Pairing WiiM Amp with Windows 11 PC

K

Kerans

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Joined
Dec 4, 2024
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Hi, I've read a few other threads with issues around BT pairing but none of them quite match what I'm seeing.

I have a feedback ticket open with support but maybe someone in the community can help too.

What I want to do is play the normal desktop audio from my PC, via Bluetooth, through the WiiM Amp. So using the Bluetooth Audio Input on the Amp.

I have been able to stream audio from PC->Amp over ethernet/wifi using swyh-rs but this is not useful for me as it has significant latency (4-6s), and even the best theoretical latency of 250ms the dev quotes is too much really. I have used a 3.5mm to Phono cable but I would prefer to keep things digital up to the Amp if possible. My PC does not have a coax or optical digital out. I tried connecting to a spare HDMI port on my Nvidia GPU but the Amp is not detected in Nvidia Control Panel ("No audio capable display available") even when HDMI input is selected on the Amp.

I can put the Amp into BT Pairing mode, with a flashing green light. I can find the Amp in Bluetooth devices in Windows and add it as a device. However it gets added as a Bluetooth Peripheral Device or Media Renderer, not as an Audio Output Device. I can't select the Amp as an Output Device in Windows, it's not in any of the lists. The green BT pairing light on the Amp never stops flashing, and eventually I assume times out and goes dim.

I have some Sony XM3 BT headphones that work fine with the PC. Nothing changes if I disconnect these before attempting to pair with the Amp. I can pair these headphones fine as an output on the Amp (I can listen to audio from other sources over BT to my headphones) so the BT on the Amp is working to some extent. I have updated my motherboard BT/wireless drivers (Intel) to the latest version.

I'm wondering if I'm missing something, like is this use case even supported by the WiiM Amp?

Thanks in advance for any help.
 
The WiiM Amp user manual says the audio inputs are HDMI ARC, Optical, RCA. If you want to use the HDMI input, the NVIDIA card would have to be able to output an HDMI eARC signal. I don't think NVIDIA cards can do this.

As far as sending a signal from the PC to the WiiM Amp do you see a Bluetooth Input as an Audio Input choice in the WiiM home app?
 
In courageous attempt to be as little helpful as possible 😁 I just tried this with my WiiM Amp Pro and a Windows 10 PC. It worked straight away.

My only initial problem was that I had the TV switched on and connected through HDMI, so the Bluetooth input did not keep the focus for long enough to get the pairing done: auto sensing would keep switching back to HDMI after a couple of seconds. Once I switched off the TV the pairing was straight forward and the WiiM Amp did show up as an Audio Bluetooth device.

Next (and to make it a tad more relevant) I connected the same Windows 10 PC to my WiiM Amp. Same result, pairing went fast and smooth with the WiiM Amp showing up as a loudspeaker with its own output mixer.

I was mightily surprised and impressed by the extremely low latency with both, the WiiM Amp and the WiiM Amp Pro. Easily good enough for watching YouTube videos of speakers and guitar players! Wow. What's different in Windows 11? I don't have a clue.

Doublej said:
... the NVIDIA card would have to be able to output an HDMI eARC signal.
Click to expand...
ARC, not eARC to be precise. :)
 
Thanks for the replies!

Yes I guessed as much about the NVIDIA outputs, it was kind of a hail mary attempt after all the other things I tried...

I do see Bluetooth Input fine, and when I switch to it the BT pairing starts (I think? Green flashing light on the Amp). I switch away from it and back each time I want to try pairing again.

Glad to hear it worked for you @harkpabst I'm glad it's at least possible and supported. Makes me think that there might be something up with either my motherboard/BT or Windows 11 itself. I'll see if I can find a little BT dongle tomorrow and whether I can connect through that instead.
 
Well I dusted off an older Windows 10 Laptop, and the Amp connected to it first time as a speaker/output device for audio, and the connection/quality is fine (although the Amp or the laptop BT does seem to aggressively "sleep" and briefly lose connection if there's no audio for a while, but that's a separate issue).

So there's something about Windows 11, Intel Z790 Bluetooth or another part of this PC that doesn't currently like the WiiM Amp. (I do have the Wifi/BT antenna connected). I'll continue trying to sort it and will post back if I ever figure it out.

Thanks for the advice/testing!
 
In the end I downloaded (and paid for) this alternative Bluetooth Driver, which unlike the Windows 11 driver, works. I now have my Amp and my Sony headphones as output options in Windows, and everything plays fine.

In fact if I use the "revert to Windows driver" functionality in the software, it fails to install. So it seems there is something up with Win 11 Bluetooth.

Alternative A2DP Driver

www.bluetoothgoodies.com www.bluetoothgoodies.com

With this driver I can also select AAC as a codec for a higher quality stream. LDAP and aptX don't seem to be supported by the WiiM Amp though.
 
Are you up to date with all of the Windows, Intel, and Computer (Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc.) patches and drivers? This is the only possible reason (old code) I can think of as to why you would need a third party product to solve your issue
 
Yeah all on the very latest versions of all chipset/system drivers. Tried uninstalling and reinstalling BT. There seem to be quite a lot of people having similar issues with BT speakers on Win 11, which is where I eventually found the link to that driver. At $9 with AAC it was a lot cheaper than a high quality phono-3.5mm lead or a new BT adapter/optical out!
 
