My Home Assistant Voice Preview hardware comes this week, and I’m excited to give it a try.
Great job HA team on a successful hardware launch - at least, if all the “SOLD OUT” and “BACKORDER” statuses are any indication of success… 
I set up a Raspberry pi zero 2 W with a Respeaker 2 mic hat. I works fine so far. I was set to make another one. But now I found the ReSpeaker Lite with Raspberry Pi and the ReSpeaker Lite 2-Mic Array Voice Kit, Compatible with ESPHome. It looks like the cost of each setup is about the same.
- Raspberry Pi with 2 mic hat $15 + $13 = $28
- ReSpeaker Lite 2-Mic Array Voice Kit, Compatible with ESPHome $30
I realized as I was writing this that the ReSpeaker Lite with Raspberry Pi is $25 but doesn’t come with the Raspberry Pi and the Pis they list as options at SeeedStudio do not include a Pi Zero. So it looks like that option is a lot more money.
I am leaning towards making another Pi Zero 2W with a 2 mic hat because it is something I have already made work. But I am hoping people chime in with their thoughts.
Any particular reason why you wouldn’t just go with a Home Assistant Voice PE unit? It’s essentially the same as what you’re proposing here, but much more integrated/polished - literally plug-and-play.
Note: The Voice PE hardware was released after I wrote the initial post in this thread.
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If we omit some nuances, the functionality of rp zero 2w satellite should be compared with atom echo. To be even more precise, esp32+ INMP441+dac(e.g. MAX98357). You can compare the price yourself.
Power consumption of esp is three times lower.
As for ReSpeaker Lite, most of the price is due to the XMOS chip. It’s a whole different level of microphone sensitivity.
The Home Assistant Voice PE is more expensive. From SeeedStudio it is $59. The price difference might worth it for the ease of use. After all, if it saves you 2 hours of work, you are only being “paid” $10 per hour to go the cheaper route. But this is a hobby and I love a challenge.