the vaweshare is entry level in term of perf but has a versatile chip with built in mems mic, amp and so on. I can’t tell for the software support, I guess it should be OK.
But, in the same manner the raspberry codec pi zero should be a better choice
Both are comparable to wm8731 chip, wich is an old friend of the raspberry pi ecosystem (know as audioinjector). Search the forum for wm8731 or audioinjector, you’ll get a lot of stories
pcm5102+pcm1808 is the way to go imo. pcm5102 has much better perf and is supported. Both chip are damn simple and fully hardware configured, so simple device tree based on spdif-dit and spdif-dir should run.
I’ve started with this:
And tried to make run with some aliexpress modules, but as you mentionned, it lacks the external clock.
So I’ve already designed a small board with those chips, the oscillator, good voltage regulators. In a format that fits my needs, but I ask myself if a kind of real simple evaluation board wouldn’t be better for getting started.
Design is quiet simple and can, why not, be duplicated for investigating multichannel audio.
Also see here:
With better specs (and higher price) there’s the CS4272 from Cirrus Logic wich has a device tree driver “superaudioboard”
Finally the TAC5242 looks promising. But is not for sale yet.