Adjust Alexa's Speaking Volume Independently?

[Erebus]

I submitted a ticket about this using the Feedback option from my WiiM Pro Plus, but I don't seem to be able to get noticed or receive an answer. Is there some magical spell or sacrificial ritual one must do to receive a ticket reply? I've submitted 3 so far with no joy.

Anyway, what I would like to do is to be able to adjust Alexa's speaking voice volume independently of the overall WiiM volume. If I have music playing from any source at a reasonable level to fill the room, but not overly loud, and use the Voice Remote to ask Alexa a question, the speaking volume is considerably lower than the music output, almost muffled sounding. Is it possible to have the Alexa speaking volume level the same as the music volume level somehow? Obviously I can increase the overall volume to hear Alexa better, but then that makes the music output way too loud of course.

If there is no option to adjust Alexa's speaking volume independently, then I would like to suggest this as a future feature addition please.

 

[Erebus]

Update: I must have stumbled across the secret as I finally received a reply to my ticket. Currently there is no option to have the Alexa speaking volume at the same level as the output volume, nor is there any way to adjust it. I'm surprised no one else has experienced this issue to be honest, or found a solution if they did. Maybe I just don't play my music loud enough?

So, the Feature Request remains, please.

 

[Wiimer]

Getting a used Echo dot at a so reasonable price may be the way to go.

 

[Erebus]

Getting a used Echo dot

Okay, but how will that fix the speaking volume coming from the WiiM? Or are you saying to use an Echo instead of the Alexa built-in to the WiiM? That wouldn't really work for me as it's another device, whereas I'm trying to do everything in the WiiM and my speakers. I retired my Google Mini for the same reason.

 

[Wiimer]

Okay, but how will that fix the speaking volume coming from the WiiM? Or are you saying to use an Echo instead of the Alexa built-in to the WiiM? That wouldn't really work for me as it's another device, whereas I'm trying to do everything in the WiiM and my speakers. I retired my Google Mini for the same reason.

Create an Alexa group with Echo dot and WiiM, and set the music speaker to WiiM. Then, when you ask Echo to "play music", WiiM will play music. (Echo dot makes the announcement and WiiM is dedicated to playing music.)

The volume of Echo dot's announcements can be adjusted in the Alexa app. This is a different setting from the WiiM music volume.

 

[Wiimer]

However, when using WiiM remote, nothing will change as before.

 

[Burnside]

I'm surprised no one else has experienced this issue to be honest

For those of us in Alexa circles, this is pretty well known it must be said…

 

[Erebus]

The volume of Echo dot's announcements can be adjusted in the Alexa app.

Yes, and thank you for the suggestion and information. Regrettably I don't wish to use yet another device, otherwise it makes the inclusion of Alexa in the WiiM somewhat redundant. I'm hopeful the Alexa volume setting will be added to the WiiM in future. If not, it's not a huge imposition, just a little disappointing.

 

[Erebus]

For those of us in Alexa circles, this is pretty well known it must be said…

Thank you for this acknowledgement, and my sincere apologies for not knowing this. I have only had my WiiM for a week and never used Alexa at all previously. I did search for some reference to the lack of volume and lack of volume adjustment but struggled to find anything relevant.

Have these Alexa circles you mentioned managed to find a solution or workaround at all?

 

[Burnside]

Thank you for this acknowledgement, and my sincere apologies for not knowing this. I have only had my WiiM for a week and never used Alexa at all previously. I did search for some reference to the lack of volume and lack of volume adjustment but struggled to find anything relevant.

Have these Alexa circles you mentioned managed to find a solution or workaround at all?

No, not really. It is a feature that many Alexa users have asked for almost since day one it must be said, but other than being able to adjust alarm/timer/notification volume, the volume of audio whether that be music or voice is the same. You can whisper to an echo and Alexa will whisper back, but that’s not much help for WiiM devices…

 

[Erebus]

not much help for WiiM devices…

Indeed. I'd be happy if the Alexa speaking voice from the WiiM was at least at the same volume level as the playing music output level to be honest. At least that would be a part solution even if an independent volume control for Alexa cannot be added. There must be a setting in the WiiM firmware that controls or sets the current Alexa speaking volume so I would assume it could be set higher by the firmware engineers perhaps?

It is a feature that many Alexa users have asked for almost since day one

I'm not surprised to be honest. It seems a major oversight by the WiiM developers. What is surprising is that I couldn't find any reference to the issue here.

 

[Burnside]

Indeed. I'd be happy if the Alexa speaking voice from the WiiM was at least at the same volume level as the playing music output level to be honest. At least that would be a part solution even if an independent volume control for Alexa cannot be added. There must be a setting in the WiiM firmware that controls or sets the current Alexa speaking volume so I would assume it could be set higher by the firmware engineers perhaps?

Nothing to do with WiiM I'm afraid, it's entirely the Alexa cloud service which as I say doesn't separate speaking from music volume, so there's no way for WiiM to identify what is speech and what is music, it's just all audio.

I'm not surprised to be honest. It seems a major oversight by the WiiM developers. What is surprising is that I couldn't find any reference to the issue here.

They have no means of controlling it I'm afraid. It's entirely Amazon/ Alexa

 

[Erebus]

It's entirely Amazon/ Alexa

I see. Helpful info indeed. So even though it's part of the WiiM device, the WiiM developers have no control over what it does? Scary. Maybe someone should tell that to the ticket people or at least an FAQ. Would save a lot of time and effort.

Many thanks for letting me know.

 

[Burnside]

WiiM use the Alexa multi room music (MRM) development stack to support hi res casting of Amazon Music and to make your WiiM device appear to the Alexa app as if it were a real echo, so you get the majority of the benefits of a real echo device, but I guess also any drawbacks that echos have. There’s no pick list that the WiiM developers can choose from to say they want this bit of Alexa, but would like control of other parts as Amazon don’t provide any hooks to allow third party developers to in effect have their own tuned version of an echo. Basically if a real echo can’t fine tune Alexa, no third party can.

 

[Erebus]

Amazon don’t provide any

Makes sense for Amazon not to permit a third-party Alexa device to work as effectively as their own, which is a shame. Obviously Amazon would prefer you bought their products instead. I understand now. Once again, thank you for your time.