Shairport-sync vs WiiM Mini?

[rinogo]

Curious if anyone has compared this (running on a barebones Raspberry Pi) to the WiiM Mini.

I was intrigued by this project but reading up on the recommendation for a separate DAC means that hardware-wise, we probably need a Pi and a DAC. On the other hand, the WiiM Mini has a good DAC already, does much more, and is competitively priced. It seems to me like building an equivalent solution with a Pi might actually cost more than just buying a WiiM Mini.

Sound quality is my primary goal, but cost is a close second. I'd love to hear any thoughts!

[noelhibbard]

I personally drive rooms all over my home from one server. In that case, price wise it makes way more sense vs a bunch of WiiM Minis. A single used desktop machine with a few PCIe slots that can easily handle 16 rooms, can be had for $80. Of course you need to invest in quality sounds cards if that is what you are going for. I personally have a bunch of 2 channel USB soundcards which were $7/each to drive most of the rooms. I don't need amazing sound quality for the garage, back porch, bathrooms, etc. For my primary listening room with high end setup I run HDMI into my AVR. I also have shairport-sync configured to drive the Web API of my AVR to automatically turn it on and set the correct input and also forward volume controls directly to the AVR. This makes it wife proof. With this setup I can run every room in my house at the same time with flawless sync. I can't even get two Apple TVs to have perfect sync. It blows my mind that shairport-sync implements AirPlay 2 better than Apple's own devices do.

If you only need one room, a WiiM Mini probably makes more sense.

[ERamseth]

Totally agree.

Will add that rpi5 + Hifiberry dac8x + case will give you 4 rooms of coverage for around maybe 200$ right now which is cheaper than 4 wiim mini devices… and uses less outlets… and less power and space than old desktop with open expansion a lot route.