HOT topic - it's getting hot in here

[Grant_Stillman]

Hi there

i have a couple of questions as I’m a bit of a thicko, so please bear with me.
I want to buy the lifetime license but I also want to ensure that Roon is a right fit for me.

My simple set up is:

WiiM Ultra to Q Acoustics M20 Active Speakers and Q B12 Subwoofer
Using the WiiM Home App with Qobuz Connect and / or Roon integration (either via Roon Ready or via Roon App or Roon Arc - See Question 1 lol)

1. When I use Arc, should that be for when I’m not at home for example? So when I’m away from my Wifi connection i.e. when I want to access my files and listen via headphones or in the car? When I’m at home should I either use the Roon app or the WiiM Home App with the Roon Ready option contained within?
2. Why is it when I use the Arc does my iPhone 16 Pro get so hot? Is it purely because of the resources it needs to operate?
3. Is there a way to connect to the WiiM Ultra from the Arc app other than via Bluetooth, and if so, how do I do it ? My WiiM is connected via Ethernet.
4. I did have another question, but I can’t remember what it was now

Thanks for any advice you can give and any tips to ensure I get the best out of everything, sound quality and experience.

As I say I want to go ahead and purchase the lifetime license as I have 3000 albums which I’ve ripped from either Vinyl or CD and now stored on my Roon Server on my powerful Laptop in the house so when I’m outside where my Den is I can enjoy my music from there.
The Goal is to ditch streaming altogether so I can just enjoy all my tunes - ps, love Roon Radio where it selected the following track based on your previous one - awesome feature.

Thanks again, have a great day everyone.

[Suedkiez (Just a fellow user like you)]

@Grant_Stillman

When I use Arc, should that be for when I’m not at home for example?

Yes

@Grant_Stillman

When I’m at home should I either use the Roon app

Yes

@Grant_Stillman

or the WiiM Home App with the Roon Ready option contained within?

I don’t know the WiiM app with Roon Ready option but I suppose it doesn’t give you the Roon GUI, and I suppose you like the Roon GUI if you are thinking about the lifetime license.

@Grant_Stillman

Why is it when I use the Arc does my iPhone 16 Pro get so hot? Is it purely because of the resources it needs to operate?

There are some possible causes for this, some more expected and some not so. There are many existing threads about this, search the forum for ARC and battery.

If you run heavy DSP (MUSE), it will drain the battery faster. Nevertheless, it shouldn’t get excessively hot.

There are some unexpected causes, i.e., certain content blockers. Some of this was investigated here:

ARC B264 High Idle Battery Usage on Android 14

As others have also observed, I’ve had fairly high idle battery usage on ARC builds for a while (S22, Android 14) but the most recent B264 has turned my phone into a pocket warmer when ARC is in the background, with correspondingly high battery usage, for example 25% over working hours. This makes it pretty unusable in practice. @Early_Access is this something team Roon are aware of? I can’t see any new reports so far…Thanks! Edit: I did have battery usage set to Unrestricted, as I thought that…

There are also improvements being prepared in Early Access testing, should make it into production in a week or so:

@vova

• Optimized ARC to reduce high GPU usage
• Optimized ARC to reduce high battery

@Grant_Stillman

Is there a way to connect to the WiiM Ultra from the Arc app other than via Bluetooth, and if so, how do I do it ? My WiiM is connected via Ethernet.

ARC can use the system streaming option of the phone, so AirPlay on iOS and Chromecast on Android. It’s also possible to attach a DAC by USB to the phone.

@Grant_Stillman

Thanks for any advice you can give and any tips to ensure I get the best out of everything, sound quality and experience.

Networking Best Practices

Sound Quality

[Grant_Stillman]

Wow, succinct and so very helpful, thank you

Ok, one question that arises from one of your answers… can I not use Chromecast within my Wiim to send the Roon content to it? I’m keen to maintain the best sound quality and obviously BT is not the best. Even though I look at the Muse settings (see image) I’m still not sure I understand it and what is being received by the Ultra, ergo, there’s no point in my having 1000’s of FLAC files at, say, 24bit 192khz if the WiiM (able to handle up to that) is only processing say 16bit 44.1khz - I may as well go through my library and resample it all if you get my point.

Thanks again, so helpful, I will spend this afternoon having a good read and a play - Normalization of files is another massive bonus as is the way you can set up DSP for everything.

Cheers.

Apologies again for being thick, it drives me mad lol

[Suedkiez (Just a fellow user like you)]

@Grant_Stillman

can I not use Chromecast within my Wiim to send the Roon content to it? I’m keen to maintain the best sound quality and obviously BT is not the best.

I’m confused. If you use the WiiM, then I suppose this is at home where your Roon Server is. In this case, enable Roon Ready on the WiiM and use the Roon Ready zone (with the Roon app, not ARC).

If the WiiM is in another location, use ARC and output to the WiiM. Yes, in this case you can theoretically use Chromecast, but only from an Android phone, as ARC uses the system output. (And the Ultra does not support AirPlay).

What I said here:

@Suedkiez

ARC can use the system streaming option of the phone, so AirPlay on iOS and Chromecast on Android. It’s also possible to attach a DAC by USB to the phone.

