The Wiim cannot control an amps volume it has its own digital volume control it has no analogue preamp and would not recommend you use its volume control at all as it’s done pre dac and is likely not done at the highest bit depth to maintain its integrity.
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This is a good observation… I stick with my RPi and volume control on my amplifier…
That said you could use it as digital pre to a poweamp or active speakers I suppose as it does have different line out sensitivity but what how well it would operate in that capacity I cannot say. It’s attenuating in the digital realm and not the analogue output section.
As do I. I will only use Fixed Volume out and control the volume at the amp/pre-amp stage; even if the differences are “unhearable”.
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As Andreas alluded, it was probably a combination of 1. Room (which makes so much of a difference) and 2. Speakers/Amp (pairing of amp and speakers is important).
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I agree with you that room and speakers are very important. But, clearly the reproduction part is not unimportant! Connecting back to my original question,
I have a few suggestions so far (thanks @Rockhound):
- a Hegel H190, or
- H390 if I can motivate the higher price tag.
I think that the Hegel H190 is close to perfect, but it has the annoyance with resampling and for some cases Roon displays ‘high quality’ instead of ‘lossless’. Now, soundwise it is maybe nothing to think about too much — but it sure is an annoyance!
Another route would be to use (thanks @Andreas_Philipp1)
- RPi + DAC → amp
- WiiM → amp
with the downside that it is necessary to change the volume on the amplifier.
Now, since I don’t want to change the volume on my amplifier (it is tucked away and out of sight!), this leaves me with the Hegel option.
Of course, there should be many other options out there, but I can’t really find any good alternatives. Bel Canto seems to have nice products that may tick my requirements, but then I saw the price… 
A third way forward would be to be content with my system as is. Streaming to the pretty decent Denon DRA-100 via Airplay. In this scenario I don’t exploit the RAAT protocole and I am a bit capped in quality, but hey, maybe I wouldn’t really notice any significant difference anyway and should put in some effort into my room dynamics instead!
Conclusion so far in terms of a refined and evolved version of the original question:
With the requirements stated above, is there anyone out there that can recommend an attractive alternative to the Hegel H190 at a similar price point?
The thing is, the reproduction part is now so well understood that almost anything will do the job well. Just get a modern DAC (well, non-snake-oil) and an amp sufficient to drive your speakers, and you’ll be golden. Much much more important is how well you’ve tailored the reproduction to the vagaries of your room. Measure the room with a calibrated microphone, generate the equalization curves, and tell those to Roon.
Take a long look at this overview thread:
Exactly!
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Haha! Actually, I have been interested in doing room correction for a long time and it has been my (secret) plan to do this via Roon (that is one of the reasons for why I don’t need e.g. Dirac in NAD M10).
But I think I leap a little bit ahead of myself if I go too far in DRC here and now. I am still in the early stages in this project…
Thanks for the link!