Cannot get DFPlayer Mini to work with arduino (works without arduino)

I have tried to connect this player mini so many times, I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. When I ground pin 11, my sound file plays just fine. So I think the module is ok. I've tried using the breadboard, and I've tried without the breadboard. I've tried the sample code, and code from folks online. No matter what, I can't get passed initialization.

Photos of the current non-breadboard setup

I've got the speakers hooked up to spk1 and spk2. Ground into ground on the arduino. 5v in on the top 5v pin. rx with a 1k resistor into 11 pin, and tx to pin 10. 

When the arduino boots, I hear the speaker pop and then I get the “non initialized” error from the code. 
 

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong here?

Thanks!