Bug report: Tidal Connect Hi-Res on the Wiim Pro

[audiophilistine]

I recently bought a Wiim Pro and a Tidal subscription with the goal of streaming hi-res music using Tidal Connect.
What I am finding is that while Tidal Connect works most of the time, it sometimes struggles and this seems to be worse as the sampling rates increase.
24/96 is bad, 24/192 is worse but everything else is more or less reliable.

The problem is usually difficult to reliably reproduce but one album (below) is consistently hopeless.
Using Tidal Connect on the Wiim Pro I can't play more than ~30 seconds from this album, yet when I play it on my Android tablet speakers (still 24/192) it works fine.

The problem album:

Judith Jáuregui - Homeland

Listen to Homeland on TIDAL

tidal.com

Judith Jáuregui, Homeland, 2024

It works fine in the app but fails every time over Tidal Connect to the Wiim Pro.

Things I have tried without success for a week now:
- switched to ethernet from Wifi on the Wiim Pro
- reboot the Wiim Pro
- switch preferred DNS server off/on
- clear the Tidal app cache
- log out/back in to Tidal app
- uninstall Tidal app from other devices
- uninstall/reinstall Tidal app
- reboot the tablet

I am connecting from Canada without a VPN.
Local network issues have been eliminated (because it works fine in the app).

Wiim Pro firmware 4.8.717049
Tidal app version 2.153.0.1298.71 (from the Play store)
Tablet: Google Pixel Tablet
OS: GrapheneOS
Android 15 build 2025052800

I know there are a bunch of other posts about similar issues but I wanted to document this particular reproducible bug here.
Unfortunately I have not yet found any way to get any kind of error message or logs related to this bug.

Other problems I have with Tidal Connect which are more difficult to reliably reproduce:
- Tidal Connect will not work (fail without error message) until I reboot the Wiim Pro
- after switching to Tidal Connect playback will fail with a spinning widget on the app until I skip a track
- volume shown in the Tidal app is at one level but the music starts playing on the Wiim Pro at whatever volume it was last at, so making a tiny change to the volume in the Tidal app makes a huge sudden jump from the level on the Wiim Pro to the new level on the Tidal app

 

[audiophilistine]

toggle the "Preferred DNS server" switch

Yes, DNS was the first issue I attacked. I run a pihole server locally which I was using at first and then I switched to the "preferred" Google servers to eliminate any interference from the ad-blocker but it made no difference at all.

 

[graemewi_nz]

@hgo58 I can also play the Diana Ross track without issue

Diana Ross - I'm Coming Out

Listen to I'm Coming Out on TIDAL

tidal.com

Could you please verify that you can play this track? It fails around the 2 minute mark for me every time.

Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León - Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16: I. Allegro molto moderato

Listen to Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16: I. Allegro molto moderato on TIDAL

tidal.com

@graemewi_nz Are you able to play the second track all the way through?

No success with the second track - I've tested over a couple of devices this afternoon - ethernet conneted Ultra, ethernet connected Pro +, and wifi connected Pro all from the Android Tidal app. All stop about 7 seconds in and the play button on the app shows as a rotating circle. Seems to be ok if played from the Wiim Home app, haven't got through the full 13 minutes of the track yet! Got up to 7 minutes approx playing before it stopped from the Wiim home app on the wifi connected Pro

Oceania region - NZ

 

[merifon]

Here, just the south of Alps, I'm playing with no problems the track via connect or via WiiM app both.
It would be interesting to know why there are always little differences in bitrates, they should be the same file and I always thought WiiM app shows the effective net weight of playing data, without eventual control characters

 

[anonyless]

I recently bought a Wiim Pro and a Tidal subscription with the goal of streaming hi-res music using Tidal Connect.
What I am finding is that while Tidal Connect works most of the time, it sometimes struggles and this seems to be worse as the sampling rates increase.
24/96 is bad, 24/192 is worse but everything else is more or less reliable.

The problem is usually difficult to reliably reproduce but one album (below) is consistently hopeless.
Using Tidal Connect on the Wiim Pro I can't play more than ~30 seconds from this album, yet when I play it on my Android tablet speakers (still 24/192) it works fine.

The problem album:

Judith Jáuregui - Homeland

Listen to Homeland on TIDAL

tidal.com

Judith Jáuregui, Homeland, 2024

i have the same issue with this track using Tidal connect - the Tidal app shows as playing , but the WiiM stops playing -WiiM app track counter stops.
Tried using the WiiM app to play the track from Tidal - same thing.
decided to download track to see how big it is..well, 455.4MB .. the issue might be the Tidal server we connect not being fast enough.
EDIT: also trying Tidal web player (listen.tidal.com, shows Max quality 192KHZ) -3:30 minutes in the track, so far so good..(no issues)
EDIT2: playing the track on the Tidal app with the phone's speaker (no streaming) - plays fine. so it's a WiiM-Tidal issue...?

 

[Lab 19]

I have observed that the Tidal stream locks up the WiiM Ultra and, separately, the Denon AVR X3600H; while the Amazon music UHD stream plays normally on both devices. I have to conclude that this is a Tidal problem, and not a WiiM problem. (although I continue to work with WiiM CS to help resolve the issue).

