Popping/clicking when switching tracks

[AdieH]

Hi all,

I've had this problem since I got my WiiM Mini about 3 months ago. Each time you click "next", or select a new track, in each case while another track is playing, there is a pause (which is normal) followed my a clicking/popping sound before it plays the selected track. There is no clicking/popping if you simply let the one track play and then move to the next, automatically.

I am using Qobuz (thru the WiiM app), but this also happens with Spotify connect.

Hardware is a Denafrips Ares II DAC with a QED cable optical cable.

The release notes from a few months ago identified this as an issue, but it said it was solved. I don't think it is. (The issue was described as:"Popping noise coming through speaker's when changing tracks when using optical output to DAC optical in").

When I logged a ticket (after the release notes claimed it was "solved") they said they are working on it, suggesting it was indeed, not solved. But, the issue persists.

Any ideas? Does anyone else have the same issue, or the same hardware, with no issue?

Cheers,

Adrian

 

[Mistabowjangles]

Out of curiosity, have you tried and set "Enter standby mode in" to "Never" ?
This should avoid that the Wiim digital output switches off when not playing anything...

yes. first thing i tried. it clearly doesn't do what it suggests it does.

no. its more fundamental than that i'm afraid. no airplay no signal. indeed when the volume on my phone is set to zero, output also goes low, and unlock state follows. putting the volume back up, creates white noise and pops followed by a lock. in these cases its a very grim solution.

they've provided me a white list firmware that has helped with advancing to new albums and in some cases switching source applications. but until wiim can achieve a full lock all the time (save for rate changes, thou all mine are 44.1/16bit) then for me, it will have to go back.

 

[Mistabowjangles]

i've sent mine back now. i'm not willing to tolerate the lack of honesty from the makers of wiim.

they respond within 24hrs of a ticket and do nothing after. i gave them 3 weeks, i said look "tell me you have a plan, tell me you understand the problem". nothing.

i'd advise those that can return, do so. don't play out their waiting game. speak about their quality by walking away. tolerating sub standard is a fools game.

i gave the guys a month. that should be anyones benchmark. take back control other manufacturers are listening.

 

[WiiM Support]

i've sent mine back now. i'm not willing to tolerate the lack of honesty from the makers of wiim.

they respond within 24hrs of a ticket and do nothing after. i gave them 3 weeks, i said look "tell me you have a plan, tell me you understand the problem". nothing.

i'd advise those that can return, do so. don't play out their waiting game. speak about their quality by walking away. tolerating sub standard is a fools game.

i gave the guys a month. that should be anyones benchmark. take back control other manufacturers are listening.

Hi there,

Sorry to hear you had a problem with your Mini. Some DACs have trouble handling the optical signal Off/ON when changing the sample rate. Our latest firmware fixed this issue and many users confirmed the fix for their DAC. However, I need clarification on why leads you to think we are not honest. Please let me know what happens when you work with us. I'll get this resolved as soon as possible for you.

The product could be better, but we want to keep as much transparency with our users as possible. Thank you!

 

[Mistabowjangles]

Hi there,

Sorry to hear you had a problem with your Mini. Some DACs have trouble handling the optical signal Off/ON when changing the sample rate. Our latest firmware fixed this issue and many users confirmed the fix for their DAC. However, I need clarification on why leads you to think we are not honest. Please let me know what happens when you work with us. I'll get this resolved as soon as possible for you.

The product could be better, but we want to keep as much transparency with our users as possible. Thank you!

as i said. you don't fully understand the problem.

i've raised several tickets re: my dac not being locked after wiim mini boot and on the volume going to zero and when switching phone applications and input source. all theses states of going from unlock to lock creates huge amounts of white noise and pops etc.

i have suggested even to you a solution; which is always even in the absence of an airplay signal (which airplay will drop on switching phone applications) to maintain (in my case my wiim application setting of 44.1/16bit) clock output to ensure my dac does not unlock. i don't even listen to any material outside of these rates. the fundamental issue you have is on no airplay signal, wiim mini does not output a clock to any dac. you need to understand how you can permenantly maintain a clock at all times. as a i said 4 weeks ago. a basic compact disc transport does this. when nothing is playing and a cd, blu ray transport will lock my dac.

now you have failed for over a week to reply to these points, and i have asked you daily on my ticket to give me a progress report. you haven't. i have also been very specific: "do you understand the problem and will you have a plan"

i cannot afford to sit around waiting for you to reply. i have a return window for the product and i started this journey a month ago and many of the issues remain unresolved and you have left me with zero confidence it will be resolved.

maybe when you can unequivocally demonstrate you have fixed the points i outline above, i may come back. its too late now. its gone back and you had daily warnings.

