No equilization applied to online music, out to bluetooth speakers

[Donn Dubuque]

The user manual is pretty bereft in this area, in fact limited to a couple of sentences, although there is a rather substantial posting on the workings of the parametric equilizer, but the manual states that "eq settings can be assigned to different sources, such as AUX In, online music, or bluetooth streaming". Yes, and I see that on the Home App there is a widget which takes you to a settings page where the equilization page setting is one if the options, so it appears to be part of the system.

However, these settings do nothing if ones output from the Pro Plus device is to a bluetooth speaker. Neither live on the go, so to speak while music is streamed, or after setting a specific curve and then restarting the stream. In short, no eqilization either from a user applied setting or any of the 26 or so presets.

So what gives? The small bluetooth speakers (not my smallest!), if tweaked with a bit of equilization, can sound pretty good from my handheld phone over bluetooth, I just wanted something to integrate a few things like my various streaming services, my tv sound, and pcm output from an older cd player fed by an extensive collection going back 40 years, mostly collected on coast to coast trips with a car cd player in the days way before satellite radio. But if I cant get these speakers sounding halfway decent, its all for naught.

So what am I missing? Is there some setting buried in the user interface that applies that eq to the online music stream, or to the wifi stream, or to some other part if the system? I think I've gone through every settings page in the system, and don't see anything that directly applies more than what I've found. So is this a limitation (odd for the number of bluetooth speakers out there) or a s/w glitch in the latest update that my new machine downloaded just as I hooked it up today.

 

[Mr Ee]

The user manual is pretty bereft in this area, in fact limited to a couple of sentences, although there is a rather substantial posting on the workings of the parametric equilizer, but the manual states that "eq settings can be assigned to different sources, such as AUX In, online music, or bluetooth streaming". Yes, and I see that on the Home App there is a widget which takes you to a settings page where the equilization page setting is one if the options, so it appears to be part of the system.

However, these settings do nothing if ones output from the Pro Plus device is to a bluetooth speaker. Neither live on the go, so to speak while music is streamed, or after setting a specific curve and then restarting the stream. In short, no eqilization either from a user applied setting or any of the 26 or so presets.

So what gives? The small bluetooth speakers (not my smallest!), if tweaked with a bit of equilization, can sound pretty good from my handheld phone over bluetooth, I just wanted something to integrate a few things like my various streaming services, my tv sound, and pcm output from an older cd player fed by an extensive collection going back 40 years, mostly collected on coast to coast trips with a car cd player in the days way before satellite radio. But if I cant get these speakers sounding halfway decent, its all for naught.

So what am I missing? Is there some setting buried in the user interface that applies that eq to the online music stream, or to the wifi stream, or to some other part if the system? I think I've gone through every settings page in the system, and don't see anything that directly applies more than what I've found. So is this a limitation (odd for the number of bluetooth speakers out there) or a s/w glitch in the latest update that my new machine downloaded just as I hooked it up today.

From a post in the facebook group:

"Bluetooth/Airplay output does not support EQ and audio balance"

 

[Brantome]

Submit a feature request ticket thru the feedback section in the WiiM home app for this to be added - the more who do, the better chance they’ll implement it.

I received this reply when I did so a few days back: “We are aware of the issue you've mentioned where the EQ effects and Volume Balance are not functioning as expected with AirPlay Casting and Bluetooth output. Please know that this matter is being taken seriously, and our engineering team is actively discussing potential solutions to resolve it.”

 

[Donn Dubuque]

Ok, so what other outputs are there that don't support the EQ. Easy enough to get a cheap bluetooth transmitter to plug into the rca/outside. May eventually swap out my bluetooth speakers for a real reciever and speakers (already figured the bt out downsampled things to 16b/44.1k) but all this is for my bedroom right now. Kind of a test bed for my big surround setup in the lv rm.

 

[Brantome]

Bluetooth is a lossy compressed protocol and even at its best with recent higher quality codecs still doesn’t reach the quality of lossless CD that a simple “16/44.1” label might imply. The codecs that WiiM devices use are the universal SBC/AAC codecs which are comparable to a 160-320kbps MP3. See https://www.soundguys.com/understanding-bluetooth-codecs-15352/

 

[Mr Ee]

Ok, so what other outputs are there that don't support the EQ.

None. It was implied in what I posted, as it was the list of outputs that do not (currently at least) support EQ.
The full quote stated:
"Bluetooth/Airplay output does not support EQ and audio balance, other outputs can support."

 

[Brantome]

None. It was implied in what I posted, as it was the list of outputs that do not (currently at least) support EQ.
The full quote stated:
"Bluetooth/Airplay output does not support EQ and audio balance, other outputs can support."

Must admit to being a little confused as to why they can’t - I would have assumed that the three stages of input, signal processing and output were fairly independent, unless for reasons like latency when using input from an external source like a tv you’d want to minimise time by skipping any processing and jumping straight to output for better lip sync etc. But given I have no knowledge of their signal pipeline, that’s just wild speculation…

 

[Donn Dubuque]

Testing proves that not only does the EQ not work on the bluetooth but neither on the line out as well, I may get around to testing the optical later on today, but I couldn't get to sleep thinking there was a was to dig out some longer rca cables to hook up my bluetooth speakers (they have line inputs) and voila, sound but no EQ. I'll bet at this point that the EQ doesnt work at all to any output, since I have now proved that 2 out of 3 dont. Btw, I tried both graphic and parametric, no go on either. I have many long toslink cables so I dont have to dig very far into a box of old cables, before hdmi I had an hd setup with a huge number of cables wiring up my systems, in including fiber for audio.

Anyway, unless the programmers can rectify their mistake quickly, I have a month before I have to send this unit back for refund, I have another way to go that I was going to proceed on, and it looks like I can, and maybe some time in the future things can get sorted out.

 

[Brantome]

Testing proves that not only does the EQ not work on the bluetooth but neither on the line out as well, I may get around to testing the optical later on today, but I couldn't get to sleep thinking there was a was to dig out some longer rca cables to hook up my bluetooth speakers (they have line inputs) and voila, sound but no EQ. I'll bet at this point that the EQ doesnt work at all to any output, since I have now proved that 2 out of 3 dont. Btw, I tried both graphic and parametric, no go on either. I have many long toslink cables so I dont have to dig very far into a box of old cables, before hdmi I had an hd setup with a huge number of cables wiring up my systems, in including fiber for audio.

Anyway, unless the programmers can rectify their mistake quickly, I have a month before I have to send this unit back for refund, I have another way to go that I was going to proceed on, and it looks like I can, and maybe some time in the future things can get sorted out.

I think there might be an issue with the iPad app as changes there don’t seem to have any effect, while my Android phone app effects the changes certainly for line out - I think bluetooth and Airplay casting is a separate matter.

I’ll submit another ticket to WiiM re the iPad app.