 

[hgo58]

i have the same issue with this track using Tidal connect - the Tidal app shows as playing , but the WiiM stops playing -WiiM app track counter stops.
Tried using the WiiM app to play the track from Tidal - same thing.
decided to download track to see how big it is..well, 455.4MB .. the issue might be the Tidal server we connect not being fast enough.
EDIT: also trying Tidal web player (listen.tidal.com, shows Max quality 192KHZ) -3:30 minutes in the track, so far so good..(no issues)
EDIT2: playing the track on the Tidal app with the phone's speaker (no streaming) - plays fine. so it's a WiiM-Tidal issue...?

As Tidal adjust the bitrate (sampling rate) depending on the capability reported by the device, it may be that your local playing on the Android devices is just playing at a lower bitrate than when playing on the WiiM, although saying "Max".

So I don't think you can conclude anything about where the issue is. It does however look like some regions (Europe) don't have the same issue.

Are there someone with some other high-end equipment that could test Tidal Connect?

 

[anonyless]

As Tidal adjust the bitrate (sampling rate) depending on the capability reported by the device, it may be that your local playing on the Android devices is just playing at a lower bitrate than when playing on the WiiM, although saying "Max".

So I don't think you can conclude anything about where the issue is. It does however look like some regions (Europe) don't have the same issue.

Are there someone with some other high-end equipment that could test Tidal Connect?

1+1:
playing on the Tidal app with no streaming - plays fine
playing on the Tidal app using connect OR the WiiM app (streaming to WiiM Pro) - playing stops ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Pragmatist]

As Tidal adjust the bitrate (sampling rate) depending on the capability reported by the device, it may be that your local playing on the Android devices is just playing at a lower bitrate than when playing on the WiiM, although saying "Max".

So I don't think you can conclude anything about where the issue is. It does however look like some regions (Europe) don't have the same issue.

Are there someone with some other high-end equipment that could test Tidal Connect?

Far away from high end, but I "borrowed" my son's Tidal account and can not find any problem. So DSM/5 and TC works as it should in Germany.

 

[harkpabst]

I

1+1:
playing on the Tidal app with no streaming - plays fine
playing on the Tidal app using connect OR the WiiM app (streaming to WiiM Pro) - playing stops ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Yes, but oversimplification will get us nowhere.

How do you explain that there are bomproblems at all for some users?
1-1=0

 

[anonyless]

I

Yes, but oversimplification will get us nowhere.

How do you explain that there are bomproblems at all for some users?
1-1=0

i only simplified the issue i personally experienced

 

[harkpabst]

i only simplified the issue i personally experienced

And that's perfectly fine.

As long as we all approve that it's not an explanation of what the root cause is.

 

[hgo58]

1+1:
playing on the Tidal app with no streaming - plays fine
playing on the Tidal app using connect OR the WiiM app (streaming to WiiM Pro) - playing stops ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So Tidal app = lower bit rate, Tidal Connect by WiiM device = higher bit rate.

 

[anonyless]

so WiiM replied to my feedback report (from the app) that they pushed new firmware 4.8.719055 to the WiiM Pro.
after updating, I played the same (extremely) hi-res long track through the Home app, and it didn't stop - but something else happened, i heard "poping" / distorted song after several minutes, and also noticed the track skipped about a minute backwards while playing. this happened a couple of times, until I stopped listening to this track. strange stuff.

 

[edgarnavarro]

For the record. I'm experiencing the original issue described in this thread (Tidal Connect to Wiim Ultra, certain tracks, playback stops for good until I switch to a different track or play straight from Wiim Home App) and I'm in Mexico so I don't think this is a localized issue. The issue appeared just a week ago.

 

[WiiM Support]

Hi Team,

We're aware of a recent server-side change from TIDAL that's causing this issue. We've reported the problem to TIDAL and are currently awaiting their fix. In the meantime, we're deploying a temporary workaround via whitelisting for affected devices, though it may come with minor limitations. A complete resolution will require a server-side update.

Thank you again for your continued patience and support!

 

[audiophilistine]

@WiiM Support By "whitelisting" do you mean for access to the new firmware (4.8.719055) mentioned by @anonyless ?

 

[yomammary]

Hi Team,

We're aware of a recent server-side change from TIDAL that's causing this issue. We've reported the problem to TIDAL and are currently awaiting their fix. In the meantime, we're deploying a temporary workaround via whitelisting for affected devices, though it may come with minor limitations. A complete resolution will require a server-side update.

Thank you again for your continued patience and support!

A server side update on your end or Tidal's?

 

[Burnside]

A server side update on your end or Tidal's?

It says “We're aware of a recent server-side change from TIDAL” so from that I’d say not at WiiM’s end

 

[harkpabst]

I'm in Mexico so I don't think this is a localized issue.

Just because your region is affected doesn't mean that the issue is independent of localisation.

 

[edgarnavarro]

I have seen complains from Canada and UK but I don't know. Let the experts determine that.