music in a Linkplay/WiiM group.

However, sounds like you have some network issues I suspect. Is your router a reasonable spec? I ask because multi room music often puts higher demands on a router as one device in the group receives the stream and that has to be passed again via the router to be distributed to the other devices in the group.

Hopefully WiiM can get an idea of what’s causing your issue from your device logs which will have been submitted with your tickets.
 
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Really seem to have hit a snag now.

No units will stay on for more than a few seconds.


My router is a Nighthawk 7800. A few years old but decent spec. I am getting 377 mbps download speed to my phone right now.
 
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You may also need to turn off the HD/UHD switch at one more point to see the lossless issue that @Brantome is concerned about.

1. Device settings > Amazon alexa settings > Amazon Music HD/UHD
(If you turn this off, playback on Alexa cast will be SD (lossy).)

2. Browse > Amazon Music icon > Settings > Amazon Music HD/UHD
(If you turn this off, all Amazon Music playback will be SD.)
 
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