Multiroom Setup Questions - Wired Speakers and Surround Sound Passthrough - WiiM Amp Pro

[feckman]

Hi All,

New member here -- I did a search but couldn't find exactly the information I'm looking for. Here's the (fairly complicated) scenario I'm hoping to get help with: my new house has 12 *wired* (passive) in-wall speaker zones. 10 of them are 2-channel (stereo), one of them is 5.1 channel, one of them is 7.1 channel. I am currently running a VERY old version of Control4 with two dedicated surround sound receivers for the home theaters (5.1 and 7.2) and a pair of ancient C4 audio matrix amps for the distributed 2-channel audio zones. In addition, a number of the 2-channel "drops" have simple TVs nearby.

It works (barely), but it's kludgy and I generally dislike C4's model so I am considering other options. One of them is Juke Audio and their Juke+ multiroom streaming amplifier. I would need two of these. The other option I'm looking at is a bunch of WiiM Amps or Amp Pros. Sonos Amps are also on the table. Control4 as a last resort.

What I want is the ability to address and control BOTH the 10 distributed stereo speaker groups AND the two surround sound speaker groups in the same app, so it is important that the chosen system have the ability to drive speakers directly (amplification) and pass surround sound data on to dedicated receivers (passthrough).

My family uses Spotify and Qobuz for audio streaming and all A/V sound originates *at the televisions* from Roku devices. There is ample wiring back to the centralized A/V rack from all TVs (CAT-5, RCA, COAX).

My questions:

1. Can the WiiM Amp or Amp Pro accept a 5.1 or 7.1 surround signal and simply pass it on to a dedicated receiver for decoding and to drive the home theater speakers (passthrough)?
2. Is there another WiiM product (maybe the Pro or Ultra?) that can do this instead?
3. If passthrough from any WiiM product is possible, would that same product be able to play streamed audio (say, Spotify) through the connected surround receiver as part of a larger multiroom group?
4. How are analog stereo inputs handled by the WiiM Amp or Amp Pro? I can see a situation where I am sending audio back to the A/V rack from, say, a bathroom Roku TV and playing the audio from the passive stereo in-ceiling speakers through the WiiM Amp. In that scenario, I would want to control the volume from the Roku remote. Possible?
5. Does anyone with a similar distributed passive multiroom setup have experience I haven't considered?

Many thanks in advance for any help or suggestions -- I am really trying to button everything up as a gift to my family for Christmas, so I only have a few weeks to get it done!

Thanks again,

--Jim.

 

[Wiimer]

Hi All,

New member here -- I did a search but couldn't find exactly the information I'm looking for. Here's the (fairly complicated) scenario I'm hoping to get help with: my new house has 12 *wired* (passive) in-wall speaker zones. 10 of them are 2-channel (stereo), one of them is 5.1 channel, one of them is 7.1 channel. I am currently running a VERY old version of Control4 with two dedicated surround sound receivers for the home theaters (5.1 and 7.2) and a pair of ancient C4 audio matrix amps for the distributed 2-channel audio zones. In addition, a number of the 2-channel "drops" have simple TVs nearby.

It works (barely), but it's kludgy and I generally dislike C4's model so I am considering other options. One of them is Juke Audio and their Juke+ multiroom streaming amplifier. I would need two of these. The other option I'm looking at is a bunch of WiiM Amps or Amp Pros. Sonos Amps are also on the table. Control4 as a last resort.

What I want is the ability to address and control BOTH the 10 distributed stereo speaker groups AND the two surround sound speaker groups in the same app, so it is important that the chosen system have the ability to drive speakers directly (amplification) and pass surround sound data on to dedicated receivers (passthrough).

My family uses Spotify and Qobuz for audio streaming and all A/V sound originates *at the televisions* from Roku devices. There is ample wiring back to the centralized A/V rack from all TVs (CAT-5, RCA, COAX).

My questions:

1. Can the WiiM Amp or Amp Pro accept a 5.1 or 7.1 surround signal and simply pass it on to a dedicated receiver for decoding and to drive the home theater speakers (passthrough)?
2. Is there another WiiM product (maybe the Pro or Ultra?) that can do this instead?
3. If passthrough from any WiiM product is possible, would that same product be able to play streamed audio (say, Spotify) through the connected surround receiver as part of a larger multiroom group?
4. How are analog stereo inputs handled by the WiiM Amp or Amp Pro? I can see a situation where I am sending audio back to the A/V rack from, say, a bathroom Roku TV and playing the audio from the passive stereo in-ceiling speakers through the WiiM Amp. In that scenario, I would want to control the volume from the Roku remote. Possible?
5. Does anyone with a similar distributed passive multiroom setup have experience I haven't considered?

Many thanks in advance for any help or suggestions -- I am really trying to button everything up as a gift to my family for Christmas, so I only have a few weeks to get it done!

Thanks again,

--Jim.

Hi, welcome.

I can only answer your first question, unfortunately the WiiM can only output 2.1ch at the moment, the Amp pro can input Dolby audio but not surround playback.

Previously, the WiiM Team mentioned plans to group two WiiM devices together to support wireless 4.1-channel surround sound, but it is still unclear when that will happen. (It may not happen.)

 

[feckman]

Hi, welcome.

I can only answer your first question, unfortunately the WiiM can only output 2.1ch at the moment, the Amp pro can input Dolby audio but not surround playback.

Previously, the WiiM Team mentioned plans to group two WiiM devices together to support wireless 4.1-channel surround sound, but it is still unclear when that will happen. (It may not happen.)

Thanks for your reply! To clarify -- I am not looking for surround playback (processing) from the WiiM device, just passthrough to a dedicated surround sound receiver. Do any WiiM devices support audio signal passthrough?

Thanks again.

 

[Burnside]

I believe not.

 

[feckman]

Maybe I'm overthinking this. Here's another thought -- what if I go with a WiiM Amp for each of the stereo zones and then a WiiM Ultra attached to each of the two surround sound receivers? Then add a smart remote and IR repeater of some kind to control the receivers from the home theater setups?

If my main concerns are maintaining 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound for the home theaters while *also* allowing them to participate in multiroom audio, this would seem to address both issues since WiiM amps and WiiM streamers can all join the same multiroom setups, correct?

 

[Mr Ee]

Right now, the delay introduced by putting wiims in a group will almost certainly cause insurmountable lip sync issues.
The forthcoming low latency multiroom grouping should reduce this delay significantly, but whether it will be enough for many / all such HT applications remains to be seen.