 

[onlyoneme]

i have suggested even to you a solution; which is always even in the absence of an airplay signal (which airplay will drop on switching phone applications) to maintain (in my case my wiim application setting of 44.1/16bit) clock output to ensure my dac does not unlock. i don't even listen to any material outside of these rates. the fundamental issue you have is on no airplay signal, wiim mini does not output a clock to any dac. you need to understand how you can permenantly maintain a clock at all times. as a i said 4 weeks ago. a basic compact disc transport does this. when nothing is playing and a cd, blu ray transport will lock my dac.

Unfortunately it looks like you think that you're the only WiiM user in the world... If you convince Linkplay to add a switch to force transmit zero samples when nothing is played in fact, just to have a DAC locked - fine. But implementing such change as the default and the only behavior is unacceptable for me.
And the reason is simple - WiiMs have no power off switch in contrary to CD players or TVs.

 

[Mistabowjangles]

then have an option to turn on and off. simple.

thats for your input. such that it was.

 

[onlyoneme]

So you had the request for a new feature to be added and you've expected it to be implemented with the highest priority, right?

 

[Mistabowjangles]

So you had the request for a new feature to be added and you've expected it to be implemented with the highest priority, right?

which bit of my reply did you miss that said i asked them daily if they had a plan, that they understood problem. that started a month ago. at least a few honest responses to my tickets would've done. i cant sit on a product waiting to decide, if what is a fundamental issue, can or cannot be resolved

and which bit of: i only have a month to return do you not appreciate.

and for the record perphaps only you and 30 others want your dac unlocked. many audiophiles like their kit to remain warm. however as i said i'm more than happy to see an 'always live or not' feature to satisfy everyone.

now, if you have nothing actually constructive to say, i'd appreciate you not replying to me.

thanks

 

[onlyoneme]

I've reported one of my issues 6 months ago and I'm patiently waiting for it to leave pending review state. The issue with unnecessary digital port switching which has been solved recently, I've reported in January. And I was patiently waiting.
You had a request to implement a behavior which doesn't exist because your old DAC cannot handle any interrupts in spdif transmission. Fine, but it's a feature which would affect also 12v triggering and input autosensing as they are related to the standby mode. Customization better than just one standby setting would be a nice addon to adapt to different expectations, but it's not a simple bug fixing.

 

[Mistabowjangles]

patiently or not if you have £100 to spunk. fine. i dont.

this is a fundamental issue of audio quality playback. it is regression. it is something i do not experience with a record deck. a cassette deck, or any cd transport. it is regression.

this is not the wiim app failing to iterate thru albums on a kodi upnp service. it is a core feature.

this is stonking white noise thru a £1500 theta dac, into a £2,500 krell amp and into £1,500 of dynaudio speakers. it is regression.

the wiim manufactures just have to come clean and say if they can or cant give me a perm. clock as a £40 blu ray player can.

as i said i have no problem with robust customisation, so long as it achieves the stated aims. i purchased this item to advance on my 20yr old airport express first gen, that has not given me the same problems using the *same* dac -i now return to it.

 

[Smartplug]

There’s no such product on earth that’s perfect regardless of price. All music streamer regardless of cost has issue. This is why bug fixing never ends, look at the forum on other streamer they too facing issue from users.

