Wiim 5.1 decoding potential to Schiit Mimir

[Wiley_Kioti]

New to the forum here. Thinking of pulling the trigger on Wiim products and need some help or input on an idea. I don’t see a wiim contact line for sales so hoping you guys can answer here!

Like many of you I’ve seen on here I am trying to integrate home theater with hifi and I’m very excited about a quality streamer with built in dsp. For movies I like a 3.1 or 5.1 setup and for listening I like a 2.1, but I want to have best of both without having an ugly massive AVR or a really expensive decent looking one. I don’t care about atmos currently. Dolby digital is just fine.

It clearly states on Wiim that you need more than 1 Wiim in order to achieve 5.1. Does anyone know if you can send Dolby decoded left and right front through usb out from wiim amp into external dac?

Example:
Wiim amp —— active sub & center speaker (configure center in app as left or right speaker terminal) —— then send usb out to external dac with decoding for right and left front? Then be able to send 2.1 signal when streaming music and turn off the center in the app?

I know I could achieve this by instead of using external dac I buy a second wiim like the pro or pro plus but my 2 channel power amplifier is XLR in and I like the mimir balanced output.

Has anyone tried this?

 

[Burnside]

No, the WiiM 5.1 Dolby feature works as described here and doesn’t provide the means to break out different channels in the manner you describe.

Setting Up a WiiM Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound System

TABLE OF CONTENTS Learn More about WiiM Dolby 5.1 Surround System 1. Front Left, Front Right, and Subwoofer 2. Center 3. Surround Left and Surround Right Device Requirements and Typical Configurations Before You Begin Steps to Set Up a...

faq.wiimhome.com

 

[Wiley_Kioti]

Ah I clearly see now the wiim amp pro and wiim amp do not have output option other than speaker terminals so neither product will ever have the hardware to complete this.

Back to the drawing board!

 

[Wiley_Kioti]

It looks like the Wiim amp ultra has usb out for external DAC. Can the amp ultra send Dolby 5.1 signal out?

 

[Burnside]

It looks like the Wiim amp ultra has usb out for external DAC. Can the amp ultra send Dolby 5.1 signal out?

Perhaps but in that case it just becomes an expensive switch and another device in the signal path. It couldn’t drive the speakers at the same time

 

[Wiley_Kioti]

Ok here we have something!

So simple AVRs from even 10-15 years ago can drive as center while sending digital signal out at the same time. BUT they are so ugly and don’t have quality digital pass through or the streaming convenience. Are you sure the wiim amp ultra can’t achieve this? Can Wiim chime into the conversation?

My power amplifier accepts balanced input. My DAC (schiit mimir) sends balanced output. I can either buy the Wiim ultra for my streaming plus the Wiim amp to drive center or separate amp and Wiim slave device to drive center OR If the amp ultra can do the streaming and driving center then send the usb out then it would be the only Wiim device I’d need to buy. No AVR needed. No second Wiim device needed.

Burnside can you think of any better solution you might suggest?

 

[Burnside]

WiiM’s Dolby Digital 5.1 feature is really an extension or special case of their linked devices group feature whereby the audio input of the main device (input say from a CD player or turntable, or some other music service) is distributed to each device in the group which then plays the received audio via its single selected output. Note all WiiM devices can only use one output stream at a time whether that be speakers or an output connection - that’s often mentioned in the forum and doesn’t really need WiiM to chime in to confirm it

In the Dolby case, the main device receives a signal from the TV then splits the audio so that it plays the main front channels but separately sends the centre and rear channels audio over the network to other WiiM devices in the group.

I can’t think of how you could achieve what you wish with only one WiiM device. At a push, you could use an Ultra as the main device and take its output into your power amp, but you’d still need a WiiM device such as a WiiM Amp to drive the rear surround speakers, or even a WiiM Pro feeding into a separate amp/ speakers. You’d still need another WiiM device (say a WiiM edition audio Pro speaker) for the centre channel unless you were happy with the main device having a pseudo centre.

 

[Wiley_Kioti]

Burnside you have been very helpful chiming in here.

Very unfortunate to hear that the new Wiim Ultra Amp that has come out can’t send signal on the usb out at the same time as driving the speaker connections. This is the crux in which forces me to buy a second Wiim product for this particular situation.

Thank you for your time.