So, I have finally had the time to release the first non alfa version of my custom integration for Samsung Multiroom speakers. It should work for all Samsung Wireless Audio speakers and soundbars.
Hopefully it will be added to the HACS default list of integrations, but until then you will have to add it as a a custom repository.
I also hope that I soon have the time to share some experiences with these speakers (that I have have used for more than a decade) that I just love. The sound that you get from these speakers compared to the prices when they where available can’t be beaten by any other brand. Unfortunately they have never gotten any love or attention from Samsung, and therefore no firmware updates. A couple of years back they lost the ability to be used as Spotify Connect speakers, but then thanks to Spotify got it back. The last year I have also noticed that more and more radio stations on TuneIn where not possible to start playing on the speakers, which forced me to find the time to finish this integration. I play my favorite radio station on my speakers every day, all year around. And now I can continue this, even though Samsung seems to want me to scrap them and by new ones.
Have just picked up one of these (WAM350) used as they are going for so cheap these days even though they seem like quality.
Just wondering, is there any potential for adaptation as a Music Assistant player, specifically to support multi-room sync (e.g. similar to the Sonos player)? Is playback syncing something that can be implemented using the API do you reckon?
I don’t use Music Assistant. I have tried it a couple of times but always realized that it didn’t add any value to my setup. I only use my Samsung speakers and they can be grouped in HA now with this integration.
I quickly looked at the MA source code now and I think it will be possible to use the underlying library pywam to write a player provider for Music Assistant. But I will unfortunately not have the time to do that.
If anyone else would like to do so I can inform that I will hopefully soon (within a month) release a new version of both the integration and underlying library.
I see. If you are mainly listening to radio that makes sense.
I may end up taking a crack at it myself, especially considering you’ve already done all the hard work with pywam haha! This is all excellent work so thank you!
Also, assuming you’ve tried both, what would you say is the better option out of the M (3, 5, 7) speakers vs the R (Lite, 1, 5, 6, 7) speakers? I know the R-type speakers are omnidirectional so would probably be better for my usecase where I’d have them dotted around the house, but seems they’re often a bit more expensive on used sites. Can’t seem to find any comparisons on sound quality either between the M-type and R-type speakers. Seeing as you’re fully invested in these speakers I’m hoping you might have tried them all haha!
In my opinion they all have a great sound. If I have to range them, I would say the M5 has the best sound followed by R1 and M7. M3 works well in a smaller room. I have mine in the bathroom. All the Shape models (M) filles the room with sound and I can not tell the differense between them and the Audio 360 (R).
The only one I can’t recommend is the R6. It is battery powered which in theory makes it portable. But the design makes it very fragile i would say. Both the top and bottom.
Fantastic work. Thanks a lot! Was looking for something similar for a long time. I’ve noticed another strange thing too. With Spotify connect you can only share Songs, but not podcasts. I’ll try it now with this setup here
Plugin works great, but I cannot figure out how you now can listen to radio stations that don’t work on TuneIn? The same don’t work on Home Assistant Radio Browser as well. The radio stations that don’t work provide the stream with https and it seems the SetUrlPlayback of mutiroom speakers does not support https?
Most radio stations I have found works with both http and https. You simply change https:// to http:// and try. You can try it in a browser first.
I use The Radio Stream Directory to find the correct address to the stream for my stations. Just look up your station and then choose the bitrate and codec, and it will show you the address. And then you swap https to http.
Great work with the Home Assistant HACS integration of Samsung speakers. I managed to control my Samsung M7 and 2 LinkMate speakers (WAM270) and also reconnect to my favourite radio stations via Maxi Media Player (note that the default BBC example doesn’t work, just use media_content_id: http://stream.mp3 in the code editor after customFavorites).
I also installed Music Assistant Add-On web server (running on Synology NAS) and its Home Assistant Integration. Then I noticed that I could import Home Assistant as Plugin Provider, and that enabled importing the Samsung Speakers into Music Assistant via Home Assistant Media Player Provider (configure it and select the speaker under Generic Settings/Player Entities). That enabled me to play music from my Plex Media Server and also from Spotify inside Music Assistant to the Samsung speakers. Connections are not fully flawless. Sometimes had to reset server or speaker to restore communication, response is also a bit slow. But in general it seems possible to stream almost any music to the Samsung Speakers from Music Assistant this way.
In Music Assistant I also managed to add a custom Radio URL (add item from URL in the Radio tab) and play the radio station on the Samsung Speakers. Note that I did enable DLNA playback in the Plex server.