No. You only need to link a WiiM to Alexa if you want to use voice control, direct Alexa supported audio to it, use Alexa MRM groups or cast to it from the Amazon Music app. If you don’t , then there’s no need to link it to Alexa. On the other hand, it would do no harm to do so given you have an Echo and may wish to do use those functions in the future, albeit you’re primarily using the echo as a dumb wired powered speaker at the moment.
WiiM Mini with Echo 4th Gen to create WiiM Group with Pro Plus
For anyone playing along at home, an update:
WiiM replied to my third message to them through Amazon and they have promised to investigate the missing USB adaptor, given their listing details had it as an inclusion. They asked that I send them photos, which I did immediately. No further reply to date.
With regards to testing the functions that drew me to this particular setup, so far everything has worked. I can play stored music files, CDs, streaming and Alexa content through the Pro Plus and everything also plays through the supplementary speaker setup with the WiiM Mini, albeit still with the tinny JBL Go speaker. The Echo should arrive on Monday or Tuesday.
But even with the JBL what I envisaged appears to work exactly as I'd hoped. So I effectively have a WiiM Sound Speaker without the cost and unknown wait.
WiiM replied to my third message to them through Amazon and they have promised to investigate the missing USB adaptor, given their listing details had it as an inclusion. They asked that I send them photos, which I did immediately. No further reply to date.
With regards to testing the functions that drew me to this particular setup, so far everything has worked. I can play stored music files, CDs, streaming and Alexa content through the Pro Plus and everything also plays through the supplementary speaker setup with the WiiM Mini, albeit still with the tinny JBL Go speaker. The Echo should arrive on Monday or Tuesday.
But even with the JBL what I envisaged appears to work exactly as I'd hoped. So I effectively have a WiiM Sound Speaker without the cost and unknown wait.
Something I don't think that has been mentioned in the thread, and perhaps it's not an issue for your use case, but the Mini doesn't support Google Cast/Chromecast, so that's an area where this setup would differ from e.g. WiiM Sound (presumably the Sound will support this, although obviously specs are yet to be confirmed.)
Yes, I was aware of that. So presumably if I do cast to the Pro Plus it won't send the content to the Mini. I don't think it will be much of an issue as I've not Google cast anything to the Pro Plus since I received it last November.
Yes, from what I've been told on here, it's a limitation of Chromecast that only Cast-able decices can be included in a Chromecast group, so casting to the Pro can't produce audio on the Mini.
I use it for Bandcamp and occasionally if there's something playing on my phone (e.g. Youtube) that I'd like to hear from my speakers.
I think I know what you meant, and maybe you do too, but to clarify for anyone else reading.
Yes, a chromecast group can only have chromecastable devices, and the mini isn't one.
If a pro and a mini are in a wiim group and you chromecast to the pro then only the pro will play.
But that has nothing to do with it being a mini.
If your (any) wiims are in a wiim group and you chromecast to the group parent then only that parent plays.
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Thank you. That's an excellent an informative clarification. I don't imagine I would use Google Cast in this setup, but it's good to know.
I have tested the WiiM Group with Spotify Connect and it works perfectly.
Happy to tell you that the Echo speaker arrived this morning. Was a bit of a hassle getting it to connect to the WiFi, but once that was sorted I was able to set the Aux Audio to Line In for the WiiM Mini cable connection.
The sound is of course a massive improvement over the tiny JBL speaker. I have the Echo volume on maximum with volume control from the WHA. I'm not using the Echo for any other purpose at this time so I have its microphone off. The audio sync between the Echo and the main speakers seems to be correct.
The screenshot is of the WHA group settings for a local radio station that I initiate using the WiiM remote mic by asking it to Play the Wave, which is does by Alexa on the Pro Plus accessing the RadioApp service which is built-in to Google and Alexa devices here in Australia.
To conclude, the quality of the sound coming from the Echo, which faces our listening position, works excellently with the main speakers which do not, thus providing the desired result of improving the overall sound in the room.
Thanks again to all of the members here who provided their invaluable and advice and assistance in bringing my idea to fruition.
The sound is of course a massive improvement over the tiny JBL speaker. I have the Echo volume on maximum with volume control from the WHA. I'm not using the Echo for any other purpose at this time so I have its microphone off. The audio sync between the Echo and the main speakers seems to be correct.
The screenshot is of the WHA group settings for a local radio station that I initiate using the WiiM remote mic by asking it to Play the Wave, which is does by Alexa on the Pro Plus accessing the RadioApp service which is built-in to Google and Alexa devices here in Australia.
To conclude, the quality of the sound coming from the Echo, which faces our listening position, works excellently with the main speakers which do not, thus providing the desired result of improving the overall sound in the room.
Thanks again to all of the members here who provided their invaluable and advice and assistance in bringing my idea to fruition.
White is so cute
Maybe, but if you create a group of Echo's in the Alexa app and use the Pro plus speaker for music, you can also use voice control of the Echo.
Sorry if this is impossible as I've never done it before. Sorry if it's not necessary
Yes, I can do it like that as well, but using the WiiM Group means I can easily play anything from the Pro Plus through both the Echo and Q Acoustics speakers, and I don't need to have a microphone listening all the time. I can use Alexa through the Pro Plus with its remote mic when I need to.
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I have followed this advice and it seems to be ideal, so thank you for the tip. You can actually adjust the Echo volume from the Alexa app as well, so I have set it to maximum and use the WHA to adjust the volume for both it and the main speakers to achieve a balanced sound. I also ran the Auto Sync process. It all seems to work very well.
