WiiM Pro is now Roon Ready

[Hiphiman]

Hardly a thoroughbred, more like an old carthorse put out to pasture…

Must say it was a bit of a struggle - unix/Linux wasn’t something I used in my IT career, but as usual with a lot of googling and trial and error, I finally got it going. Hopefully I don’t need to change the setup now, just add more CD rips when I get round to it.

Must say I’m gravitating towards Qobuz away from Amazon Music HD though for ‘serious’ home use…

Can I ask the reason(s) for veering towards Qobuz? I am perfectly happy with Amazon, especially with its close integration to WiiM, and so wonder what makes Qobuz potentially better in your eyes?

And congrats on getting on getting your LMS system up and running. In fact, congrats on managing to purchase a RPI!

 

[Brantome]

Can I ask the reason(s) for veering towards Qobuz? I am perfectly happy with Amazon, especially with its close integration to WiiM, and so wonder what makes Qobuz potentially better in your eyes?

And congrats on getting on getting your LMS system up and running. In fact, congrats on managing to purchase a RPI!

Basically because I can use Qobuz from within LMS - can’t do that with Amazon Music unfortunately. However, I’ll still retain Amazon Music as I have a family account I share with my brothers for use on my/their echos, as well as the Echo Auto I find essential in my car. And I can use FreeMyMusic to transfer playlists between them.

Yeah, I perhaps paid a little over the odds for the 8GB Pi 4 at £123, but all in all it’s not a bad bundle for around £220 all in with the 1TB SSD, the case and power supply. And as @d6jg often points out, LMS is free

 

[d6jg]

Basically because I can use Qobuz from within LMS - can’t do that with Amazon Music unfortunately. However, I’ll still retain Amazon Music as I have a family account I share with my brothers for use on my/their echos, as well as the Echo Auto I find essential in my car. And I can use FreeMyMusic to transfer playlists between them.

Yeah, I perhaps paid a little over the odds for the 8GB Pi 4 at £123, but all in all it’s not a bad bundle for around £220 all in with the 1TB SSD, the case and power supply. And as @d6jg often points out, LMS is free

The LMS Qobuz plugin is in active development. Only last month a couple of clever types added Replay Gain support and made some changes so that multi disc box sets are shown by disc as if they were local files.

The thing about LMS with Material skin is that every supported service is in one control interface. Play a local album, add one from Qobuz, Spotify, Tidal or Deezer, then set Radio Paradise to kick in on completion. Don’t like one track. Remove it. Add a different version from a different album. Drag and drop the queue order. Save the playlist etc.

Is it fiddly to set up? Not really @Brantome managed it

 

[Brantome]

Is it fiddly to set up? Not really @Brantome managed it

I don’t know how to take that as a retirée who had a 40yr career in IT and technical management, mainly mainframe and SANs, just not Unix/Linux. Guess if I managed it, anyone could

 

[d6jg]

Over in the LMS forums people have posted that the biggest barrier to running LMS on a Pi is not realising how easy it really is!

 

[Brantome]

Posted by @mandy_rice_davies I’d guess…

 

[Willx]

Thank you for your responses to my question about WiiM downsampling in Roon. I suspect that it is to do with the DAC rather than Roon, as the streams directly from Qobuz are also being automatically downsampled.

I have another WiiM in another setup which is not downsampling.

The DAC that is downsampling is an audiophile quality DAC but is now ten years old when the idea of readily available HiRes files was in its infancy. The other WiiM is in a much cheaper set up, but is only one year old.

I suspect, in reality I cannot tell the difference between 192kHz and 96kHz, so this will not overly worry me. As a Qobuz Sublime member I can purchase a HiRes file at a steep discount on a CD quality file - which explains the reason that I actually have HiRes files in the first place.

 

[simon]

In a similar manner, I’ve just spent £220 on a 8GB Raspberry Pi 4 with a 1TB SSD to run LMS - no subscription to pay either

Let's hope that Wiim adds support for this soon. (And not just for the Pro - it would be great on the mini too).
Have you tried PiCore player? Can be used as LMS server also.

 

[Brantome]

Let's hope that Wiim adds support for this soon. (And not just for the Pro - it would be great on the mini too).
Have you tried PiCore player? Can be used as LMS server also.

That’s what I’m using

 

[Achim1811]

Found this funny guy . Anyone tried something similar?

Edit: The 15 $ price tag seems to be outdated

 

[Brantome]

I see someone has noticed in Roon that the WiiM Pro+ now shows up as an option.

 

[Mike in NY]

Anyone tried something similar?

Yes, but not with the DietPi OS, this also works with Volumio's Roon Bridge plugin, or by adding the official Roon Bridge for Linux to the Moode distro, or with RoPieee, which may not have had an image compatible with RPi Zero 2W at the time of that video, but now definitely does.

Edit: The 15 $ price tag seems to be outdated

Still $15 in the U.S. but the problem was one of availability, these were very scarce for about 3 years due to the worldwide chip shortage, and so the scalpers/gougers drove up the street price. These are just now at the end of Q2 and into Q3 coming back into a generally available state for the correct retail price which is still $15, so those scalpers/gougers on eBay and Amazon will need to find a new hustle pretty soon.

