Hi All,
SONOS has a music system where by you connect, wired speakers to an amp that sits on your network. Main issue being, including speakers it’s a about a grand!
Whilst I understand you get what you pay for, has anyone had any experience of creating their own version or system like this?
Thanks
Volumio multiroom, works fine, all DIY, so as cheap, as a Raspberry, any speaker and a cheap Chinese DIY amplifier.
I use it here for 3 rooms.
Thanks,
Been looking at this
Power Dynamics WT240A Wifi Streaming Stereo Amplifier with Bluetooth and USB, Air-Play, RJ45 DLNA AndroidPower Dynamics WT240A Wifi Streaming Stereo Amplifier with Bluetooth and USB, Air-Play, RJ45 DLN…
It’s obviously a lot more but might take less configuring.
What kind of speakers does that drive?
Any speaker 4-8 Ohm.
Or lms with pi’s or esp32’s as clients.
Sorry lms?
Logitech Media Server
The integration is Squeezebox (Logitech Media Server) - Home Assistant
It is an open source audio system. Started by slimdevices with the squeezebox devices. Bought by Logitech. Abandoned by Logitech. Kept alive by open source and by easy emulation of the hardware devices on pretty well any hardware.
There is an addon for the lms server, or use it on your existing media server.
Thanks. I’ll keep digging.
You can get a media streamer for £150 ish that does dnla so I’m debating that against a more difficult setup.
You have to make a decision:
You don’t need synced multiroom playback, then almost anything is a possible option.
Or you do need it, and then the available options can be counted on two hands…
It is not 100% clear from your question, if that is a necessity 
The ESP32-based hardware tends to be mono, and not really designed for sound quality (i.e. messages, not symphonies).
There’s a load of Raspberry Pi audio add-on boards typically with a better DAC (audio interface), and outputs for optical / analogue / speakers with an amplifier.
The RPi documentation has a lot of detail, but there’s several software options ranging from ‘self-contained juke box’ through to networked audio player only. The official RPi imager software even includes several projects to try.
It’s years since I’ve tried the emulators for the years old Squeezebox (already covered well by others), but the simplest cheapest hardware for existing speakers used to be Google Chromecast Audio - which is a shame as they’re discontinued hardware. I still use a few for audio prompts and streaming to several rooms with synchronisation (which has got Google into legal disputes), but the Nest Hub hardware is the only still sold. Nest isn’t cheap, but the displays and speakers are pretty good for HASS.
As others have said, playing audio with remote control is pretty simple - getting the music synchronised across devices in different rooms with different network conditions is the hard bit (and apparently covered with patents). Depends on what you need, and want to spend…
Oh, and one more thing - careful with filling /media with lots of files as ALL of the data ends up in your HASS backup. This is why mounting files from a NAS is a better option.
Use Google Home Minis or the more expensive Google speaker. Two of them can be set up together to give you stereo sound and you can use HA to cast music or radio stations.
I cast different radio stations during the day to 5 different rooms. The sound is excellent and the cost much less than Sonos. In fact, I had Sonos up to some 6 years ago but was annoyed by the many streaming interruptions and am much happier with my current setup, though I assume that Sonos improved streaming in the meantime.
Thanks all.
I should have specified that i want to be able to listen to the same music in separate rooms or different music in separate rooms.
I’ve got google speakers, not the larger ,now nest ones but the small, mid and displays. The music quality is pants, and the casting from various apps or even HA can be a pain.
I’d be intrested to know what people have spent to get a system like this working. If i go with the below & 2 good speakers i’d be at around £400-650 for 4 speakers across 2 rooms. As the below is DNLA compliant I’m assuming i can create groups through HA
Thoughts?
I forgot to mention the alternative of Chromecast. You can connect these to any amplifier and thus get the quality you are looking for.
In most of my rooms I only want soft background music and the minis suit me well. In other rooms I want better quality and use Chromecast.
With HA I cast the same selected stream throughout the home.
And are they in sync?
They are all perfectly in synch
Mine are in sync too. But the sound quality is pants.
I suggest you have a look to GitHub - sle118/squeezelite-esp32: ESP32 Music streaming based on Squeezelite, with support for multi-room sync, AirPlay, Bluetooth, Hardware buttons, display and more
With a decent DAC/Amp/speaker(s), this is amazing and works for multi room.
Almost any i2s DAC can be used with ESPHome, I’m currently using a Waveshare ESP32 One which is an ESP32 in the formfactor of a Raspberry Pi Zero, I have a Pimoroni PhatDAC hat plugged in which has a PCM5102A i2s DAC onbaord and it works perfectly streaming MP3’s and radio playlists from Home Assistant, TTS works just fine too, I haven’t done much else with it yet though.
