Anyone using WiiM Pro with Denafrips Ares II DAC?

[Vic Vinegar]

Oh, I see. Thanks for that info – I sure will contact Vinshine now. Hopefully, they will also make a firmware update for the Ares ii. I mean, why only the Pontus ii?

Good question.

@igotdibs was provided with the original firmware so that he could rollback. At least Ares owners have that option. Pontus owners are being strung along. There's no guarantee that the revised revision will fix the issue?

 

[Klipscher]

For now I’m staying with the new firmware for Ares 2 I’m not getting the micro skipping issue others are experiencing and enjoying the sound of the update.

Nice to see that others can roll back firmware if needed. Hopefully it fix the issue there experiencing.

 

[DW2023]

Just joined the forum since I have hooked up a WiiM Mini to my headphone rig that runs the Ares II with the FPGA update - no skips identified so far.

The FPGA chip is EP4CE22.

My setup is as follows:

1. Laptop =USB=> Denafrips Iris DDC =Coax=> Ares II =XLR=> SPL Phonitor 2 amp

2. Android 8 (smartphone) =WiFi=> WiiM Mini =Toslink=> Ares II =XLR=> SPL Phonitor 2 amp

I had been using 1 above for a couple of years now, both before and after the FPGA update, and have had no issues.

Added 2 above today (to test the Mini out), and again, so far, no issues.

It may be worthwhile focusing on the FPGA chips in each Ares II, and whether the issue can be narrowed down to a particular chip or a series - mine has the Altera Cyclone IV EP4CE22F17C8N.

 

[igotdibs]

Just joined the forum since I have hooked up a WiiM Mini to my headphone rig that runs the Ares II with the FPGA update - no skips identified so far.

The FPGA chip is EP4CE22.

My setup is as follows:

1. Laptop =USB=> Denafrips Iris DDC =Coax=> Ares II =XLR=> SPL Phonitor 2 amp

2. Android 8 (smartphone) =WiFi=> WiiM Mini =Toslink=> Ares II =XLR=> SPL Phonitor 2 amp

I had been using 1 above for a couple of years now, both before and after the FPGA update, and have had no issues.

Added 2 above today (to test the Mini out), and again, so far, no issues.

It may be worthwhile focusing on the FPGA chips in each Ares II, and whether the issue can be narrowed down to a particular chip or a series - mine has the Altera Cyclone IV EP4CE22F17C8N.

You're onto something there @DW2023.

My FPGA is EP4CE6F - skips every time on a 16 bit track from a playlist right at about 5 seconds.
Setup is Ethernet cable to WiiM Pro>Ares II>Amp. Makes no difference if I connect via Opt or Coax, NOS or OS.

 

[Klipscher]

Mine is Altera cyclone IV EP4CE6F17C8N and haven't had the skip issue.

 

[igotdibs]

Mine is Altera cyclone IV EP4CE6F17C8N and haven't had the skip issue.

Klipscher, I don't get skips either when streaming from the Tidal app.

Please try this: Open the WiiM app, find the album Sade Diamond Life and play Smooth Operator. Do you get a skip in the first 5 or 6 seconds of the track?

When I play this track from the WiiM app, I get the skip at around 5 seconds. If I play the same track from the Tidal app, there is no skip.

 

[onlyoneme]

Klipscher, I don't get skips either when streaming from the Tidal app.

Please try this: Open the WiiM app, find the album Sade Diamond Life and play Smooth Operator. Do you get a skip in the first 5 or 6 seconds of the track?

When I play this track from the WiiM app, I get the skip at around 5 seconds. If I play the same track from the Tidal app, there is no skip.

Is it for every track or just the first one?

 

[igotdibs]

Is it for every track or just the first one?

First track of an album. Every track of a playlist.

 

[onlyoneme]

First track of an album. Every track of a playlist.

And if you manually navigate to another one in the WiiM app, will there be the skip also?

 

[igotdibs]

And if you manually navigate to another one in the WiiM app, will there be the skip also?

Yes.

 

[onlyoneme]

Yes.

