diff --git a/src/whisper.cpp b/src/whisper.cpp
index e3b6025d76e..f55e0b0af9c 100644
--- a/src/whisper.cpp
+++ b/src/whisper.cpp
@@ -1,43 +1,19 @@
 #include "whisper.h"
 
-#ifdef WHISPER_USE_COREML
-#include "coreml/whisper-encoder.h"
-#endif
-
 #include "ggml-cpu.h"
 
-#ifdef GGML_USE_METAL
-#include "ggml-metal.h"
-#endif
-
-#ifdef GGML_USE_CUDA
-#include "ggml-cuda.h"
-#endif
-
-#ifdef GGML_USE_SYCL
-#include "ggml-sycl.h"
-#endif
-
-#ifdef GGML_USE_VULKAN
-#include "ggml-vulkan.h"
-#endif
+#include "ggml.h"
+#include "ggml-alloc.h"
+#include "ggml-backend.h"
 
-#ifdef GGML_USE_BLAS
-#include "ggml-blas.h"
+#ifdef WHISPER_USE_COREML
+#include "coreml/whisper-encoder.h"
 #endif
 
 #ifdef WHISPER_USE_OPENVINO
 #include "openvino/whisper-openvino-encoder.h"
 #endif
 
-#ifdef GGML_USE_CANN
-#include "ggml-cann.h"
-#endif
-
-#include "ggml.h"
-#include "ggml-alloc.h"
-#include "ggml-backend.h"
-
 #include <atomic>
 #include <algorithm>
 #include <cassert>
@@ -195,14 +171,13 @@ static bool ggml_graph_compute_helper(
 
     for (int i = 0; i < ggml_backend_sched_get_n_backends(sched); ++i) {
         ggml_backend_t backend = ggml_backend_sched_get_backend(sched, i);
-        if (ggml_backend_is_cpu(backend)) {
-            ggml_backend_cpu_set_n_threads(backend, n_threads);
-        }
-#ifdef GGML_USE_BLAS
-        if (ggml_backend_is_blas(backend)) {
-            ggml_backend_blas_set_n_threads(backend, n_threads);
+        ggml_backend_dev_t dev = ggml_backend_get_device(backend);
+        ggml_backend_reg_t reg = dev ? ggml_backend_dev_backend_reg(dev) : nullptr;
+
+        auto * fn_set_n_threads = (ggml_backend_set_n_threads_t) ggml_backend_reg_get_proc_address(reg, "ggml_backend_set_n_threads");
+        if (fn_set_n_threads) {
+            fn_set_n_threads(backend, n_threads);
         }
-#endif
     }
 
     bool t = ggml_backend_sched_graph_compute(sched, graph) == GGML_STATUS_SUCCESS;
@@ -1260,61 +1235,24 @@ static ggml_backend_t whisper_backend_init_gpu(const whisper_context_params & pa
 
     ggml_log_set(g_state.log_callback, g_state.log_callback_user_data);
 
-#ifdef GGML_USE_CUDA
-    if (params.use_gpu) {
-        WHISPER_LOG_INFO("%s: using CUDA backend\n", __func__);
-        result = ggml_backend_cuda_init(params.gpu_device);
-        if (!result) {
-            WHISPER_LOG_ERROR("%s: ggml_backend_cuda_init() failed\n", __func__);
-        }
-    }
-#endif
-
-#ifdef GGML_USE_METAL
-    if (params.use_gpu) {
-        WHISPER_LOG_INFO("%s: using Metal backend\n", __func__);
-        result = ggml_backend_metal_init();
-        if (!result) {
-            WHISPER_LOG_ERROR("%s: ggml_backend_metal_init() failed\n", __func__);
-        } else if (!ggml_backend_metal_supports_family(result, 7)) {
-            WHISPER_LOG_ERROR("%s: Metal GPU does not support family 7 - falling back to CPU\n", __func__);
-            ggml_backend_free(result);
-            result = NULL;
-        }
-    }
-#endif
-
-#ifdef GGML_USE_SYCL
-    if (params.use_gpu) {
-        WHISPER_LOG_INFO("%s: using SYCL backend\n", __func__);
-        result = ggml_backend_sycl_init(params.gpu_device);
-        if (!result) {
-            WHISPER_LOG_ERROR("%s: ggml_backend_sycl_init() failed\n", __func__);
-        }
-    }
-#endif
-
-#ifdef GGML_USE_VULKAN
     if (params.use_gpu) {
-        WHISPER_LOG_INFO("%s: using Vulkan backend\n", __func__);
-        result = ggml_backend_vk_init(params.gpu_device);
-        if (!result) {
-            WHISPER_LOG_ERROR("%s: ggml_backend_vk_init() failed\n", __func__);
-        }
-    }
-#endif
-
-#ifdef GGML_USE_CANN
-    if (params.use_gpu) {
-        WHISPER_LOG_INFO("%s: using CANN backend\n", __func__);
-        result = ggml_backend_cann_init(params.gpu_device);
-        if (!result) {
-            WHISPER_LOG_ERROR("%s: ggml_backend_cann_init() failed\n", __func__);
+        for (size_t i = 0; i < ggml_backend_dev_count(); ++i) {
+            ggml_backend_dev_t dev = ggml_backend_dev_get(i);
+            switch (ggml_backend_dev_type(dev)) {
+                case GGML_BACKEND_DEVICE_TYPE_CPU:
+                case GGML_BACKEND_DEVICE_TYPE_ACCEL:
+                    // skip CPU backends
+                    break;
+                case GGML_BACKEND_DEVICE_TYPE_GPU:
+                    WHISPER_LOG_INFO("%s: using %s backend\n", __func__, ggml_backend_dev_name(dev));
+                    result = ggml_backend_dev_init(dev, nullptr);
+                    if (!result) {
+                        WHISPER_LOG_ERROR("%s: failed to initialize %s backend\n", __func__, ggml_backend_dev_name(dev));
+                    }
+                    break;
+            }
         }
     }
-#endif
-
-    GGML_UNUSED(params);
 
