Reply To: [unofficial weekender] It's all in the background. Or is it?

[limburger 22365xp 1]

@avien avoid bluetooth speakers. It works, but when the power runs out you have to remember to reconnect them to the source.

I’ve been experimenting with bluetooth speakers for my Home-Assistant setup and while it works on a technical level it’s too fussy for real world usage.

There are (cheap) WiFi systems out there that can do the job much better and are more reliable.

On the high-end bit there’s multi-room audio systems like Sonos (btw : Ikea has Symfonysk speakers which are cheap Sonos devices)
On the low-end there’s the option to add a speaker to a Rasberry Pi and run any number of mediaplayers.

WiiM is a brand that sits between both options, but it has its own quirks.

I’ve been looking into getting one of the devices from this website : https://sonocotta.com/
He has ‘solved’ the DIY part of a Raspberry Pi + audio-device so you won’t have to mess with electronics and it fits in a housing too.

For details on Home-Assistant : https://www.home-assistant.io/
I’m running Music Assistant add-on to do multi-room audio using both music files stored on my NAS as well as Spotify streaming service.

Link : https://music-assistant.io/

(best of all : it’s open source … so the only money you’re spending is whatever hardware you want to dedicate to it.)

And yes … I’m using this to play music while I do my hobby 🙂
Best thing is that I’m no longer locked into a single system for my music and the thing can do announcements too. (I haven’t had a need for it … but “*ding dong* : dinner is ready” will be an option :D)