Yet another issue related to output switching off/on on the WiiM.
Denafrips DAC adapts the audio data at the beginning of the stream when fifo reclocking is used, ie. after any output switching off/on on the stereamer.
It happens rarely when Tidal Connect is used because WiiM switches the output here only when sample rate changes. But it happens every time you advance manually in the WiiM app regardless of the sample rate.

 

[Klipscher]

Klipscher, I don't get skips either when streaming from the Tidal app.

Please try this: Open the WiiM app, find the album Sade Diamond Life and play Smooth Operator. Do you get a skip in the first 5 or 6 seconds of the track?

When I play this track from the WiiM app, I get the skip at around 5 seconds. If I play the same track from the Tidal app, there is no skip.

Yep just heard the skip on wiim app, but not on tidal connect. If I open tidal connect is opened first then open Wiim app it changes wiim app to connect to master bitrate and the skipping stopped. Guess since I never use wiim app I wasn't getting these skips.

After hearing it can see how annoying it be if was every song. Hopefully issue can be fixed.

 

[igotdibs]

Yep just heard the skip on wiim app, but not on tidal connect. If I open tidal connect is opened first then open Wiim app it changes wiim app to connect to master bitrate and the skipping stopped. Guess since I never use wiim app I wasn't getting these skips.

After hearing it can see how annoying it be if was every song. Hopefully issue can be fixed.

Thanks for verifying this Klipscher. Yes, it's annoying as heck.

 

[Klipscher]

Thanks for verifying this Klipscher. Yes, it's annoying as heck.

Yes I agree, luckily I only experienced it with the Wiim app. Since I don't use the wiim app it's not a major issue on my end. Wiim tends to fix things with their firmware if it's on their end.

Did you start having issues after installing the Ares 2 firmware update? If so you can rollback to the original Ares 2 firmware to see if it helps.

 

[onlyoneme]

Linkplay can not address the Denafrips issue. All they can do here is to stop unnecessary digital port switching to achieve a behavior similar to Tidal Connect.

 

[igotdibs]

Yes I agree, luckily I only experienced it with the Wiim app. Since I don't use the wiim app it's not a major issue on my end. Wiim tends to fix things with their firmware if it's on their end.

Did you start having issues after installing the Ares 2 firmware update? If so you can rollback to the original Ares 2 firmware to see if it helps.

I prefer to use the WiiM app over Tidal since Amazon is the streaming service I use the most, by far. I don't think I can stream Amazon Music from the Tidal app.

I had already rolled back to the original Ares II firmware, but then reinstalled the update to do further troubleshooting. I'm going to leave it as is in case Denafrips or WiiM needs help in solving the issue... like when does it happen and when does it not happen.

I have another system with a WiiM Mini that I listen to most of the time, which doesn't involve an Ares II DAC, and therefore sounds fine.

 

[igotdibs]

Linkplay can not address the Denafrips issue. All they can do here is to stop unnecessary digital port switching to achieve a behavior similar to Tidal Connect.

Well the issue has been reported to both Vinshine and WiiM, and so far only WiiM have said they would look into it and try to identify the root cause.

 

[onlyoneme]

Well the issue has been reported to both Vinshine and WiiM, and so far only WiiM have said they would look into it and try to identify the root cause.

That's what we expect from the support - to look into the issue. But WiiM/Linkplay cannot change the reclocking behavior of the external DAC.

 

[kwongwing]

After the update, I immediately noticed micro skips at 5 or sometimes 10 seconds into the beginning of a song. I reported the issue, and tried all the suggestions offered by Vinshine, but I eventually went back to the original firmware to solve the problem.

It would appear that something in the new firmware is conflicting with something in the WiiM Pro...

Hi! Do you still have any issues with your WiiM Pro into Pontus II? I just bought the Pontus (Firmware v 1.3 - I think?) and have problems streaming via Coaxial from the WiiM Pro into Pontus. Wondering if the problem is with the DAC or streamer??? Any advice appreciated

 

[Mr Ee]

Hi! Do you still have any issues with your WiiM Pro into Pontus II? I just bought the Pontus (Firmware v 1.3 - I think?) and have problems streaming via Coaxial from the WiiM Pro into Pontus. Wondering if the problem is with the DAC or streamer??? Any advice appreciated

'Problems' is very non specific - what problems?