WiiM and Echo Show

[ryanp1983]

Hi guys, first time poster here so apologies if in the wrong place but I’m deciding on getting a WiiM but before I do, was wondering about functionality with an echo show.
If I “ask” Alexa to play something, will the cover art/track details still appear on the show even though the wiim is streaming to my dac/amp?

This would be an awesome if so and would look pretty nice in the process.

Many thanks!

Ryan

 

[Brantome]

Not unless you put them into an Alexa MRM (multi room group) but if you do that, you would need to sacrifice hi-res lossless playback on a WiiM Mini, and would be restricted to 24/48 on a Pro as that's the best an Echo will support (even an Echo Studio as I have just discovered)

 

[ryanp1983]

Ahh. Well, perhaps not a game changer. I’m only getting 16/44.1 now via an Apple AirPort Express and my topping e30….

Something to think on though, perhaps it’s better to get the pro over the mini for the extra…..

Thanks Brantome, really appreciate it!

 

[Brantome]

I wouldn't knock the Mini for Amazon Music HD, it was a world first in being able to provide bit perfect casting from the Amazon Music app all the way up to 24/192. You could always just use the WiiM app itself for artwork/details, perhaps from a tablet - even a lowly Fire HD 7 I'd guess

 

[ryanp1983]

That’s not a bad shout, could just keep one plugged in. The mini is down to £76 on Amazon at the moment too….

 

[Jdamberger1]

Hi guys, first time poster here so apologies if in the wrong place but I’m deciding on getting a WiiM but before I do, was wondering about functionality with an echo show.
If I “ask” Alexa to play something, will the cover art/track details still appear on the show even though the wiim is streaming to my dac/amp?

This would be an awesome if so and would look pretty nice in the process.

Many thanks!

Ryan

Depends on what streaming application you use. Amazon Music will show artwork, song title, artist a lyrics. When I stream Sirius XM , all I see on my echo show is channel graphic, no album artwork, title or artist. As stated by another in this thread, you first need to setup a group that includes your specific echo show and WiiM. One of my groups is called office. So I say " Alexa, play Classic Vinyl Sirus Xm on Office" and it starts immediately.

Hi guys, first time poster here so apologies if in the wrong place but I’m deciding on getting a WiiM but before I do, was wondering about functionality with an echo show.
If I “ask” Alexa to play something, will the cover art/track details still appear on the show even though the wiim is streaming to my dac/amp?

This would be an awesome if so and would look pretty nice in the process.

Many thanks!

Ryan

 

[lednek]

Hi guys, first time poster here so apologies if in the wrong place but I’m deciding on getting a WiiM but before I do, was wondering about functionality with an echo show.
If I “ask” Alexa to play something, will the cover art/track details still appear on the show even though the wiim is streaming to my dac/amp?

This would be an awesome if so and would look pretty nice in the process.

Many thanks!

Ryan

If you set up a room group with both the wiim and echo device as active speakers the echo will display album art, etc and you'llbe able to control the wiim with voice commands.. You can turn the volume down all the way on the echo, but the trade off(for now) is you loose bit perfect streaming. I believe this issue was listed on the road map as something they were working on. I tried it and couldn't hear a difference, bit my ocd got the best of me and I opted for the better quality stream even if it's only theoretical.

 

[Brantome]

If you set up a room group with both the wiim and echo device as active speakers the echo will display album art, etc and you'llbe able to control the wiim with voice commands.. You can turn the volume down all the way on the echo, but the trade off(for now) is you loose bit perfect streaming. I believe this issue was listed on the road map as something they were working on. I tried it and couldn't hear a difference, bit my ocd got the best of me and I opted for the better quality stream even if it's only theoretical.

The WiiM Mini doesn’t have sufficient memory to support lossless Alexa multi room, and even when I group my WiiM Pro with an echo, the best I can get is 24/48 as that’s the best echos can support.

 

[Greyspace]

Curious, Ryan, if you got a Show and how your experience has been. I had the exact same question. One of the only things I miss from my previous CCA/Nest Hub setup was asking google to play a playlist and seeing the artist and song info on the Hub while the audio played on the CCA’s around the house (and no tinny audio from the Hub!).
I know I‘m going to lose Amazon’s hi-res with my MRM group of minis and a pro, but even at HD I’m gaining quality over the Spotify I used previously. I’d just like to know if this is exactly possible before buying a Show 10.

 

[Brantome]

Curious, Ryan, if you got a Show and how your experience has been. I had the exact same question. One of the only things I miss from my previous CCA/Nest Hub setup was asking google to play a playlist and seeing the artist and song info on the Hub while the audio played on the CCA’s around the house (and no tinny audio from the Hub!).
I know I‘m going to lose Amazon’s hi-res with my MRM group of minis and a pro, but even at HD I’m gaining quality over the Spotify I used previously. I’d just like to know if this is exactly possible before buying a Show 10.

It does as I confirmed above

 

[Greyspace]

Can someone share how they got this working on the Show? I have been playing around with it for a while now, and I cannot get this to work. I made the WiiM group the default speaker, so I can use “Alexa, play….” from the Show to start playlists, stations, etc from AMU to my WiiM MRM group. That’s all fine.
If I go to the Active Media screen it just shows the screen explaining that active media will be shown here, even though this very Show initiated the AMU stream to the WiiM group. I cannot get the display to show what’s playing unless I add the Show to the speaker group. Exactly the behavior I don’t want.

