Wiim Smart Speaker

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ihearurdog

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Oct 26, 2023
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I'm hoping to see a Wiim "smart" speaker sometime soon. Really, just a standalone speaker with Wiim smarts inside would do it for most of my needs. In other words, put a Wiim Pro inside of a powered speaker. It would be nice if two of them could be setup in a stereo pair. Some locations around the house just don't really fit a Wiim + full sized stereo speakers.

I'm surprised to not really see many requests for this sort of device around the forums (this is all I've found), so I'm curious what standalone speakers people are using with their Wiim setups. I've seen talk of the "Linkplay" protocol that Wiim is apparently based on, but there don't really seem to be any viable speakers available based on this tech and it's not clear how well these would integrate anyway (could it group with my existing Wiims when I'm sending audio to a Wiim using Tidal Connect or Roon?). I can use any other speakers that incorporate Airplay and make that work okay, but then these speakers lack some of the nice functionality of the Wiim. I've looked around for some small powered speakers in the "can shape" similar to many smart speakers that I could combine with a Wiim device, but these don't really seem to exist.
 
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Okay, good to see that I’m not the ONLY one. Though you and I are interested in different form factors. I’m really after something like the Sonos One. Yes, mono speakers don’t sound as good, but I’ve already got Wiim streamers anywhere that sound quality is the top requirement.

That aside, that thread seems most interested in yet another Wiim box with even more IO. While I’d love lots of the features suggested in there, the biggest hole in my system is that I have to rely on Airplay for lots of my rooms (talk about a first world problem 😁).

Anyway, thanks for sharing!
 
I think WiiM and Kali Audio should partner to incorporate the WiiM software into a Kali Audio MM-6 style (2 way, 6 inch woofer, studio monitor) speaker. The speaker has RCA, coaxial, and optical in. IMHO all the setup needs is to have a subwoofer output and the LinkPlay software and it would make a killer setup.

As a reference for pricing, the current price of an MM-6 plus a WiiM Mini, is $520. There are parts overlap (ADC, DAC, power supply, software might be able to replace the boundary dip switches) between the two, so it might be feasible for less.
 
Brantome said:
If you mean send the audio from the WiiM to a group of echos, then no. The Echo Link has that feature though. It was discussed in the forum or the WiiM Fan Page on FB only recently.

Edit: see here https://forum.wiimhome.com/threads/steaming-turntable-to-echo-speaker-group.1875/#post-28806
Click to expand...
Yes, that is what I mean. Fewer boxes is better for me. I think in order to implement this on the WiiM platform, WiiM would develop an Alexa skill that work work by saying Alexa play WiiM on [name of Alexa speaker or group]. Perhaps much more easily said they done but since they have AirPlay Cast they have the guts already in place.
 
Doublej said:
Yes, that is what I mean. Fewer boxes is better for me. I think in order to implement this on the WiiM platform, WiiM would develop an Alexa skill that work work by saying Alexa play WiiM on [name of Alexa speaker or group]. Perhaps much more easily said they done but since they have AirPlay Cast they have the guts already in place.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but that Amazon protocol to do line in redistribution isn't available to third parties (I asked Wiim that ages ago) , so they'd need to hack it from the ground up. Code for Airplay transmission has been available on GitHUB, LMS etc for some time I believe, but I haven't heard of similar for Echo devices. The Alexa SDK also wouldn't allow syntax of the form you describe, so that would be even more of a challenge - the Echo Link doesn't even support voice control in that manner from what I can see, it's a settings change in the app that does the aux in redistribution. So, as you say, it may be easy to say it should be possible, but probably a lot harder to achieve.

You could however plug a WiiM's output into an Echo Link and do it that way...
 
What I find intriguing is that My Media for Amazon Alexa has figured out a way to stream media stored on a computer without resorting to cloud storage of the media.

It should be straightforward, but not necessarily easy, to replace media stored on a computer with a stream from an Line Input, Optical Input, or Coaxial Input if (BIG IF) WiiM could run a tiny media server on your computer (in our case on the WIiiM) that integrates with the ease and power of Amazon Alexa which is how My Media software describes what they do.
 
Doublej said:
What I find intriguing is that My Media for Amazon Alexa has figured out a way to stream media stored on a computer without resorting to cloud storage of the media.

It should be straightforward, but not necessarily easy, to replace media stored on a computer with a stream from an Line Input, Optical Input, or Coaxial Input if (BIG IF) WiiM could run a tiny media server on your computer (in our case on the WIiiM) that integrates with the ease and power of Amazon Alexa which is how My Media software describes what they do.
Click to expand...
My Media has achieved that yes by not resorting to cloud storage of the tracks but it does use cloud storage for its index hence the charge for the service. It also uses a workaround for multi room playback, so whatever it’s doing to send audio to an echo doesn’t seem to rely on standard Amazon MRM streaming protocols. I admit I’ve been intrigued as to how it achieves that since it came out - maybe it’s passing a secure link to your local file to its skill in the same manner as you’d get a skill to play media stored in AWS.
 
Going back to original feature request for a smart speaker - I think it would be pretty logical step in evolution of wiim product line and a very welcomed one.
I've been looking for a solution that's not too hacky to get linkplay multiroom on a smart speaker with google assistant but it seems no such product exists.
I cast my vote and so should you. Press the voting button! :)
 
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