I have used a hifiberry before and it works fine. I am not sure what the 'best' alternative udget device would be, but I am also using a Chromecast audio without issues. It is smaller and cheaper than a hifiberry. Sadly, they were discontinued a while back, so you would need to see if you can find a used one.

A few months ago, I would have agreed with you. I own 3 hifiberry products and they are indeed awesome. Their own OS is great and they also worked very well with other software. But then I bought a couple WiiM minis. While it's fun to hack around with the pi, the WiiM just works and it does a couple things I could never get the pi to do. In particular, Qobuz streaming in high def and synchronized multi-room streaming.