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The original was posted on /r/homeassistant by /u/CSH_Bro on 2024-01-07 13:04:33.

Ok crew I’d love to know your solutions for whole house audio. Currently I use google home speakers and I’m fed up with their reliability and let’s face it they dont really sound that amazing anyway. I do have a Denon Reciever which I love and is connected to audio in my living room but because I live in a rental I can’t just go smashing cables into the roof/walls to run other zones. So I’d love to hear your solutions. Ideally I’d love to have the below.

  1. Wireless Speakers (Bluetooth wifi whatever as long as they sound good)
  2. Have to be able to stream Spotify directly to the setup whatever it is (this is the only way to get partner on board)
  3. Ability to zone speakers to rooms or groups etc.

Let me hear your wizzard magic please ( ‘‿’ )

  • barkingspiders@infosec.pubEnglish
    1·
    6 months ago

    I’ve been chasing this dream for a while. My final solution would be wired speakers and a smart amp or some such setup but we’re still renting so that’s a no go. In the meantime we’re using Logitech Media Server and a mix of devices.

    LMS isn’t the most beautiful solution but after years and years it’s still the most feature rich and flexible solution to multi room audio you’re going to find for zero dollars. It allows me to sync playback across almost any device, such as desktop computers, laptops, phones, raspberry pis, my Nvidia shield and most recently a couple refurbished Sonos OneSL speakers. It also integrates really smoothly with Spotify which is our primary music source.

    The Sonos speakers were a decent price refurbished and work really well for us. LMS can control them flawlessly with the AirPlay bridge plugin and we can cast directly to them with Spotify whenever we want. I’ll also note that the Spotify plugin for LMS supports turning any of its clients into a Spotify connect receiver as well. I did have to setup some automation to improve the handling between LMS and the speakers. If you cast Spotify while LMS is controlling the speaker it will cutover perfectly but resuming the LMS stream afterwards seems to require turning off and on the virtual LMS device but I was able to handle that with an automation.

    Both the Sonos speakers themselves and LMS have robust integrations in homeassistant. It took me a bit to find the proper format for sending media_play requests but once I did, automation has been solid. I’m not a fan of proprietary setups like Sonos but I have to admit it’s been a good fit so far.

    Best of luck, hope you find a solution that works well for you. Let me know if you have any questions about my setup.