Why oh why?

Sliphorn

Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2023
Messages
53
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Hello all,

I’m about to give up on my three mini’s. I have a strong WiFi signal, use my iPad for either Amazon or Qobuz and when I cast music directly from either of their apps/sites, I get bobbles, mini dropouts, several second dropouts, stutters, on every tune. It can’t make it through one lousy tune without a hitch. I have raised multiple tickets and nothing is ever fixed. If I cast from within the WiiM app there are no such problems. But that limits the amount of music I can play from any given artist and other pain in the rear stuff.

I have rebooted this, that, and the other and tried everything WiiM support has suggested to no avail. I contacted my internet service provider and they suggested I go down to 2.4g, so they set up a separate 2.4g network. No difference. Absolutely none. All the glitches are there, so I went back to the 5g network. This is very frustrating.

Any and all suggestions are welcome.

Thanks
..
 
When you say casting, what do you mean? Qobuz doesn’t have a casting mechanism, so are you using airplay or Bluetooth for both it and Amazon Music?

Have you linked your WiiM Home app to Alexa so that you can directly cast from from the Amazon Music app to your WiiM devices?

When you use the Wiim Home app to play Amazon Music or Qobuz (which isn’t casting, just playing), you have full access to each of their libraries, so I don’t understand how that limits access or the amount of music you can play, nor what you mean by “other pain in the rear stuff” - could you expand on both please?

Have you also tested that your devices have a good strong wifi signal on an uncongested channel, free from interference from other electrical/electronic devices? You can use the iOS airport utility wifi scan option to ascertain some of this.
 
Kinda agree with @Brantome first point may be an issue. Are you using Bluetooth by mistake. Sometimes if you have paired with devices they pick up bluetooth immediately and amhd or qobuz from your phone may just be defaulting to Bluetooth.
 
I think it’s more likely to be AirPlay that Amazon & Qobuz are defaulting to but whether it’s Bluetooth or Airplay both require the iPad to act as a relay which doubles the WiFi bandwidth usage.
How old is the iPad ?
 
When you say casting, what do you mean? Qobuz doesn’t have a casting mechanism, so are you using airplay or Bluetooth for both it and Amazon Music?

Have you linked your WiiM Home app to Alexa so that you can directly cast from from the Amazon Music app to your WiiM devices?

When you use the Wiim Home app to play Amazon Music or Qobuz (which isn’t casting, just playing), you have full access to each of their libraries, so I don’t understand how that limits access or the amount of music you can play, nor what you mean by “other pain in the rear stuff” - could you expand on both please?

Have you also tested that your devices have a good strong wifi signal on an uncongested channel, free from interference from other electrical/electronic devices? You can use the iOS airport utility wifi scan option to ascertain some of this.
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Thanks, my terminology is incorrect. I use Airplay, never Bluetooth. The WiiM Home app is linked to Alexa. As far as access to the libraries of Qobuz or Amazon when using the WiiM Home app, there are certain artists albums that are not available whereas on their apps they are available. Also I have not figured out how to add an album to the que when using the WiiM app, never a problem when using their apps. So, pain in the rear, probably because I have not figured out how to do it.
My nearest neighbor is a half mile away. I have a rural fiber broadband isp. There is no congestion. The WiiM app says signal strength is very good and sometimes excellent. So does my isp.
My iPad is three months old and has the latest update, The bottom line is when playing music from either Qobuz or Amazon, there are glitches. Lots of glitches. Not so when playing music from the WiiM app.

Thanks
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If both play fine from within the wiim app then that indicates that it's not a wifi problem.
As for using Amazon, if your mini is linked to Alexa properly then you should be able to alexacast (round icon) to the mini which is effectively the same as amazon from within the wiim app. If you're having issues with amazon from the amazon app that implies you're not using alexacast.

When you say "The WiiM Home app is linked to Alexa", can we check that we mean the same thing?
In the wiim home app. Browse menu, music services, amazon alexa. Then, still in wiim app, go to the Device menu, click the cog (settings), then toggle on hd/uhd within the amazon alexa settings menu

As for qobuz, maybe try another app, such as mconnect (apple) or bubbleupnp if you have an android device.
Else you'll have to wait for qobuz connect!
 
