I have a pair of old speakers (Paradigm Studio 20) and an old amp of the same age (a NAD 320 BEE) that I use for blasting workout music in my garage. I may eventually get a sub for the system.
I’d like to be able to stream from Roon, Spotify, and, if possible Apple Music (tho I don’t have any Apple computers) and Qobuz. (Multiple people in the house use the speakers and they all don’t use Roon.) It isn’t for critical listening; its for strong bass/good volume, and all the other stuff you want to power you through a workout.
My amp seems to be good enough. So I am trying to find a streamer/dac. It looks like its either a Wiim Pro, a Pro Plus, or a Bluesound Node Nano. I imagine the WiiM Pro DAC will be fine for blasting workout music, but I don’t have much experience of different DACs–so I am looking for some advice. Also, is there anything else I should consider or products I should look at?
if you really want a simple solution, get a bluetooth streamer and pipe the stream from your phone. That should work for everyone. I have bluetooth all over the house for non critical music as I am the only Roon user in the family. Or for a more comprehensive solution, the WiiM Mini covers all the major streaming services and has bluetooth as well.
I have a WiiM Pro Plus in my garage as the hub of an inexpensive audio system. The Pro Plus works and sounds great. I highly recommend the Pro Plus, especially in this use case, for which it is absolutely perfect.
If only to be used with Roon, although it has Airplay 1 (lossless 16/44.1) and UPnP (flakey) I would recommend the FiiO SR11 as an alternative to a WiiM Pro, Pro Plus or Ultra (although they have a full suite of supported services), and add to it the below DAC from S.M.S.L.
The SR11 + SU-1 combo puts in an incredible performance and although is meant for another room to build a smaller system, I’m struggling with putting my main system back together.
Funny, I’ve got the FiiO SR11 and a Schiit Modi in a bedroom system. About the same price range. It feeds a 30 year old Pioneer Elite AV receiver and Pioneer HPM-100 speakers and sounds great. New technology and vintage gear can work well together.
Thanks, everyone, for the input. I went with a basic WiiM Pro and am very happy with it. In fact versus some of my other toys (KEF wireless speakers, ifi zen stream, etc) I am astonished how easily and quickly in worked. No network issues of any kind and an easy-to-use android app. The only thing I don’t like is that there is not a physical off button: you’d have to unplug it. Other than that, highly recommended for this my use case.