HiFi Esparagus

What is it?

HiFi Esparagus and HiFi Esparagus S3 are handy, low-cost media devices that will upgrade your legacy audio system with internet streaming capabilities. It exposes line-level output that you can plug into active speakers, a stereo amplifier, or headphones. They use the legendary PCM5100 series DAC with supreme audio quality.

Recent addition – ESP32-S3 version – adds front-facing microphone and RGB LED, so it can also be used as a voice-assist device, providing an off-grid Alexa-like experience for your Home Assistant setup.

HiFi Esparagus is a feature-packed version of the HiFi-ESP32, with all you need to have to form a ready-to-use media center solution for a smart home

Our Crowd Supply campaign to back the manufacturing of the Esparagus series boards was successfully funded, thanks to everyone who made that possible.

Use cases

HiFi Esparagus is a flexible, open-source audio platform designed to fit into both smart homes and custom audio projects.

Smart Home Audio & TTS
Integrates with Home Assistant and Music Assistant for high-quality audio playback and text-to-speech announcements. Perfect for notifications, voice alerts, and whole-home audio driven by your smart home automations.
Multi-Room Audio with Snapclient
Use HiFi Esparagus as a Snapclient endpoint to create perfectly synchronized multi-room audio systems. Ideal for distributed music playback without proprietary lock-in.
Standalone Player with Squeezelite-ESP32
Run Squeezelite-ESP32 for a self-contained network audio player supporting Spotify Connect, AirPlay, and Logitech Media Server (LMS) — no external computer required.
Educational Projects & Teaching Platforms
A powerful tool for schools, universities, and technical education. HiFi Esparagus can be used to teach embedded systems, digital audio, networking, and open-source software — ranging from simple audio playback labs to advanced DSP, streaming, and real-time systems projects.
Research, Prototyping & Experimentation
Well-suited for rapid prototyping of audio devices, proofs-of-concept, and research projects involving DSP, low-latency streaming, wireless audio, or human-machine interaction.
A Foundation for Custom Products & DIY Builds
With all firmware and tooling fully open source, HiFi Esparagus is an ideal base for custom audio devices — whether you’re building a personal DIY project, a small production run, or a community-driven product.

Which chip: ESP32 or ESP32-S3?

Most boards in this line are sold with either the ‘classic’ ESP32 or the newer ESP32-S3. They are not interchangeable for every use case, and picking the wrong one is the single most common support question — here’s the short version:

ESP32-S3 is the newer, more capable chip — more RAM headroom, a faster CPU, and native USB — but it has no Bluetooth Classic radio, so Bluetooth A2DP only works on the original ESP32.
Squeezelite-ESP32 and standalone Snapclient: pick the classic ESP32. Neither firmware is fine-tuned for the S3 yet, and current S3 support is noticeably laggier.
ESPHome / Home Assistant media player: pick ESP32-S3. The new Sendspin renderer runs much better on the S3’s extra headroom.
Voice assistant (wake word) in Home Assistant: ESP32-S3 is mandatory — the classic ESP32 doesn’t have the RAM/CPU headroom to run it.
AirPlay 1 & 2 (rbouteiller/airplay-esp32): both chips are fully supported on the boards it currently targets; ESP32-S3 is preferred for its extra performance headroom.

Your use case	Pick
Bluetooth A2DP from a phone/laptop	ESP32
Squeezelite-ESP32 or standalone Snapclient	ESP32
ESPHome media player / Sendspin	ESP32-S3
Home Assistant voice assistant	ESP32-S3
AirPlay 1 & 2	Either — ESP32-S3 for more headroom

If none of that applies to you and you just want the safe default, pick ESP32-S3 — it’s the newer chip. Only choose classic ESP32 if you specifically need Bluetooth A2DP, or plan to run Squeezelite-ESP32/Snapclient today.

Features

	HiFi ESP (discontinued)	HiFi Esparagus	HiFi Esparagus S3
MCU	ESP32-Mini Module	ESP32-WROVER-N8R8	ESP32-S3-WROOM-N8R8
DAC	PCM5100A 32-bit Stereo DAC -100 dB typical noise level	PCM5100A 32-bit Stereo DAC -100 dB typical noise level	PCM5100A 32-bit Stereo DAC -100 dB typical noise level
Output	Non-amplified stereo output, 2.1V RMS	Non-amplified stereo output, 2.1V RMS	Non-amplified stereo output, 2.1V RMS
IR reader	❌	✅	✅
RGB LED	❌	✅	✅
I2S Microphone	❌	❌	✅
Flash/PSRAM	4MB/8MB	8MB/8MB	8MB/8MB
Connectivity	WiFi + BT4.2 + BLE	WiFi + BT4.2 + BLE	WiFi + BLE
Case		80 x 50 x 20 mm Aluminum case	80 x 50 x 20 mm Aluminum case
Power requirement	5V from USB-C	5V from USB-C	5V from USB-C