 

[Greyspace]

Oh, and the most frustrating thing..if I ask Alexa what song is playing while it’s playing on the WiiMs, she knows. But she won’t show it on the display.

 

[Jdamberger1]

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Did you follow each step on the Wiim site under...

Group with Echo or other Alexa built-in devices​

 

[Brantome]

Can someone share how they got this working on the Show? I have been playing around with it for a while now, and I cannot get this to work. I made the WiiM group the default speaker, so I can use “Alexa, play….” from the Show to start playlists, stations, etc from AMU to my WiiM MRM group. That’s all fine.
If I go to the Active Media screen it just shows the screen explaining that active media will be shown here, even though this very Show initiated the AMU stream to the WiiM group. I cannot get the display to show what’s playing unless I add the Show to the speaker group. Exactly the behavior I don’t want.

As explained above, the only way to get the Show to display what’s playing is for the Show to be in a multi room music (MRM) group with your WiiM, with the volume turned down on the Show. That’s how Alexa MRM works even with just echo devices, there isn’t any way of the Show displaying that info unless it’s in the MRM group - when you use the preferred speaker route, the Show is handing the stream off to the preferred speaker and is no longer involved so can’t display what’s playing.

 

[Jdamberger1]

As explained above, the only way to get the Show to display what’s playing is for the Show to be in a multi room music (MRM) group with your WiiM, with the volume turned down on the Show. That’s how Alexa MRM works even with just echo devices, there isn’t any way of the Show displaying that info unless it’s in the MRM group - when you use the preferred speaker route, the Show is handing the stream off to the preferred speaker and is no longer involved so can’t display what’s playing.

I use an echo dot that is used in a group I call office with my WiiM pro. When I tell it to play for example " Classic Rewind, Sirius XM, on office". It plays through the WiiM pro and no music comes out of the dot. I do not have to turn the dot down. I have a show 5, but it is not grouped with any of my 3 WiiM devices. When I get the chance, I will create a group with a WiiM device to see if it behaves the same as the dot and displays what is playing.

 

[Brantome]

I use an echo dot that is used in a group I call office with my WiiM pro. When I tell it to play for example " Classic Rewind, Sirius XM, on office". It plays through the WiiM pro and no music comes out of the dot. I do not have to turn the dot down. I have a show 5, but it is not grouped with any of my 3 WiiM devices. When I get the chance, I will create a group with a WiiM device to see if it behaves the same as the dot and displays what is playing.

Sorry, you’re misreading my response, you only have to turn the Show volume down if it is in an MRM group along with the WiiM device - not if the echo (show or otherwise) is merely the device you make the request of which then passes the stream to a group preferred speaker.

It’s one thing or the other - if you don’t want the Show to display what‘s playing, then use the preferred speaker route for the Wiim: however, if you want the Show to display artwork etc, it must be in a MRM group with your WiiM device with its volume turned down if you don’t want its audio to be heard. This has nothing to do with the WiiM per se, it’s how echo devices behave.

 

[Jdamberger1]

Sorry, you’re misreading my response, you only have to turn the Show volume down if it is in an MRM group along with the WiiM device - not if the echo (show or otherwise) is merely the device you make the request of which then passes the stream to a group preferred speaker.

It’s one thing or the other - if you don’t want the Show to display what‘s playing, then use the preferred speaker route for the Wiim: however, if you want the Show to display artwork etc, it must be in a MRM group with your WiiM device with its volume turned down if you don’t want its audio to be heard. This has nothing to do with the WiiM per se, it’s how echo devices behave.

I have my dot in a MRM group with my WiiM pro and DO NOT have to turn the volume down. That is why I was offering to set up a MRM group with my WiiM pro and Echo Show 5 to see if it will show the information on the show 5 and not require the volume to be turned down on the show 5 when I stream music.

 

[Brantome]

We’re still not on the same page - in order to get the Show to display artwork, you’d need to ask Alexa to play on a multi room music group containing both the Show and the Wiim, in which case it‘ll play on all devices in that group. If it’s playing on a device in an MRM group, you’ll hear it unless you turn its volume down.

If you ask the show to play the music when it’s in a device group (i.e. not an MRM group) whose preferred speaker is set to the Wiim, it’ll only play on the Wiim so in that case there’s no need to turn the show’s volume down as it’s not playing - nor displaying - anything. It doesn’t matter whether the Show is in an MRM group when you ask it to play on the WiiM via a preferred speaker route - after hearing the request, it’s no longer involved.

 

[Greyspace]

What a bummer. That’s not an acceptable solution IMO. I guess the Show must go on…a truck back to Amazon.
Seems like something Amazon could fix if they wanted. If it can tell you the playing song, skip it, thumbs it up or down, it has to have the awareness necessary to display the information.

 

[Brantome]

What people often don’t realise is that echo devices are primarily interfaces to the Alexa cloud system and the services it provides, they’re not general purpose tablets. After diverting a stream to another device, the Show could be dealing with other Alexa requests nothing to do with the stream it passed on. If you want that kind of flexibility, then perhaps consider a cheap tablet to run another instance of the WiiM app and it’ll show you the info you want for the Wiim device that’s actually playing.