Lost analog audio output

[Saabracer23]

I received a WiiM Pro Plus from an extremely generous person as a secret Santa gift. What a cool gift. This was my first real streamer. I’ve used it maybe six or seven times so far and it’s been a fantastic piece of equipment. I went to use it this morning and I got an alert of an app update. I started playing music and found I was getting no output from an amplifier I just repaired. I repair and restore audio equipment as a regular thing and I like to use the Pro Plus as an easy method of playing audio. I had just used it a couple of days ago on my main system upstairs to play Christmas music.

Anyways, I thought it was maybe the amplifier I just repaired so I grabbed a CD player and hooked it up and got audio output immediately. Hmmm. I shut down the app and restarted it and play with it for about an hour and could not get any audio output. So I looked online and see that there are others that have had this issue. I checked some of the recommendations like going into settings and making sure analog out was on, check/uncheck the variable or maxed output. Nothing I did would result in audio output.

I did hook it back up with an optical cable back to my main system and used the built-in DAC of my amplifier, swapped the output on the WiiM to optical out and it played music exactly as it should. With it still playing music, I then hooked up a pair of RCA cables back to my main system and swap the audio output to the analog out and silence. Kind of sucks that I was only able to use it a handful of times.

Anything else I should look for? Maybe the internal DAC gave up? Any inline opamps maybe? I don’t have a schematic nor have I opened it up so I don’t know. What should be the next step? Being a secret Santa gift hopefully an exchange won’t be too much work.

I would really appreciate any assistance or suggestions. Hopefully it’s something I overlooked and this one can be returned to working status.

Thank you,
Dan

 

[Burnside]

It seems impertinent to suggest this to someone with clearly as much experience as you have, but have you powered down the Pro Plus and powered it back up?

 

[Burnside]

If that fails, raise a ticket to WiiM via the more/feedback section in the WiiM home app to allow them to inspect your logs for clues as to what’s causing this issue

 

[Saabracer23]

It seems impertinent to suggest this to someone with clearly as much experience as you have, but have you powered down the Pro Plus and powered it back up?

Well I understand, it’s far easier than most think to overlook the obvious. Since I’ve moved it from system to system testing it it has been power cycled at at least six or seven times this morning.

If that fails, raise a ticket to WiiM via the more/feedback section in the WiiM home app to allow them to inspect your logs for clues as to what’s causing this issue

Oh, incredible, I didn’t know they could do that. I will head there now.

Dan

 

[Wiimer]

I received a WiiM Pro Plus from an extremely generous person as a secret Santa gift. What a cool gift. This was my first real streamer. I’ve used it maybe six or seven times so far and it’s been a fantastic piece of equipment. I went to use it this morning and I got an alert of an app update. I started playing music and found I was getting no output from an amplifier I just repaired. I repair and restore audio equipment as a regular thing and I like to use the Pro Plus as an easy method of playing audio. I had just used it a couple of days ago on my main system upstairs to play Christmas music.

Anyways, I thought it was maybe the amplifier I just repaired so I grabbed a CD player and hooked it up and got audio output immediately. Hmmm. I shut down the app and restarted it and play with it for about an hour and could not get any audio output. So I looked online and see that there are others that have had this issue. I checked some of the recommendations like going into settings and making sure analog out was on, check/uncheck the variable or maxed output. Nothing I did would result in audio output.

I did hook it back up with an optical cable back to my main system and used the built-in DAC of my amplifier, swapped the output on the WiiM to optical out and it played music exactly as it should. With it still playing music, I then hooked up a pair of RCA cables back to my main system and swap the audio output to the analog out and silence. Kind of sucks that I was only able to use it a handful of times.

Anything else I should look for? Maybe the internal DAC gave up? Any inline opamps maybe? I don’t have a schematic nor have I opened it up so I don’t know. What should be the next step? Being a secret Santa gift hopefully an exchange won’t be too much work.

I would really appreciate any assistance or suggestions. Hopefully it’s something I overlooked and this one can be returned to working status.