If both play fine from within the wiim app then that indicates that it's not a wifi problem.
As for using Amazon, if your mini is linked to Alexa properly then you should be able to alexacast (round icon) to the mini which is effectively the same as amazon from within the wiim app. If you're having issues with amazon from the amazon app that implies you're not using alexacast.

When you say "The WiiM Home app is linked to Alexa", can we check that we mean the same thing?
In the wiim home app. Browse menu, music services, amazon alexa. Then, still in wiim app, go to the Device menu, click the cog (settings), then toggle on hd/uhd within the amazon alexa settings menu

As for qobuz, maybe try another app, such as mconnect (apple) or bubbleupnp if you have an android device.
Else you'll have to wait for qobuz connect!
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Thanks, yes, concerning Alexa, I have done all of that, so I am using alexacast.
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Have you tried various combinations of the last 3 options in the network status screen?
Still puzzled why amazon works from within wiim app, but not alexacast.
 
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Hello all,

I’m about to give up on my three mini’s. I have a strong WiFi signal, use my iPad for either Amazon or Qobuz and when I cast music directly from either of their apps/sites, I get bobbles, mini dropouts, several second dropouts, stutters, on every tune. It can’t make it through one lousy tune without a hitch. I have raised multiple tickets and nothing is ever fixed. If I cast from within the WiiM app there are no such problems. But that limits the amount of music I can play from any given artist and other pain in the rear stuff.

I have rebooted this, that, and the other and tried everything WiiM support has suggested to no avail. I contacted my internet service provider and they suggested I go down to 2.4g, so they set up a separate 2.4g network. No difference. Absolutely none. All the glitches are there, so I went back to the 5g network. This is very frustrating.

Any and all suggestions are welcome.

Thanks
..
I have both the Mini and the Pro and listen to both Qobuz and Amazon Music Unlimited.
To access the native Apps I sometimes use an IPad and sometimes I use an Android Tablet (Huawei). I've never had any of the problems you complain about. I also use 5Ghz WiFi.
I don't use WHA because it is primitive and lacks essential functions. One of them is the lack of options for sorting Albums.
For AMU I use the native App via Alexacast and no problem.
For Qobuz I don't use the native App for Chromecast limitations. Waiting for Qobuz Connect, will it arrive?, I use BubbleUPnP, as @Mr Ee suggested, and with this App I get the best without any problems.
Strange that you have all those problems.
As @Staresyj said
"
Seems some buyers are having all of the bad luck whilst others have a 100% user experience."
 
If you are sending HiRes to AirPlay then the device that is relaying and sending it (iPad) is transcoding down to 16/48 to send to the AirPlay receiver (WiiM Mini) but you are also doubling the bandwidth usage over WiFi.

iPad received data from Qobuz, Amazon over WiFi
iPad transcodes for Airplay and sends data again over WiFi to Wiim
Your WiFi has to deal with double the bandwidth.

If however you use the WiiM App then you are controlling the WiiM Mini direct - in effect telling IT to download and play from Qobuz, Amazon etc directly so there is only one stream of data.

While the OP says he has strong WiFi this sort of usage (double bandwidth) and transcoding is more susceptible to interference than a direct play.
 
I ended up starting from scratch. I went through the set up process for all three mini’s. Now when I connect to Amazon it gives me three choices, iPad, Airplay, and Scott’s (my name) WiiM mini, whereas before it gave me only two choices, iPad and Airplay. Why? Dunno.

If I connect to Scott’s WiiM mini everything is perfect. No glitches of any kind. The downside is the “add to que” function is not even available, so I can’t select other albums to play after my first selection is finished. Also, it will not play similar music when an album is through playing…just dead air even though I have “play similar music“ selected in my settings.

As far as Qobuz is concerned, it is still glitchy, so I will access it through the WiiM app.

Thanks for all of your comments and suggestions, and I will gladly take more suggestions concerning Amazon not allowing add to que or play similar music functions not working.
 
Re your device now appearing in the amazon music app, it sounds like your linking to Alexa from the WiiM app didn’t stick for some reason. As for the lack of add to queue and auto play, I’m afraid that’s down to Amazon, not WiiM, it even does that when casting to echos. Use the contact form in the Amazon app to ask that they allow those features while casting since the app does allow that when not casting. All I can suggest is that you queue up the albums before a casting session
 
WiiM assured me the latest firmware update 4.6.515159 would fix things. It did not. There are still blips and bobbles and mini dropouts.
 
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