Multiroom of hi-res audio

[ccristal]

Hi!
The latest roadmap for the Wiim Mini mentions "Multiroom of hi-res audio" as one of the features the @WiiM Team is thinking of supporting.
I appreciate it may not have been designed yet. However, I have a few questions about it:

1. Is there a rough timeframe for it yet?
2. When it gets implemented, will it require a firmware update on the slaves, as well as the master?
3. If so, will Audio Pro speakers get such an update? I have 2 Audio Pro C3s as slaves, and their firmware has not been updated since November 2021, so getting a bit concerned they may not support hi-res multiroom, once it goes live.

Thank you for any information you may be able to share...

 

[hoppy]

I would like to know this too. The one reason I use multi-room is to play my turntable into one WiiM in one room, and listen to it in another room on my other WiiM. As I understand it, WiiM downsamples any hi-rez music to 16-bit/48kHz in multi-room transmissions between WiiMs. I think part of this is because of AirPlay 2 limits.

So it would be nice to listen to my vinyl at a higher resolution. That being said, I don't know what the specs are on the Pro's internal analog to digital converter are. If the internal ADC is not that good, then it won't matter. In a different thread, someone noted that the "line in" was 48 kHz.

System note: the turntable is connected to a stereo preamp with phono stage. The preamp connects to the WiiM Pro's "line in" from the preamp's "tape out" output with RCA stereo interconnect cables.

 

[ccristal]

Hi! Any update on this?
Thank you!

 

[d6jg]

Using WiiM with Roon (or LMS when beta is complete and rolled out) will provide this now.

 

[ccristal]

Using WiiM with Roon (or LMS when beta is complete and rolled out) will provide this now.

It's not the same thing. What if the devices I use as slaves are not Roon-ready?

 

[d6jg]

It's not the same thing. What if the devices I use as slaves are not Roon-ready?

The you are left with the WiiM alternative

 

[cc_rider]

I would like to know this too. The one reason I use multi-room is to play my turntable into one WiiM in one room, and listen to it in another room on my other WiiM. As I understand it, WiiM downsamples any hi-rez music to 16-bit/48kHz in multi-room transmissions between WiiMs. I think part of this is because of AirPlay 2 limits.

So it would be nice to listen to my vinyl at a higher resolution. That being said, I don't know what the specs are on the Pro's internal analog to digital converter are. If the internal ADC is not that good, then it won't matter. In a different thread, someone noted that the "line in" was 48 kHz.

At best, the dynamic range of LPs is 70 dB. A 16-bit digital path handles 96 dB without dithering, much more with dithering. So, it would be completely pointless to have anything more than 16 bits for streaming LPs throughout the house.

 

[Mr Ee]

At best, the dynamic range of LPs is 70 dB. A 16-bit digital path handles 96 dB without dithering, much more with dithering. So, it would be completely pointless to have anything more than 16 bits for streaming LPs throughout the house.

Nooooo....
I've seen the marketing light ( ) that shows distributing music with as high a sampling rate / bit depth as possible to be far superior, regardless of the origin.

 

[Guest1]

That seems to become quite normal. High digits are everything.
Connecting a serious turntable to a WiiM (with all due respect, I love this little box) and from the WiiM to a serious phono stage scares me already. Then expecting kind of upsampling for reaching this high digits and after all feeding the result into a multi room system makes it even worse. For me, others may of course see this different

 

[d6jg]

That seems to become quite normal. High digits are everything.
Connecting a serious turntable to a WiiM (with all due respect, I love this little box) and from the WiiM to a serious phono stage scares me already. Then expecting kind of upsampling for reaching this high digits and after all feeding the result into a multi room system makes it even worse. For me, others may of course see this different

The path needs to be Turntable -> Phono Stage -> WiiM -> wherever. The line in on the WiiM is just that - line level

 

[d6jg]

At best, the dynamic range of LPs is 70 dB. A 16-bit digital path handles 96 dB without dithering, much more with dithering. So, it would be completely pointless to have anything more than 16 bits for streaming LPs throughout the house.

I have the equipment to stream LPs (not using WiiM) and agree that 16/44.1 is more than sufficient however the audio quality is dependent upon the ADC used. A simple Behringer UCA202 works well but you get a much cleaner sound if you move up the tree a bit to a Focusrite where the device is then capable of 24/192 but the software chain I use is still limited to 16/44.1
The mechanism I use is ADC -> Raspberry Pi running Liquidsoap and Icecast2. It taked the ADC inut and streams it as 16/44.1 FLAC in an Ogg container.

 

[Guest1]

The path needs to be Turntable -> Phono Stage -> WiiM -> wherever. The line in on the WiiM is just that - line level

Dinnae teach yer Granny tae suck eggs

 

[d6jg]

Dinnae teach yer Granny tae suck eggs

I was merely correcting your (no doubt age related) mistake.

 

[Guest1]

I was merely correcting your (no doubt age related) mistake.

It was more about the idea to connect a turntable to any digital item. For what? The original sound of a LP will get lost anywhere. If this does not care for one it is ok. And your right, that is age related.

 

[d6jg]

It was more about the idea to connect a turntable to any digital item. For what? The original sound of a LP will get lost anywhere. If this does not care for one it is ok. And your right, that is age related.

Surprisingly the unique SQ doesn't get lost. It is just a means of playing LPs on a multi room basis and it still sounds like Vinyl unless you go mucking about with EQ etc - its like recording to a high quality cassette recorder but without the dreadful tape hiss

 

[Guest1]

Veto about the sound quality. Even the OAs will not manage to change my mind on this. I am sure we will not find a consensus, I am unteachable on this matter.

 

[simbun]

Veto about the sound quality. Even the OAs will not manage to change my mind on this. I am sure we will not find a consensus, I am unteachable on this matter.

Everyone has a bias, that's why we measure

 

[onlyoneme]

Hard biases are resistant to arguments.

 

[Guest1]

Thanks heaven

 

[Guest1]

The only thing I do really not understand is the idea to bring a good analog source to such multi-room-smart Echo or whatsoever toys? Or does everyone has every room stuffed with the same high quality analog stuff? If so, I could understand. No, I couldn't. (And all started with the wish to have more than 16/44 from a turntable somewhere above.)
This multi-room demand is the field where streaming has it's strength. From the more than 2.500 LPs waiting to be moved to here are may be 20 not available on the services. I can live with that issue
It is always my pure curiosity to understand one or another wish and will still remain asking...