Thank you,
Dan

I may be making a impertinent suggestion as well, but are the RCA cables connected correctly to the Line-out jacks on the WiiM?

You mentioned that you have moved the WiiM to another room. Therefore, I think the first thing to suspect is the cable connections and the switches on the amplifier.

If possible, please try connecting the WiiM to another amplifier.

 

[Saabracer23]

I may be making a impertinent suggestion as well, but are the RCA cables connected correctly to the Line-out jacks on the WiiM?

You mentioned that you have moved the WiiM to another room. Therefore, I think the first thing to suspect is the cable connections and the switches on the amplifier.

If possible, please try connecting the WiiM to another amplifier.

They are connected correctly, triple checked to the line out jacks.

No the amplifier is good, I just finished electrically restoring it. Plus in my post above I mentioned disconnect in the WiiM and hooked up a Sony CD player using the same rca cables and into the same input on the amp and it played perfectly. Only thing changed on that amplifier was the volume control.

I also mentioned that I tried the analog outputs on two seperate amps that day, tried it again on my Krell 400xi and nothing. Hooked my Schiit DAC to the Krell using same cable and same input again and perfect. So the WiiM analog out is definitely the issue, for some reason nothing is outputting. That’s 3 seperate amps I’ve tried it on.

I did raise a ticket as suggested, but haven’t received an email back yet. It said 24 hours I believe, but understand it’s possibly a busy time of year.

Dan

 

[bherren]

Also have you tried a factory reset?

 

[Saabracer23]

Also have you tried a factory reset?

I really appreciate that suggestion, I had not seen it. I just went through the factory, reset process and no change. I did notice something new, it was doing it before the reset as well, but if I turned the volume up on the amplifier, it was giving off a weird pitch squeal. I disconnected the WiiM and the noise went away. I hooked it up to a different damp and same thing just this weird squeal, but you have to turn it up a decent amount to hear it, like 12 to 1 o’clock on the volume knob.

Buy yeah, unfortunately reset didn’t work.

Dan

 

[bherren]

I really appreciate that suggestion, I had not seen it. I just went through the factory, reset process and no change. I did notice something new, it was doing it before the reset as well, but if I turned the volume up on the amplifier, it was giving off a weird pitch squeal. I disconnected the WiiM and the noise went away. I hooked it up to a different damp and same thing just this weird squeal, but you have to turn it up a decent amount to hear it, like 12 to 1 o’clock on the volume knob.

Buy yeah, unfortunately reset didn’t work.

Dan

Sadly it does look like the device might have gone bust :-( Warranty time ?

 

[Saabracer23]

Sadly it does look like the device might have gone bust :-( Warranty time ?

It does seem that I can’t get it going again. I did receive an email from the team yesterday and they asked me to do a factory reset as well, and if the factory reset did not work, they would get me a replacement. I wonder what could be causing this, from the reading I’ve been doing online. I’m definitely not the first person this has happened to.

Wonder if they would let me upgrade to the Ultra. Without doing any reading, curious if anyone could let me know what the differences are other than the fact, it has a small touchscreen. I see that it uses a different DAC, but people say they sound pretty similar.

Dan

 

[Zap Rekowski]

Good comparison table:

Compare WiiM Pro Plus vs WiiM Ultra

Comparing WiiM Pro Plus and WiiM Ultra? Our Virginia-based experts can help you find the best gear. Get FREE 2-day shipping and free lifetime tech support with your order.

www.crutchfield.com

 

[Mr Ee]

if anyone could let me know what the differences are

The wiim website has a comparison section at the bottom of every product's page.

 

[Burnside]

Good comparison table:

Compare WiiM Pro Plus vs WiiM Ultra

Comparing WiiM Pro Plus and WiiM Ultra? Our Virginia-based experts can help you find the best gear. Get FREE 2-day shipping and free lifetime tech support with your order.

www.crutchfield.com

Audio specs are a wee bit misleading while there’s no native support for YouTube Music. I’m not at home to check, but I don’t think there’s SiriusXM support either other than thru Alexa.

