Wiim Amp Pro with Nuvo Grand Concerto

[BlueMerlin]

I had the crazy idea I could resuscitate my aging Nuvo whole home audio system by replacing the Nuvo Music Port with a Wiim Amp Pro and connect it to a Nuvo Grand Concerto which is linked to wall control panels and in ceiling speakers in 4 zones. I have connected the two units with 2 RCA cables. The RCA cables connect to the RCA ports on the Amp Pro and to Source 1 on the Grand Concerto.

I have set up the app but the Wiim does not find the NGC speakers. I don’t have speakers connected directly to the Wiim. I put my music on a SSD HD and plugged that into the Wiim’s USB but I can’t find the music on the Wiim app.

Does this idea have any hope it working? My second idea is to buy a Dayton DAX66 to replace the NGC. Will that work?
Many thanks for your help.

 

[Doublej]

Won't work.

The output on the WiiM Amp Pro are the speaker connections, not the RCA ports. You need a non-amplifier WiiM, e.g. WiiM Pro, WiiM Pro Plus, or WiiM Ultra. With one of these units, you connect the RCA LINE OUT from the WiiM to one of the Source Inputs on the Nuvo Grand Concerto or Dayton DAX66. Then you would use the WiiM as the music source for the zones.

With a WiiM in the setup, the music source selected on the WiiM will play on all 4 zones. You cannot choose different music sources for different zones.

If you would like to choose different music sources on different zones, you'll either need up to 4 of the aforementioned WiiMs or you can purchase 4 WiiM Amps and connect one to each of the 4 zones.

 

[BlueMerlin]

Won't work.

The output on the WiiM Amp Pro are the speaker connections, not the RCA ports. You need a non-amplifier WiiM, e.g. WiiM Pro, WiiM Pro Plus, or WiiM Ultra. With one of these units, you connect the RCA LINE OUT from the WiiM to one of the Source Inputs on the Nuvo Grand Concerto or Dayton DAX66. Then you would use the WiiM as the music source for the zones.

With a WiiM in the setup, the music source selected on the WiiM will play on all 4 zones. You cannot choose different music sources for different zones.

If you would like to choose different music sources on different zones, you'll either need up to 4 of the aforementioned WiiMs or you can purchase 4 WiiM Amps and connect one to each of the 4 zones.

Thank you Sir. I’ve been trying to familiarize myself with the different Wiims and I haven’t grasped it yet. I appreciate your comments and would like to ask for more clarification if that’s OK.

I understand there are three main types of Wiim… Wiim Music Server, Wiim Pro and Wiim Amp Pro. So what are the different functions they perform?

More specifically, if I bought a Wiim Pro like you suggest, it sounds like I can get all zones working with one source. However, the Wiim Pro does not have a USB port to plug my music hard drive into, if I understand correctly. So how do I set up the Wiim Pro as my music source? And can I still use the Wiim Amp Pro in some way. I’m not really understanding the difference between the two.
Cheers.

 

[Burnside]

There isn't a WiiM Music Server - you're perhaps confusing that with the ability some WiiM devices have for also having the ability to support a USB media drive.

WiiM devices fall into two or arguably three ranges - the WiiM Mini, WiiM Pro, WiiM Pro Plus and WiiM Ultra streamers which typically feed into an external amp or active/powered speakers; the WiiM Amp, WiiM Amp Pro and the the WiiM Amp Ultra streaming amplifiers which feed passive speakers; and the "crossover" WiiM Vibelink amplifier which doesn't have streaming functions and is an excellent companion to the non-amplifier streamers.

The WiiM Ultra and the streaming amplifiers all have a USB connection which as mentioned can support a USB media drive, as well as connection to an external USB DAC which some use.

All WiiM streamers support a wide range of media sources such as local media servers (say UPnP, Plex, NAS etc) or streaming services such as Amazon Music, Qobuz, Tidal, Deezer, Spotify, Tunein, vTuner, Radio Paradise, Pandora etc etc

 

[BlueMerlin]

There isn't a WiiM Music Server - you're perhaps confusing that with the ability some WiiM devices have for also having the ability to support a USB media drive.

WiiM devices fall into two or arguably three ranges - the WiiM Mini, WiiM Pro, WiiM Pro Plus and WiiM Ultra streamers which typically feed into an external amp or active/powered speakers; the WiiM Amp, WiiM Amp Pro and the the WiiM Amp Ultra streaming amplifiers which feed passive speakers; and the "crossover" WiiM Vibelink amplifier which doesn't have streaming functions and is an excellent companion to the non-amplifier streamers.

