There are a few things I want to set up for audio / media in my house. The house isn't very large, but it has two levels, plus the basement (which is living space, and where my linux box is). My linux box is my media server (well, it usually is, but my partition table has disappeared on one drive and... that's a whole other story.)
I am thinking about speakers at least in the kitchen and the bedroom. Converting the sound system hooked up to my TV would be nice, too.
I don't like the range on bluetooth for this application. The $25 1x2" bluetooth gadget I have plugged into my living room sound system is ok, but doesn't seem to have the range or behaviour I'd like, in actuality. So I was thinking about wifi. However wifi speakers are quite expensive, and seem very overpriced to me ($250-$800? Seriously?)
Like my little $25 bluetooth->3.5mm gadget, I was hoping to find something simple like that in wifi flavour, but I haven't come across anything. Do these even exist?
The other option is getting a Raspberry Pi (which has wifi or ethernet and a 3.5mm audio jack) and setting up as a DLNA client for speakers / speakers systems that have a 3.5 input. When researching this they often talk about setting up the Pi and also setting up a phone to be the client that selects the music or playlist, but it occoured to me that my old HTC phone has both wifi and a 3.5 input.... so I can probably just use the phone to perform the function "as the Pi" in one of my three areas. I can use my current phone or tablet as the control devices. Has anyone here mucked around with this stuff already? Any warnings for this setup, or alternate recommendations?
My HTC phone is currently unrooted and running Gingerbread, I think. I will know when I can find the proprietary charger. No objections to rooting it and trying to install whatever I please on there. My current phone is a Blackberry, but I'm running Snap. My tablet is also running Android (KitKat).
I looked for whole house audio "on the cheap" for a long time and there really isn't such at thing unless you DIY. For many years I ran my own low power FM transmitter but more recently I discovered a software product called Airfoil which does the trick. Well worth the $25 IHMO.
https://www.rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/
The source needs to be Mac or Windows but the "speakers" can be almost anything. It does a pretty good job of keeping all your "speakers" in sync so you can have the same audio playing in the living room, kitchen, basement, office, and bedroom without having them playing at slightly different times or having to crank the volume to make the living room heard in other parts of the house. I have noticed the audio stream "stretching/speeding up/slowing down" sometimes in order to keep the playback in one area synchronized with another. It's not a problem with wired connections but there is no such thing a reliable wifi; you are guaranteed interference, drop outs, packet loss, etc.and that's where the audio will drop out or act 'strange.' With a little bit of scripting and home automation, I can have the "speakers" closest to me turn on when I'm near and then turn off a few minutes after I go away. I've even been known to take an iPod and some powered speakers out to the back yard for a little music outdoors, all in sync with the speakers in the house and access to my entire audio collection. Now if only I could get it loud enough to mow the lawn without also inflicting my music taste on the entire neighbourhood :-) Wireless noise cancelling headphones perhaps? Anybody got a silent lawn mower that doesn't involve a whole body workout? :-)
Cheers, Dave.
Coincedentally, today at CES, Google announced a version of the chrome cast for speakers.
I have no details on the device but I would assume that you can use it the same way as a Chromecast which means streaming from almost any source and controlled by a browser or phone.
John
-
David Milton -
John Lange -
Kat