This Zero 2W model was introduced in late October 2021, already well into the pandemic and the chip shortage, yet I have managed to buy 4 of them for the regular $15 retail price just by keeping a sharp eye on stock at Digi-key, and Micro Center. Soon that will no longer be necessary, the RPi Foundation has said they expect nearly all board models in all markets to be back to general availability by Q4.

BTW - his video glosses over the true cost which is not just the $15 board, but also roughly $10 for the power supply, $10 microSD card, $7-8 microUSB OTG cable, and about $7-8 for an acrylic case/enclosure. So all said and done much closer to $50 + tax/shipping, but still a huge bargain.

 

[d6jg]

Yes, but not with the DietPi OS, this also works with Volumio's Roon Bridge plugin, or by adding the official Roon Bridge for Linux to the Moode distro, or with RoPieee, which may not have had an image compatible with RPi Zero 2W at the time of that video, but now definitely does.


Still $15 in the U.S. but the problem was one of availability, these were very scarce for about 3 years due to the worldwide chip shortage, and so the scalpers/gougers drove up the street price. These are just now at the end of Q2 and into Q3 coming back into a generally available state for the correct retail price which is still $15, so those scalpers/gougers on eBay and Amazon will need to find a new hustle pretty soon.

This Zero 2W model was introduced in late October 2021, already well into the pandemic and the chip shortage, yet I have managed to buy 4 of them for the regular $15 retail price just by keeping a sharp eye on stock at Digi-key, and Micro Center. Soon that will no longer be necessary, the RPi Foundation has said they expect nearly all board models in all markets to be back to general availability by Q4.

BTW - his video glosses over the true cost which is not just the $15 board, but also roughly $10 for the power supply, $10 microSD card, $7-8 microUSB OTG cable, and about $7-8 for an acrylic case/enclosure. So all said and done much closer to $50 + tax/shipping, but still a huge bargain.

You will also need some kind of DAC either HAT or USB

 

[Achim1811]

Do HATs exist for this Zero? And a DAC is needed for all kind of "streamers".
After having some unexpected fun with NUC and ROCK it could be a new project for long winter evenings

 

[d6jg]

Yes DAC HATs exist
Example

HiFiBerry DAC+ Zero

This is HiFiBerry's smallest board! In the Raspberry Pi Zero form factor, it can be used with a Pi Zero or any 40-pin Raspberry Pi. Sometimes it just has to be small. For this use case HiFiBerry have built the DAC+ Zero, that fits perfectly onto a Raspberry Pi Zero. It does not have the advanced...

thepihut.com

But I’d opt for USB as Zero with HAT looks ugly. Not found a good case

 

[Achim1811]

Thank you. It might be worth a try. Power supplies, SD cards and USB DACs are here existing. So really no great investment

 

[Achim1811]

Another noob question. I have read that four of the two USB ports of a Pi4 are somewhat separated and "cleaner". Different with the Zero?

 

[d6jg]

Zero 2W has 2 mini USB ports. One is used for power.

A full sized Raspberry Pi4 has 2 x USB2 and 2 x USB3 ports plus separate power. Prior to Pi4 the USB shared the same BUS with the LAN port and was considered problematic for audio purposes as a result.

 

[Mike in NY]

You will also need some kind of DAC either HAT or USB

Yes an in fairness to the video author, he did show an external portable DAC connected via USB, so that part was relatively clear, but the need for a power supply, enclosure, and USB OTG cable were not necessarily quite as clear. He did also show the microSD card, so one could surmise that was an additional item not included with the Pi.

But I’d opt for USB as Zero with HAT looks ugly. Not found a good case

Agreed, I go small form factor with the Zero and use a USB dongle DAC with it.

Another noob question. I have read that four of the two USB ports of a Pi4 are somewhat separated and "cleaner".

Not exactly.

A full sized Raspberry Pi4 has 2 x USB2 and 2 x USB3 ports plus separate power. Prior to Pi4 the USB shared the same BUS with the LAN port and was considered problematic for audio purposes as a result.

Exactly, so the Pi 3 and earlier had the shared USB/Ethernet bus issue and that was suboptimal, but that issue no longer exists with the Pi 4.

Zero 2W has 2 mini USB ports. One is used for power.

That's right, and the one used for data requires a USB OTG cable for connection to a DAC, with microUSB on the source end and the appropriate connector on the DAC end depending on what the DAC input is, i.e. microUSB, Type C, Type B etc...

 

[d6jg]

Yes an in fairness to the video author, he did show an external portable DAC connected via USB, so that part was relatively clear, but the need for a power supply, enclosure, and USB OTG cable were not necessarily quite as clear. He did also show the microSD card, so one could surmise that was an additional item not included with the Pi.


Agreed, I go small form factor with the Zero and use a USB dongle DAC with it.


Not exactly.


Exactly, so the Pi 3 and earlier had the shared USB/Ethernet bus issue and that was suboptimal, but that issue no longer exists with the Pi 4.

That's right, and the one used for data requires a USB OTG cable for connection to a DAC, with microUSB on the source end and the appropriate connector on the DAC end depending on what the DAC input is, i.e. microUSB, Type C, Type B etc...

Nice to be totally in agreement