Kerans said:
In the end I downloaded (and paid for) this alternative Bluetooth Driver, which unlike the Windows 11 driver, works. I now have my Amp and my Sony headphones as output options in Windows, and everything plays fine.

In fact if I use the "revert to Windows driver" functionality in the software, it fails to install. So it seems there is something up with Win 11 Bluetooth.

Alternative A2DP Driver

www.bluetoothgoodies.com www.bluetoothgoodies.com

With this driver I can also select AAC as a codec for a higher quality stream. LDAP and aptX don't seem to be supported by the WiiM Amp though.
Click to expand...
What's your experience concerning the delay with this driver?
 
It’s just about perceptible, but very good. It’d be great if the WiiM Amp would support aptX low latency.

The worst thing with BT on the Amp so far is it seems to sleep if there’s no audio for a while, so audio takes 1-2 seconds to come through sometimes (it sounds like it fades up) but maybe there is a setting to stop this happening. I thought I turned off the fades but I reset the Amp to factory a few times while troubleshooting so maybe it turned back on…
 
Kerans said:
The worst thing with BT on the Amp so far is it seems to sleep if there’s no audio for a while, so audio takes 1-2 seconds to come through sometimes (it sounds like it fades up) but maybe there is a setting to stop this happening. I thought I turned off the fades but I reset the Amp to factory a few times while troubleshooting so maybe it turned back on…
Click to expand...
It looks like this Bluetooth fade-in is not controlled by the Fade-In &Fade-Out Effects switch in the general Audio Settings.
 
I think the slowness is inherent to the BT circuitry. When I press a button on the BT remote it takes 3-5 seconds for the input to be processed. Drove me nuts at first because I thought something was wrong with my unit but I came to realize it's just slow.
 
Although I have no use-case for this (I have a Windows 10 mini PC with digital out capable external sound card connected to my AMP), I was intrigued, so have just given it a try with my Microsoft Surface Laptop Go running Windows 11 v24H2.

It worked straight away and Windows recognises the AMP as an audio output device with volume mixer. So guessing the issue is not specifically Windows 11 but the always challenging combination of different hardware/software/drivers...

amp_PCBT.jpg
 
harkpabst said:
It looks like this Bluetooth fade-in is not controlled by the Fade-In &Fade-Out Effects switch in the general Audio Settings.
Click to expand...
As this was continuing to annoy me I did some more searching, which led me to a comment somewhere advising to disable the AVRCP Transport device for the WiiM Amp in the Windows Device Manager.

This device is supposedly able to enable functionality like fading out audio sources when you get a phonecall, or controlling the BT source using controls on the BT playback device, I think. Since I just want the Amp to play back all audio, warts and all, from my PC, I don't think I need it.

So I've disabled WiiM Amp Avrcp Transport under Bluetooth in Device Manager and it's early days but (touch wood) it now no longer fades audio when I hop between browser, music player, games etc on my PC.
 
Kerans said:
As this was continuing to annoy me I did some more searching, which led me to a comment somewhere advising to disable the AVRCP Transport device for the WiiM Amp in the Windows Device Manager.

This device is supposedly able to enable functionality like fading out audio sources when you get a phonecall, or controlling the BT source using controls on the BT playback device, I think. Since I just want the Amp to play back all audio, warts and all, from my PC, I don't think I need it.

So I've disabled WiiM Amp Avrcp Transport under Bluetooth in Device Manager and it's early days but (touch wood) it now no longer fades audio when I hop between browser, music player, games etc on my PC.
Click to expand...
I don't see anything specific to fade-in and fade-out in the Wikipedia description of the AVRCP profile ...
en.m.wikipedia.org

List of Bluetooth profiles - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org
... but that doesn't mean it's not happening. Makes sense, since it's in control of absolute volume.

If this is still the same on windows 11, the device manager by default only shows the AVRC Controller. There's also a (hidden) AVRC Target device, but obviously there's no need to disable that as well.

Good catch.
 
The one (maybe expected) drawback is the windows volume control no longer works (and neither does the volume control on my keyboard) -the Amp volume has to be manually changed. Application volume controls still work, but this might be too much of a functionality trade-off for some people.
 
Well, that was a fun little exercise. I'm not sure if this was the goal on the original post, but it prompted me to see I could get iTunes to play on the WiiM Amp.
Without much trouble I was able to Bluetooth the amp to my PC which is extremely old and not even on Win 11.
PC found the amp right away and I am able to use good old iTunes to playback through the amp. It will even let me skip and pause, but I can't see my library to pick particular songs. (from the WiiM App)
I also noticed that it seemed to have switched from Bluetooth to Wi-Fi connection to PC/iTunes.
Anyway, I never thought I'd be able to resurrect such old hardware and iTunes but it works.
Thanks!
 
Last edited:
Woody said:
Well, that was a fun little exercise. I'm not sure if this was the goal on the original post, but it prompted me to see I could get iTunes to play on the WiiM Amp.
Without much trouble I was able to Bluetooth the amp to my PC which is extremely old and not even on Win 11.
PC found the amp right away and I am able to use good old iTunes to playback through the amp. It will even let me skip and pause, but I can't see my library to pick particular songs. (from the WiiM App)
I also noticed that it seemed to have switched from Bluetooth to Wi-Fi connection to PC/iTunes.
Anyway, I never thought I'd be able to resurrect such old hardware and iTunes but it works.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Isn’t iTunes using Airplay from the PC?
 
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