Contributor I

Question

Multiroom setup using existing speakers and amplifiers.

17 replies
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Hello and thank you in advance for any help with this question. I have 4 rooms that I am trying to setup for music streaming (dining room, living room, gym, kitchen). All 4 of the rooms have their own existing speakers/amps that I either use a 3.5mm jack or Bluetooth to play music through. I would like to keep my existing speakwr/amp combos as it is all nice equipment with good sound. I however would like to be able to control all 4 of the rooms with a system like Sonos, so that I could have the same music playing in any or all 4 of the rooms at the same time.

I am getting lost in that every system I seem to look at wants me to use their speakers/amps.

Almost all the music I play is through Spotify on my phone.

Thank you, Will

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M

mxr

Lyricist III

I suggest you get a handful of Chromecast Audio streamers. Note Audio, not the normal Chromecast, these are no longer in production but you can fund them used or refurbished online. With your collection of existing amps this gives you an inexpensive and easy to use multiroom system that supports Google Cast and Spotify Connect.

J

John B

Also does the 4 echo dot setup offer variable volume control in each room?

Yes. The easiest way would be by voice,

is it possible to achieve the same thing as 4 Amazon echos with 4 Google home minis?

I know nothing about Google Minis, but would be amazed if they can’t do the same.

I am sure we would all be interested to learn which solution you settle on and how it goes. There are many valid suggestions on this thread.

K

Kumar

I used Chromecast Audio when they were launched; they were the first devices to show up the silly pricing of the Port. I gave up on it because it was too much of hassle for me to have to access the phone each time I wanted to make any intervention on music play and I did not find the app to be very easily useable.

YMMV, but it may not be worth the trouble.

PS: at that time, there was no Spotify Connect.

A

amun

I used Chromecast Audio when they were launched; they were the first devices to show up the silly pricing of the Port. I gave up on it because it was too much of hassle for me to have to access the phone each time I wanted to make any intervention on music play and I did not find the app to be very easily useable.

YMMV, but it may not be worth the trouble.

PS: at that time, there was no Spotify Connect.

Works fine with Hifi Cast…. Which, IIRC, only cost a few UKP to get rid of the ads.

M

mxr

Lyricist III

I used Chromecast Audio when they were launched; they were the first devices to show up the silly pricing of the Port. I gave up on it because it was too much of hassle for me to have to access the phone each time I wanted to make any intervention on music play and I did not find the app to be very easily useable.

YMMV, but it may not be worth the trouble.

PS: at that time, there was no Spotify Connect.

I think it improved since then. I own 5 or 6 of Chromecast Audio's, used them in my former house. It's a neat little streamer especially when connected via toslink optical to a DAC/amp with digital input.

The reason I have Sonos now is that i moved to a house which had several zones built in already, with Connect:Amps to drive them.

To me, there are (dis)advantages to both. I play music from my own network server (lossless flac), use Plex, streaming via Spotify and listen to local radio stations.

The Sonos app is nice and makes it easy to group/ungroup zones. The wired connection is robust. But Sonos is weak for own media, lacking in support for NAS drives and highres audio. Ans while the app does a good job to integrate everything, it is very very basic in terms of music discovery and metadata. The native apps from Plex and Spotify are much more enjoyable to browse a music collection.

Chromecast Audio allows me to use Plex and Spotify natively to stream music to multiple zones (to Sonos only one zone). But to group/ungroup zones you have to enter the Google Home app, which is more hassle.

I think CCA could be the superior streamer for a setup in which grouping of zones is relatively fixed. So your open plan house would actually fit this usecase very well. For me, I'm a bit on the fence right now. Probably I'll stick with Sonos for now, but hesitant to upgrade until I see true improvements/benefits in the S2 software and get a better feel of where the company is going.

K

Kumar

The open plan needs different zones/zone combinations at different times, and Sonos still does this better than anyone else.

On a standalone basis with even high end systems, Echo Show 5 wired to analog line in jacks is excellent and cheap enough to be dedicated as a source, leaving its other Alexa gimmicks unused. With a My Media for Alexa instance, local NAS is covered by it, as are Spotify/Amazon Music/Apple Music. And all, with album art and more voice control than what Sonos offers.

I don't drink the Hi Res Kool Aid, so that is no miss in my book.

K

Kumar

Echo lends itself to another cool addition - a cheap old Dot can be put to dedicated use as a voice command post at the other end of the open space, where it routes all commands that it hears to a chosen, wired to line in jacks Echo elsewhere in the space, to avoid having to shout across the open space which is a nuisance to do when music is playing.

And My Media for Alexa is also available for Raspberry PI that can be dedicated to it, with music on a USB stick containing ripped CDs/download files plugged in, and left on 24/7 anywhere in range of the WiFi network. Echo can then command it to play via voice, with album art as well where Show units are deployed.

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