Thanks.
This is surprising and good on the Wiim team for taking onboard the requests from the community, but I still can't see the benefit of waiting for this instead of just converting the files to PCM/FLAC for near universal playback compatibility.
No conversion of any files is necessary or desirable. At the time of the OP here, I had the WiiM Pro connected to an external DAC, subsequently updated to the Pro Plus, which uses it's own onboard DAC.
I have two local server options, DLNA/UPnP, and LMS. Of those two, LMS can easily transcode DSD files on-the-fly to 24-bit PCM. DLNA/UPnP should also be able to do that, however at least in my case that produces silence on the Pro Plus, whereas LMS plays music, so for me personally it's solved without actually being a finished feature with an available setting on the WiiM devices.
The need for this is not a monumental task in firmware, this has been commonly available on endpoint software for Raspberry Pi for many years, distros like Volumio, Moode, RoPieee, and piCorePlayer just to name a few. This should not have been a huge ask, and it is a feature that some might use, even if not you.
I wouldn't hold your breath
I'm not holding my breath, however if you see
Post # 4 above, you'll note this has been on WiiM's road map for quite some time now and they haven't removed it, they just haven't found the time to test and implement the feature among various competing priorities.
SACD/DSD is a dead format.
To the masses yes, and that was always the case/nothing new, SACD never gained mass market traction even though it did beat the competitor DVD-Audio format, a pyrrhic victory of sorts, the overall war was still lost. That said, the format is not dead when there are literally hundreds of new titles released every year, largely in the classical music realm (BIS Records does about 70-80 new releases every year), but also by specialty boutique reissue labels such as Analogue Productions, Mobile Fidelity, Intervention Records, Impex, etc... not to mention the major record labels too (Sony/Warner/Universal), though their releases are restricted to the Japan/Hong Kong markets.
I'm not sure what the joke is here.
That DSD is dead
That's the joke, you are not the proclaimer of dead formats. See above, there is still a small niche buying market for SACD, largely record collectors and audiophiles, but dead would mean they are no longer being released as with DVD-Audio (that's a truly dead format).
Convert the files to FLAC, hi-res or just 16/44 as you please, and tell me if they sound any worse.
Because physically converting them would take time and effort for no reason. I have various streaming options outside of the WiiM devices that stream native DSD, and they are not expensive (they are Raspberry Pi based). A couple have their own integrated DAC, while the others output native DSD over USB to any DSD capable DAC (most are capable these days and have been for about 10-12 years now). On-the-fly conversion via software is much preferred, you can still listen to those files in their native state on any compatible setup, or listen to the transcoded PCM on devices like the WiiM, while leaving the file in it's native state.
Actual down sampling to 16/44.1 is neither lossless, nor sonically transparent, and since you very likely have no DSD files and have never even done that, you should probably just leave it alone. There is absolutely no reason to run around deciding who can hear what, if I own the album in a higher-resolution format, that's probably because I wanted that particular mastering job and/or transfer from the original tape source, and find the standard CD version to be lacking or mediocre. I'm sure you aren't going to now say that no one can hear any difference between different mastering, or transfers from an original tape source vs. a tape copy, right?