⚠️HiFi boards require an external amplifier or active speakers; you can’t connect passive speakers to it.
💡Need to connect speakers as well? Check out Amped Esparagus
💡Need only speakers output? Check out Loud Esparagus
💡Need more powerful DSP? Check out Louder Esparagus

💡Looking for a more cost-efficient version? Check out HiFi-ESP32

Onboard PSRAM

Audio streaming requires proper buffering to work, even with the ESP32’s 500K of RAM; it is a challenging task. For that reason, all Louder-ESP32 board versions have an 8 MB PSRAM chip onboard, connected via a high-speed interface.

Firmware

Home Assistant
Start from the web-installer, as soon as you configure WiFi, the boards will be discovered by the ESPHome add-in automatically. Dedicated configs can be found in the documentation for simple and stable media-player, experimental sendspin protocol, and experimental snapclient component
AirPlay 1 & 2 with Sendspin and Bluetooth. Native, actively developed AirPlay 1 & 2 firmware (rbouteiller/airplay-esp32) with PTP multi-room sync, an experimental Sendspin renderer, and Bluetooth A2DP on the ESP32 revision. Flash straight from your browser with the web-installer — no toolchain needed. See AirPlay 2 support below for details.
Squeezelite-ESP32
Flash directly from your browser using the web-installer, configure WiFi using Hotspot (default password: squeezelite). Don’t forget to exit Recovery mode when configured.
Snapclient
Flash directly from your browser using the web-installer, as soon as you configure the WiFi board, it will discover the snapserver automatically
Snaplient (edge)
Developer’s version of the snapclient, less stable and more feature-rich for those who cannot wait for new features to be released. Installed via web-installer, similar to standard snapclient
Your own software
Use Arduino IDE or Platformio IDE and the provided software samples

AirPlay 1 & 2

Squeezelite’s built-in AirPlay is a first-generation implementation. rbouteiller/airplay-esp32 is a standalone, open-source AirPlay 1 & 2 receiver for the ESP32 family — actively developed, with great work done by the community despite the lack of help from Apple.

It now supports HiFi-ESP32, Loud-ESP32, Louder-ESP32, and Louder-ESP32-Plus, and Amped-ESP32 out of the box, on both the ‘classic’ ESP32 and ESP32-S3 revisions, flashable straight from a browser — no toolchain required. Current features:

AirPlay 1 & 2 — appears natively in Control Center and any AirPlay app, with PTP-based multi-room sync
Sendspin (experimental) — an open multi-room protocol renderer sharing the same output path, DSP, and volume control as AirPlay
Bluetooth A2DP on the classic ESP32 revision — phones and laptops can stream directly whenever AirPlay is idle (the ESP32-S3 has no Bluetooth Classic radio)
On-device display — the optional OLED add-on, or the Louder-ESP32-Pro’s color TFT, shows track metadata and progress for AirPlay, Bluetooth, and Sendspin alike
USB audio (UAC) — the ESP32-S3 revision can be built as a USB sound card for a connected computer, sharing the same DAC path

Using with Home Assistant

Both HiFi Esparagus versions were created specifically to be used with Home Assistant via ESPHome integration. For both boards, rich configs were pre-created with hardware configuration for common use cases. These include

media_player component for simple and robust media playback and TTS announcements (with ducking effect)
Sendspin media player – new experimental protocol for multi-room sync with media controls and more
An experimental snapclient component that allows near-perfect multi-room sync and seamless integration with Music Assistant
Another snapclient fork with an implemented 15-band software equalizer and a rich set of EQ presets
Voice assist config for S3-based boards, allowing local voice-controlled assist and automation

Configurations are being actively maintained and upgraded, new experimental components added for you to test and enjoy

Documentation

Both the software and the hardware are fully open-source and available on the project’s GitHub. You can follow the project updates at Hackaday

Esparagus Media Center promo video for Crowd Supply

Where to buy

You may support our work by ordering this product at Tindie and Elecrow

HiFi Esparagus at Tindie, Lectronz, and Elecrow ($45 MRSP, $40 at volume)
HiFi Esparagus at Crowd Supply ($45 MRSP)

Sponsorship & Community Support

If you’re working on an open-source project, an educational initiative, or any pro-bono/volunteer effort, feel free to reach out for sponsorship details. I’ll do my best to provide discounts or even free boards.