Beginner here looking for setup suggestions for multiroom setup

[kcguru23]

I am looking to build a multi-room setup, very basic, to mainly stream like Pandora or something off my phone. It would be for my living room, dining room, and kitchen. What would I need for that? Do I just need an amp and some compatible speakers? Very new to this, sorry!

 

[CptKaos]

do you have a budget in mind, per room

 

[BMeek]

Sounds like fun! You'll first want to think about where you'll want speakers placed. I suspect you'll conclude on a primary setup in your Living Room with added sets of stereo speakers in the Kitchen and/or Dining Room. Historically, this meant running speaker wire from the Living Room's beefy amp, but modern devices from the likes of WiiM make it possible to join multiple discreet stereo systems together over your home network and allow them to play in perfect time-alignment. This is more challenging if all the network-connected sound systems are trying to maintain lip-sync with an audio/video source.

So, how many sets of speakers around this area and is video lip-sync a concern with all speakers playing?

 

[kcguru23]

No real budget in mind yet, just starting to get ideas on how this would work and what I would need. My dining room is in between the other two rooms so I thought about putting the primary setup there and then running speakers to the kitchen and living room. Would mainly be audio so the video lip sync wouldn't be a huge issue.

 

[hipoagumol]

As you said very basic you have the Amazon Echo family which works very fine for sync'd multiroom aside of being alexa powered. Several sizes (echo dot, echo spot, echo studio) and audio quality and models with screen (5", 8",11",15" and 21"). You can play your music just by using screen controls, voice commands, alexa phone app , amazon music, spotify apps and also casting from other streaming services app. You can group rooms as you like to play in 1, 2 , 3 o more. Very easy to setup from alexa app. My personal experience is very good, I have one echo per room, total 5.
Since this a wiim forum I guess is fair to say wiim has recently entered the smart speakers market with its wiim sound and wiim sound lite. Similar approach but currently just 2 models. With the wiim streamers, specially mini, you can get similar thing but need external powered speakers or amp+passive speakers.
Hybrid approach with a bit more hifi setup (wiim amp + 2 passive speakers or wiim streamer + 2 powered speakers) in living room and amazon echoes in other rooms is also possible (that is my current setup)

Regards

 

[Mr Ee]

My dining room is in between the other two rooms so I thought about putting the primary setup there and then running speakers to the kitchen and living room

Sounds like you are thinking of a single device running speakers across 3 rooms / zones.
That's not really the Wiim Way, although there certainly are products that can do this.

A classic Wiim Way would be something like one of their Amps driving a pair of passive speakers in the lounge, then maybe a Sound or Sound Lite in the kitchen and dining room, where you (or the better half) are more likely to want a smaller, less conspicuous unit.
No wires involved, unless you want ethernet into any of them, as they can use your wifi.
This would also allow you to play different music in each room, or the same music in any combination of rooms.

From the Wiiim lineup, I think the choice also comes down to room sizes and desired listening levels.
Personally, I don't think a single Wiim Sound is the right choice for a larger room, say 20m2 and above.

As for Pandora, I see that it's available in the wiim app, but I've no idea how it compares to using the Pandora app itself.
From the Pandora app I'd assume you'd have to either bluetooth or chromecast to a wiim?
For chromecast multiroom you'd have to use chromecast groups, not wiim groups. Chromecast is not gapless if that matters to you.

Feel free to ask more quesions!