Sonos Port vs WiiM Pro (Plus)

Because this is a Sonos funded and managed community, I think there are a few things you can expect to be different than some 3rd party place like reddit.  First, Sonos doesn’t really have a benefit from users openly sending other users to competitors products.  I actually a bit surprised that moderators haven’t made any comment or attempt to shut this down or steer the conversation to a close.  Secondly,  you aren’t going to get a ton of opinions about non-Sonos products here because we are all Sonos users.  There may be some that have mixed Wiim and Sonos households, but most people are going to build their home audio system sticking with one brand or the other.  Thirdly, if you look around a bit, I think you would see that not everyone is all rosy about Sonos, nor concurs with the decisions Sonos makes. Negative comments (sans profanity) are not removed.

My personal opinion is that Port is priced intentionally high because Sonos does not want their to be a particularly cheap way of getting audio out of the Sonos system.  They want you buying Sonos gear for your home, not 4 or 5 ‘ cheap’ ports while spending the bulk of your budget on other brand amps and passive speakers.   If you have already invested in sound system you don’t want to lose though, then a port is a good way to integrate it into your home audio system.  And I think that’s been the case since the Port existed as a ZP80 then Connect.

I think Wiim is trying to be a bit different.  They do not have the history and marketshare  that Sonos has/had and need to leverage themselves as a low cost alternative to Sonos.  That said, it looks like the price of their streaming boxes relative to their amps are pretty similar to what Sonos  has as well.

The WiiM handles higher sample rates.  The Port is limited to 24/48.  The Port works better with IOS Shortcuts.  The WiiM groups with Echo speakers.  The Port does not.

You have other Sonos devices.  Sounds like you would be better off with the Port.  Sonos does UPnP/DLNA.  I can use several UPnP apps to play to Sonos.  Not gapless though.  I don’t do that UPnP thing much as my library indexes just fine.

I pretty much discard all the bit rate/depth specs past CD quality as at best meaningless and often a drawback. On an analog input it is even less useful considering the resolution/noise/frequency capabilities of vinyl or tape.

Why clog up your network and/or storage with huge data files that do not contribute to the actual sound you'll hear?

Having been burned by other brands on backwards compatibility and post-warranty support I am cautious on investing in anything without a good track record, doubly so on computerized gear.

As to price as a factor, a used S2 compatible Connect is dirt cheap if you need to feed sound to a legacy audio system.