 

[Saabracer23]

I’m in contact with WiiM support now. I asked if I could pay the extra to upgrade to the ultra and they said they don’t support that right now. They can issue a refund and then I could purchase the ultra after the refund is submitted, but as I mentioned, I was given this as a gift in a secret Santa exchange over at Audiokarma. Super generous gift. If the refund has to go back to him since he’s the one that purchased it, I’m not going to ask him if I could give him extra money to upgrade, that would be rude I’d think. If they are able to issue the refund to me since I’m the current owner that would be awesome as I would absolutely grab the ultra. Otherwise it looks like it would just be a straight exchange. The ultra specs better, and I like the fact has headphone and phono and such, but from what I’ve read, I guess it’s kind of hard to discern a difference between the two audibly. The ultra has a higher bit rate, but when you get that high, maybe you’re splitting hairs at that point.

Dan

 

[bherren]

I’m in contact with WiiM support now. I asked if I could pay the extra to upgrade to the ultra and they said they don’t support that right now. They can issue a refund and then I could purchase the ultra after the refund is submitted, but as I mentioned, I was given this as a gift in a secret Santa exchange over at Audiokarma. Super generous gift. If the refund has to go back to him since he’s the one that purchased it, I’m not going to ask him if I could give him extra money to upgrade, that would be rude I’d think. If they are able to issue the refund to me since I’m the current owner that would be awesome as I would absolutely grab the ultra. Otherwise it looks like it would just be a straight exchange. The ultra specs better, and I like the fact has headphone and phono and such, but from what I’ve read, I guess it’s kind of hard to discern a difference between the two audibly. The ultra has a higher bit rate, but when you get that high, maybe you’re splitting hairs at that point.

Dan

The bit rate is the same, afaik WiiM sound processing engine makes out at 192/24 on all devices.

 

[Saabracer23]

The bit rate is the same, afaik WiiM sound processing engine makes out at 192/24 on all devices.

Oh interesting, so is the info on Crutchfield wrong then?


It has the Ultra at 384/32 capable. Does it have that capability yet it’s just not available?

Dan

 

[Burnside]

Oh interesting, so is the info on Crutchfield wrong then?
View attachment 15775

It has the Ultra at 384/32 capable. Does it have that capability yet it’s just not available?

Dan

It’s almost at the splitting hair stage tbh - I understand that while the Ultra DAC can accept a 32/384 digital input stream and convert that to analog, its digital outputs are limited to 24/192, the same as its coax and optical connections.

 

[Saabracer23]

It’s almost at the splitting hair stage tbh - I understand that while the Ultra DAC can accept a 32/384 digital input stream and convert that to analog, its digital outputs are limited to 24/192, the same as its coax and optical connections.

That’s exactly what I said. Couple post up, splitting hairs at that point. The numbers are right on the page are more than what’s actually heard.

If it had USB digital out you could take advantage of the 32/384, but it does look like the internal DAC is capable, but then you’re limited to the internal DAC which is OK because from what I read, it’s actually pretty darn good one. Though I doubt anyone here, including myself would be able to just discern from 24/192 and 32/384. Though it gives you the warm fuzzies inside probably when you know that it’s converting files like that. If you think it will sound better and you want to sound better than it will sound better, isn’t that right lol?

Dan

 

[bherren]

It’s almost at the splitting hair stage tbh - I understand that while the Ultra DAC can accept a 32/384 digital input stream and convert that to analog, its digital outputs are limited to 24/192, the same as its coax and optical connections.

The DAC can but afaik the WiiM audio processing engine (EQ etc....) still maxes out at 192 doesn't it ? I mean it's all utterly pointless anyways, anything above 48kHz isn't going to bring audible differences, only bragging rights

 

[Burnside]

Yeah, looks like it’s been lifted from the DAC spec sheet and pasted into a product description by marketing…