@Grant_Stillman

I’m still not sure I understand it and what is being received by the Ultra, ergo, there’s no point in my having 1000’s of FLAC files at, say, 24bit 192khz if the WiiM (able to handle up to that) is only processing say 16bit 44.1khz - I may as well go through my library and resample it all if you get my point.

This is not an issue at home if using the WiiM Roon Ready input and the main Roon app as you should when you are at home.

If the scenario is for using ARC with the WiiM outside of the home network:

I see you use an iPhone, so you can’t do Chromecast. And as far as I can tell, the Ultra does not have a USB input, so you can’t directly attach it by USB to the phone, which would enable hi-res output on the iPhone.

You can do two things:

• If you require hires, get some kind of external DAC that can connect to the phone by USB.
• Use Bluetooth and 44.1/16, but in this case there is no need to convert the whole library, and also no need to run the conversion by MUSE on the phone. Instead, let the Roon server (not the phone) handle the conversion:
  — For downloads in ARC, set the download quality to CD. This also saves space on the phone.
  — For streaming to ARC, set the streaming quality to CD as well.

These settings are explained here:

ARC FAQ

[Grant_Stillman]

@Suedkiez

I’m confused. If you use the WiiM, then I suppose this is at home where your Roon Server is. In this case, enable Roon Ready on the WiiM and use the Roon Ready zone (with the Roon app, not ARC).

Yes, just that - perfect. I do only use the WiiM when at home in my Den with the server in the house - I wasn’t sure whether if I used the Roon Ready availability within the WHA then I would lose any functionality or benefit than if I used Roon directly from it’s native app.

If the WiiM is in another location, use ARC and output to the WiiM. Yes, in this case you can theoretically use Chromecast, but only from an Android phone, as ARC uses the system output. (And the Ultra does not support AirPlay).

Ahhh, didn’t realise you could only use the CC by using Android, I thought I read somewhere that I could use it so as to retain bit perfect casting but I must be mistaken; thanks for clarifying.

I have plenty to read over and digest and I have a week left on my trial to get to grips with everything before I get the LTL with Roon - I’m 99% there as it offers a solution for me in every way really…

Many thanks again for all your help, advice, knowledge and grey matter

[Suedkiez (Just a fellow user like you)]

@Grant_Stillman

Ahhh, didn’t realise you could only use the CC by using Android, I thought I read somewhere that I could use it so as to retain bit perfect casting but I must be mistaken; thanks for clarifying.

ARC would have to implement AP and CC within the app, instead of relying on the phone, there’s a feature suggestion for that:

ARC ability to stream to Airplay/Google Cast, independent of OS

I am running iOS and therefore are only able to stream from ARC to Airplay. Android users OTOH seem to be able to only stream to Google Cast. Being able to stream to both protocols would remove the last obstacle to use ARC in places which are not equipped with high-end devices or streamers (i. e. visiting relatives or holiday houses). Apart from that, ARC is a joy to use, cheers… Best regards

[Grant_Stillman]

@Suedkiez

ARC would have to implement AP and CC within the app, instead of relying on the phone, there’s a feature suggestion for that:

Fantastic - thanks

[DrTone (Jeff)]

ARC is meant for playback through headphones via your phone, CarPlay/Android Auto or when you are away from home.

When at home use the regular Roon app. Only use Chromecast, Airplay or bluetooth at home if the device you are playing to isn’t Roon ready.

[Grant_Stillman]

Perfect - I’m understanding thanks to you guys
Cheers Jeff et al

[DDPS]

@Suedkiez should get paid. Nice job, fella

[SandsOfArrakis (The Spice Must Flow)]

Heya,

I would like to add that when you’re at home you should be using the normal Roon app. And make sure you are using the Roon Ready WiiM Ultra from Roon’s Audio settings.

This will ensure that Roon uses all the WiiM’s capabilities. As it happily plays 24/192 this way. Or even DSD as in this example of my own WiiM Ultra.

I am only using Roon ARC when I am at work. My iPhone 14 gets pretty warm as well, and the battery drains pretty quickly. It was worse in the past, but it seems the issues haven’t been completely resolved.

I am using my WiiM in my office. Where it connects to my Cambridge Audio DacMagic 200M DAC. And from there to a pair of PreSonus Eris E4.5 BT active speakers.

[Grant_Stillman]

Hey, thanks so much for that Sands… this is one thing I’ve managed to work out for myself I usually use either the Roon App or Roon Ready via WiiM Home App and everything is sweet.

Cheers - such a helpful forum

[Grant_Stillman]

So, I’m almost there - just one final thing before I take the plunge.
I’ve attached the image of the DSP - I’m a bit confused as to why it is downsampling from 24bit to 16 bit, is it because I’m using Bluetooth to my Sony Headphones?
I have ordered a 3.5mm jack cable to use them direct from my WiiM so I can use Roon ready, will it be ok then?

[mjw]

You are using Bluetooth headphones via the OS system mixers, and this only handles 48 kHz. Therefore, Roon does the down mixing, because it does a better job than the OS.

[Erwin_Go1 (Erwin Go)]

Try to avoid Roon and see if you can the data directly fm your provider. I paid for the full monty but refuse to defend my
decision (endowment bias) .
Every time there is an update the tone colour changes.