Multi-room streaming / casting (to add to existing systems)

[donkmeister]

Has anyone had any success with syncing up multiple wifi/ethernet connected A/V output devices, that is also compatible with Google Cast?

In my house I have:
1) the main home cinema system (living room)
2) the kitchen A/V system
3) the main bedroom A/V system
4) the office audio system
5) the workshop audio system
6) the garden audio system

Currently 1 has an Nvidia Shield Pro, 2 has a Chromecast 4k.

When I tried doing multi-room with the living room and kitchen, I found that I couldn't get the audio synchronised well enough despite both being Chromecast devices, and grouped together in the Google Home app. This might be a limitation of the way Cast is implemented on the Shield.

I'd like to get the multi-room audio situation resolved, as we might add a couple of rooms and it would be good to tie it together. Yes the easy thing is to buy some Sonos speakers but that would be a separate system and I don't want that. Also I'll be adding some vintage B&O gear one day, so at least one box will need to have line level audio output anyway (or something that can be converted to this).

Synchronised multi-room video would be a nice-to-have, but I'm not hard over on that.

Looks like WiiM might work, any thoughts?

[adsk]

I've used Chromecast for audio across 3 to 4 rooms. It works reasonably well. Some 2nd hand Chromecast audios could integrate into your rooms.

I also have wiim devices and I do find them a little more stable at multiroom.

With both ecosystems (wiim and chromecast) their ease of use does depend somewhat on what you are casting. e.g. BBC Sounds and Spotify work really well with Chromecast and support it natively within the apps. I find it great casting the output of my TV sound or PC audio via wiim to other wiim devices...this would be trickier with Chromecast.

Generally, I've found wiim to be more stable than chromecast multiroom.