     return result;
 }
@@ -1328,17 +1266,19 @@ static std::vector<ggml_backend_t> whisper_backend_init(const whisper_context_pa
         result.push_back(backend_gpu);
     }
 
-#ifdef GGML_USE_BLAS
-    {
-        WHISPER_LOG_INFO("%s: using BLAS backend\n", __func__);
-        ggml_backend_t backend_blas = ggml_backend_blas_init();
-        if (!backend_blas) {
-            WHISPER_LOG_ERROR("%s: ggml_backend_blas_init() failed\n", __func__);
-        } else {
-            result.push_back(backend_blas);
+    // ACCEL backends
+    for (size_t i = 0; i < ggml_backend_dev_count(); ++i) {
+        ggml_backend_dev_t dev = ggml_backend_dev_get(i);
+        if (ggml_backend_dev_type(dev) == GGML_BACKEND_DEVICE_TYPE_ACCEL) {
+            WHISPER_LOG_INFO("%s: using %s backend\n", __func__, ggml_backend_dev_name(dev));
+            ggml_backend_t backend = ggml_backend_dev_init(dev, nullptr);
+            if (!backend) {
+                WHISPER_LOG_ERROR("%s: failed to initialize %s backend\n", __func__, ggml_backend_dev_name(dev));
+                continue;
+            }
+            result.push_back(backend);
         }
     }
-#endif
 
     GGML_UNUSED(params);
 
@@ -1348,33 +1288,26 @@ static std::vector<ggml_backend_t> whisper_backend_init(const whisper_context_pa
 }
 
 static ggml_backend_buffer_type_t whisper_default_buffer_type(const whisper_context_params & params) {
-    ggml_backend_buffer_type_t result = nullptr;
-
-    params.use_gpu || (result = ggml_backend_cpu_buffer_type());
-
-#ifdef GGML_USE_CUDA
-    result || (result = ggml_backend_cuda_buffer_type(params.gpu_device));
-#endif
-
-#ifdef GGML_USE_METAL
-    result || (result = ggml_backend_metal_buffer_type());
-#endif
-
-#ifdef GGML_USE_SYCL
-    result || (result = ggml_backend_sycl_buffer_type(params.gpu_device));
-#endif
-
-#ifdef GGML_USE_VULKAN
-    result || (result = ggml_backend_vk_buffer_type(params.gpu_device));
-#endif
+    if (!params.use_gpu) {
+        return ggml_backend_cpu_buffer_type();
+    }
 
-#ifdef GGML_USE_CANN
-    result || (result == ggml_backend_cann_buffer_type(params.gpu_device));
-#endif
+    // if we have a GPU device - use it
+    for (size_t i = 0; i < ggml_backend_dev_count(); ++i) {
+        ggml_backend_dev_t dev = ggml_backend_dev_get(i);
+        switch (ggml_backend_dev_type(dev)) {
+            case GGML_BACKEND_DEVICE_TYPE_CPU:
+            case GGML_BACKEND_DEVICE_TYPE_ACCEL:
+                // skip CPU backends
+                break;
 
-    result || (result = ggml_backend_cpu_buffer_type());
+            case GGML_BACKEND_DEVICE_TYPE_GPU:
+                WHISPER_LOG_INFO("%s: using device %s (%s)\n", __func__, ggml_backend_dev_name(dev), ggml_backend_dev_description(dev));
+                return ggml_backend_dev_buffer_type(dev);
+        }
+    }
 
-    return result;
+    return ggml_backend_cpu_buffer_type();
 }
 
 // load the model from a ggml file
@@ -3668,8 +3601,7 @@ struct whisper_context * whisper_init_with_params_no_state(struct whisper_model_
     WHISPER_LOG_INFO("%s: flash attn = %d\n", __func__, params.flash_attn);
     WHISPER_LOG_INFO("%s: gpu_device = %d\n", __func__, params.gpu_device);
     WHISPER_LOG_INFO("%s: dtw        = %d\n", __func__, params.dtw_token_timestamps);
-
-    // TODO: temporary call to force backend registry initialization
+    WHISPER_LOG_INFO("%s: devices    = %zu\n", __func__, ggml_backend_dev_count());
     WHISPER_LOG_INFO("%s: backends   = %zu\n", __func__, ggml_backend_reg_count());
 
     whisper_context * ctx = new whisper_context;
@@ -7427,6 +7359,11 @@ static void whisper_log_internal(ggml_log_level level, const char * format, ...)
 static void whisper_log_callback_default(ggml_log_level level, const char * text, void * user_data) {
     (void) level;
     (void) user_data;
+#ifndef WHISPER_DEBUG
+    if (level == GGML_LOG_LEVEL_DEBUG) {
+        return;
+    }
+#endif
     fputs(text, stderr);
     fflush(stderr);
 }