 

[Mistabowjangles]

why you having a go at me when this is you. coming across the same issues as me

i geniunely love music and not gimmicks. i want my actual *audio* to be fautless and i've spent a great deal of money getting to that. if the wiim manufacturers dont wont to be part of that journey because they have introduced white noise and pops and wont tell me if this is fixable, then it goes back. this is core functionality. it should perform like this off the shelf, end of story.

too many accept perpetual failure that a next service pack will hopefully fix. don't. stop doing that. expect better. so with respect dont have a go a me for bad choices others make. i have 28 days to return a product. many didn't and they're still on here moaning about it. patient, hopeful **not hearing anything** i've no problem with the decision i've made.

https://wiim.community.forum/threads/popping-clicking-when-switching-tracks.181/page-5#post-9081

 

[Smartplug]

I don’t have issue anymore since I have several dacs. I’m just like the rest waiting till they release peq.

 

[Smartplug]

You may want to try nad cs1 and see if that has no issue. Good luck on your next product choice.

 

[Mistabowjangles]

You may want to try nad cs1 and see if that has no issue. Good luck on your next product choice.

my requirements are very minimal. like many on here. a basic streamer to output to external dac. free of noise.

i want my dac loc locked by streamer after it boots.
i want my dac to remain locked as i move from one phone application to another.
i want my dac to remain locked when i set my phone volume to zero.
at no point should a streamer create any noise as you skip tracks or albums in the same app.

any streamer that does this is regression for me. and its quite obvious to most, if they are truthful, its not acceptable.

the important thing is lessons have been learn't whether by me or the manufacturers, who i suspect aren't audiophiles.

what makes it worse, but looks better is the ticket system. they reply in 24hours then nothing. no polite, still looking into it etc. without a ticketing system i would have sent it back in the first week. no, in this way they keep you hanging on. locked in. don't play the game. be swift and sharp and walk away. simple.

 

[Smartplug]

my requirements are very minimal. like many on here. a basic streamer to output to external dac. free of noise.

i want my dac loc locked by streamer after it boots.
i want my dac to remain locked as i move from one phone application to another.
i want my dac to remain locked when i set my phone volume to zero.
at no point should a streamer create any noise as you skip tracks or albums in the same app.

any streamer that does this is regression for me. and its quite obvious to most, if they are truthful, its not acceptable.

the important thing is lessons have been learn't whether by me or the manufacturers, who i suspect aren't audiophiles.

what makes it worse, but looks better is the ticket system. they reply in 24hours then nothing. no polite, still looking into it etc. without a ticketing system i would have sent it back in the first week. no, in this way they keep you hanging on. locked in. don't play the game. be swift and sharp and walk away. simple.

Well, wiim did not work for you so the next logical thing to do is try another product. This is why there’s a return window of 30 days if expectations are not met.

 

[Mistabowjangles]

wiim don't offer that tdf. the company who sold it me do, but either way triggers consumer protection act.

 

[onlyoneme]

my requirements are very minimal. like many on here. a basic streamer to output to external dac. free of noise.

i want my dac loc locked by streamer after it boots.
i want my dac to remain locked as i move from one phone application to another.
i want my dac to remain locked when i set my phone volume to zero.
at no point should a streamer create any noise as you skip tracks or albums in the same app.

any streamer that does this is regression for me. and its quite obvious to most, if they are truthful, its not acceptable.

the important thing is lessons have been learn't whether by me or the manufacturers, who i suspect aren't audiophiles.

what makes it worse, but looks better is the ticket system. they reply in 24hours then nothing. no polite, still looking into it etc. without a ticketing system i would have sent it back in the first week. no, in this way they keep you hanging on. locked in. don't play the game. be swift and sharp and walk away. simple.

Everybody knows already how much did you pay for your DAC and that you did return you WiiM, so why still complaining? Maybe listen to yourself, "be swift and sharp and walk away".

 

[Mistabowjangles]

Everybody knows already how much did you pay for your DAC and that you did return you WiiM, so why still complaining? Maybe listen to yourself, "be swift and sharp and walk away".

thought i'd said to you never to reply to me again unless you've something constructive to say.

i'm not replying to you. i'm in a conversation with someone else. so off you pop. and seriously stop replying to me.

for the avoidance of doubt and for all on here: i'm more than happy to share my experiences with those who've been on a similar journey and more than happy to monitor from this day forth, if the wiim guys fix the issues raised by those on here. i've no skin in this game.

 

[onlyoneme]

I will start being constructive when replying to you if you start to be constructive instead of constant complaining. Simple as that.