Multiple Audio Sources for Whole House Audio

Configuration
1

I haven’t jumped into this quite yet, but I’m wondering…

We have the Monoprice 6 zone amplifier and it has multiple inputs. We’ll be using the PA feature (temporary input that overrides all other inputs) for announcements, alarms, etc., but what I’m wondering is how to deliver multiple input sources to the amp.

Not the physical connections. That’s easy. I’m more interested in how I can feed two separate instances of a given media player (spotify for example) into the amp so we can choose what we want to hear on a specific zone.

Baby Room: lullaby music
Living Room: easy listening, jazz, etc.
Garage/Shop: loud rock music

All simultaneously…who has done this and with what type of configuration?

2

I suppose I could just pony up some cash and create a few spotify streaming RPi4 players no? Maybe there’s something cheaper?

3

Multiple instances of Volumio player would be a possibility. Cheap (software itself is free) and can be just left somewhere behind the amplifier, as once setup, you almost never need to reach them. Volumio integrates in HA very well.
A Raspberry or similar board is enough to run Volumio on.

4

I’ve had trouble with the Spotify plugin in Volumio in the past…enough so that I quit using it. I wonder if it’s any better now.

5

I only use Qobuz on Volumio, and that works just fine. I have nothing to complain, using it on two instances.
There is recently new main version released, ver. 3 and that seems to be very stable. According to the forum posts there, Spotify should work fine now too.

You can always try, and throw away, if it does not work for you :wink: