· Other – My issue isn’t listed above
WPKN recently upgraded its stream to 256 AAC. It plays at this quality in stereo when streamed via Airplay directly to a Wiim pro (or other streamer). When streamed through Roon, regardless of the endpoint, it is streamed as 1 channel mono (sounds bad).
Roon server on a current mac mini and streamed via WiFi to various endpoints (Wiim, Wiim Pro, PecanPi).
According to the Signal Path, the source is mono AAC 63 kbps, not 256 kbps. Roon is simply mapping this to two channels. The bitrate likely causes the quality issue.
Therefore, please share the URLs used with Roon and AirPlay.
That’s the problem, Roon is not detecting that it is a stereo source. When streamed directly or via Airplay, Wiim plus listening tests clearly show that it is a stereo signal at 256. The url is https://ice25.securenetsystems.net/WPKN
No, Roon is playing exactly what it is receiving; the signal path is completely transparent. The most likely cause is that Roon and Airplay are using different streams.
Please screenshot of the Radio Station in Roon. This displays the station details, including URLs. For example, …
Two things, manually adding the url, Roon is not grabbing the url. Also, the url is the same url that is streaming from the App and when that is streamed directly from App to a Wiim, Wiim shows it as a 256 and it is stereo. Preliminary reserch suggested that Roon sometimes has trouble decoding AAC streams properly,
Please share the station from within Roon. Without this, it is difficult to diagnose. Roon is not streaming AAC 256 because that isn’t the source you have given it. I can’t find WPKN under Roon Live Radio.
Using a web search, it is clear that WPKN offers an AAC 64 stream.
AAC plays fine in Roon as long as you have installed the requisite dependency on the server, i.e., ffmpeg.
Moving thread to Roon Software Discussion > Live Radio
Then why does the same url play in stereo when directly streamed? It is the same url. There is not other i formation on the radio tab in Roon as it is a manually added url. I copy and pasted it above. Could be that messes things up but i have had success manually adding urls before. There is no other url publicly available. Where did you get the information on the 64 kbps? I did not see any publicly available quantitative information on the WPKN website on stream quality for the improved stream (which is a very recent change).
It can’t be the same URL. However, I can’t verify this until you post a screenshot of the station from within Roon. Look at this image … two channels and one is 64 kbps.
Just checked stream on VLC. You are correct it is showing 64 mp4a stereo stream. AAC extension SBR. Of course that doesn’t explain the mono stream detection. Here is a screenshot from within Roon radio showing the url:
FYI - my confusion around the Wiim display showing as 256 is answered. Apparently Wiim displays the maximum bit rate for the protocol, not the actual bit rate being received. My bad, I should have checked using VLC in the first place.
It’s a single channel because the sample rate is 22.05 kHz (a 2-channel CD is 44.1 kHz.)
Good day @Scott_Terrillion !
We’re glad that your question was answered by the community!
Since there is no question for support here anymore we’re putting this thread back to Radio Section.
Have a nice day!
Regards.
Not sure I understand this. Sample rate is not data rate. On a CD, each channel is sampled at 44.1kHz. Sample rate and channel count are independent variables.
You are correct, as ever! 
22.05 kHz is used in low bandwidth scenarios, but has nothing to do with a single channel or CD. This is what happens when responding without thinking.
Yeah, 22.05kHz makes sense for speech, as it seems it’s a news/talk station.
You guys aren’t understanding - the stream off the app (same url) is 2 channel stereo. The question was not successfully answered yet (although I appreciate all the help). Only the facts were clarified. The stream associated with that url is a two channel 64 kbps 44100 sample rate and Roon is reading it as a mono, one channel stream (at half the sample rate).
Hi Marian - It is primarily a music station and it streams 2 channel stereo when not being played through Roon. (Using the same stream.)
You are right, here’s what I see in VLC:
This confirms 44.1K stereo 64kbps. Listening to it, it’s definitely stereo.
The stream you have playing in Roon is a single channel; this is clear from the signal path.
But I just added the stream to Roon and this is what I see. So, I’d delete the station and add again.
WPKN was not in Roon’s database. I have now added it and the stream plays stereo for me.