The WiiM Ultra and the streaming amplifiers all have a USB connection which as mentioned can support a USB media drive, as well as connection to an external USB DAC which some use.

All WiiM streamers support a wide range of media sources such as local media servers (say UPnP, Plex, NAS etc) or streaming services such as Amazon Music, Qobuz, Tidal, Deezer, Spotify, Tunein, vTuner, Radio Paradise, Pandora etc etc

Thank you for the explanation. I think I meant Music Streamer, not server, my bad.

I bought a Wiim Amp Pro mistakenly thinking that would have the features I wanted. It seems I should have bought the Wiim Pro or higher to connect with the Nuvo Grand Concerto (NGC).

Nonetheless, I am still deciding whether to keep the Wiim Amp Pro. If I had both the Wiim Pro and the Wiim Amp Pro can they work together and would that be beneficial?

If I’m understanding correctly, I would connect my music HD to Wiim Amp Pro which connects to Wiim Pro which connects to NGC. Is that correct?

 

[hgo58]

Thank you for the explanation. I think I meant Music Streamer, not server, my bad.

I bought a Wiim Amp Pro mistakenly thinking that would have the features I wanted. It seems I should have bought the Wiim Pro or higher to connect with the Nuvo Grand Concerto (NGC).

Nonetheless, I am still deciding whether to keep the Wiim Amp Pro. If I had both the Wiim Pro and the Wiim Amp Pro can they work together and would that be beneficial?

If I’m understanding correctly, I would connect my music HD to Wiim Amp Pro which connects to Wiim Pro which connects to NGC. Is that correct?

You can but not optimal.

I would recommend to return the Amp Pro and get a WiiM Ultra. It has the USB input and the analog (RCA) output you need.

 

[BlueMerlin]

You can but not optimal.

I would recommend to return the Amp Pro and get a WiiM Ultra. It has the USB input and the analog (RCA) output you need.

OK thanks. I’ll do that.
Incidentally, should I get the Wiim Ultra or the Wiim Amp Ultra?

 

[Mr Ee]

OK thanks. I’ll do that.
Incidentally, should I get the Wiim Ultra or the Wiim Amp Ultra?

Ultra.
Not amp ultra.

 

[BlueMerlin]

To update you all, I bought the Wiim Ultra and connected it to the Nuvo Grand Concerto via the supplied RCA cables. I confirm the advice given in this thread was accurate, so thank you. For anyone interested I confirm:
1. The Ultra successfully feeds music via the NGC to my 5 speaker zones.
2. I have to turn the wall pads on to transmit to speakers. This enables me to control which zone plays music.
3. There is only one source so all zones play the same music (that’s fine for me).
4. The Ultra successfully indexed the 13,000+ audio tracks on my external HD.
5. I can control the music from the app on my iPhone.

I haven’t worked out how to play Apple Music from my phone though. That’s the next task.

 

[Doublej]

To play Apple Music I think you'll need to send your music from the phone to the WiiM Ultra using Bluetooth as the Ultra does not support Airplay.

 

[Burnside]

To play Apple Music I think you'll need to send your music from the phone to the WiiM Ultra using Bluetooth as the Ultra does not support Airplay.

…which, given Apple Music is converted to 256kbps AAC over airplay 2, doesn’t really makes much if any difference quality wise.

 

[BlueMerlin]

…which, given Apple Music is converted to 256kbps AAC over airplay 2, doesn’t really makes much if any difference quality wise.

@Burnside hi, I’d like to follow up on this. I successfully streamed Apple Music via Bluetooth but it got messy when my wife tried to stream via Bluetooth. It seems her app seemed to want to stream the music I was streaming (when I wasn’t streaming).

So, I’m wondering if it is a cleaner and better solution to get a WiiM Mini connected to the WiiM Ultra to stream Apple Music via Airplay 2 instead of Bluetooth. Has anyone tried this and does it work well?

 

[Burnside]

Sounds as if your phone was still connected to the WiiM if the use of your wife’s phone picked up your audio stream - you might need to go into your phone’s Bluetooth settings and explicitly disconnect the WiiM before she then tries to connect her phone.

I believe quite a few have gone down the Mini route to get airplay or used a third party device like a FiiO Sr11 or Belkin Soundform Connect cabled into the Ultra. The benefit of using the Mini would be that it could also be wirelessly linked to the Ultra rather than cabled.