Two Pro devices running as a “dual mono” setup?

[Quadradisque]

I just saw that Bluesound just announced their new flagship streamer with a dual mono DAC design and just got me thinking with the WiiM: could you possibly link via multiroom two WiiM Pro units together so that each one acts as its own separate DAC for that channel and could replicate that design?

So it’ll work like this:

- Pro unit 1 only outputs the left channel to the amp or an external DAC
- Pro unit 2 does the same but for the right channel.

Each Pro unit is essentially acting as its own DAC for that channel only which you can then set each units audio output to left or right only.

Has anyone actually tried this and can comment on if it actually makes a difference sound wise, or is it just plain overkill?

 

[adias]

Sync problems between L/R channels. WiiM’s synchronization may not match them perfectly.

 

[Mr Ee]

For fun:

Wiim Ultra and mini in a group.
Ultra line out.
Mini optical out to rme dac.
Ultra Left to amp, rme Right to amp.
Ultra set to L in group settings, mini set to R

Sounds fine to me, no sync issues. (Slight volume difference, but to be expected with two different dacs, and adjustable from the group screen.)
Manually adjusting the sync, even by a small amount, does sound weird, implying the sync is (almost) perfect.

However, for those that care you might be 'constrained' to 48khz max, being in a group.

 

[Quadradisque]

For fun:

Wiim Ultra and mini in a group.
Ultra line out.
Mini optical out to rme dac.
Ultra Left to amp, rme Right to amp.
Ultra set to L in group settings, mini set to R

Sounds fine to me, no sync issues. (Slight volume difference, but to be expected with two different dacs, and adjustable from the group screen.)
Manually adjusting the sync, even by a small amount, does sound weird, implying the sync is (almost) perfect.

However, for those that care you might be 'constrained' to 48khz max, being in a group.

Interesting! Is there a difference in the separation and imaging between both speakers?

 

[Mr Ee]

Interesting! Is there a difference in the separation and imaging between both speakers?

Yesrday's fun was just a really quick test.
This morning I've spent the last couple of hours using the same ultra left, mini right setup.
Admittedly it's not critical listening (working with music playing), but I've been doing that in the same room with just the ultra for the past couple of months so I do have a 'baseline'.
And I really can't say it sounds any different.
i.e. at no point have I though anything sounded off / different / wrong.

If I didn't know anything was different I wouldn't know anything was different.

 

[Mr Ee]

Currently listening to this with my UltraMini setup - sounds great!