I have a dedicated Roon core and have just bought a Sonos Play 3 and am quite amazed at how responsive it is.
I’m not technical, but I press play and it’s instant
Compare that to the WIIM ultra that has a Schiit DAC and Schiit Amp to KEF speakers
When I press play on the Roon app there are normally delays in playing, sometimes the app crashes and the experience is nothing like the Sonos Play
I also have a pair of KEF LSX and that experience is also awful
In laymans terms can anyone hazard a guess as to why this is ?
When streaming to Sonos Roon is sending a signal using Sonos own streaming protocol it also has no inputs per se to switch to or from, so it’s as instant as using Sonos own app. When streaming to the other devices there is input switching going on as Roon sends via its own input. This delay will be device dependent, factors are speed of the cpu in device, architecture of device, their own code etc. On my devices it’s always been pretty much instant except the Wiim. Also if any are connected over wireless you may will get a touch of added latency due to the nature of the technology. The more complicated the device is with different sources and inputs it adds layers of complexity to the integration. Wiim is slow to switch to any inputs I have found not just Roon.
Not really your still using WiFi to bridge them and this where latency comes in. Hardwiring is the best way to reduce latency but if not easy to achieve I would leave it as is or get a long cable try it and see. It might only be a small difference.
Don’t know what mesh system you’re using. In my case, I have older Orbi mesh 6, and got one of those satellite and hardwired to the Wiim. and I see a slight improvement; albeit very slight. However, Wiim, inherently, has a bit of lag. If you can’t stand 1-2 seconds delay, then hardwired is the way to go.