Re: [PLUG] Open Source Whole House Audio Streaming Alternatives to Sonos, Chromecast

["Gavin W. Burris" <bug@wharton.upenn.edu>]

Hi, John.

Have you considered the Apple AirPort Express?  You can buy two or three for $99 a pop to cover the house in wifi.  Each one has a stereo and optical out.  It just works.  The optical gives you the option of using whatever DAC you want, maybe an AudioEngine D1.  This does require iTunes, but there is also the forked-daapd project as a Linux solution.  https://ejurgensen.github.io/forked-daapd/

Cheers.

On Tue 09/26/17 11:32PM EDT, John Karr wrote:
> A friend of mine recently turned me on to ChromeCast Audio for
> creating a whole hose audio streaming system, at about 3% what the
> very proprietary and restrictive Sonos system would cost to do the
> same. Now that my appetite is whetted, ChromeCast Audio has a lot of
> shortcomings:
> 
>  * poor quality integrated DAC
>  * only supports wireless connection and has frequent dropouts
>  * undocumented API (based on DLNA protocol)
>  * need Google's Home Application on Andriod to manage them
>  * linux driver (pulse-dlna) has audible click switching tracks
> during playback from VLC (and Clementine my preferred player doesn't
> seem to want to send audio there at all).
> 
> There are a number of premium sound cards available for raspberry pi
> along with the ability to connect a higher quality dac via usb or
> optical out add ons. I've found a number of different programs out
> there that might be usable to create a better system to upgrade from
> ChromeCast.
> 
> The question is has anyone used Raspberry Pi or similar devices to
> create a whole house audio network? What software (preferably FOSS)
> and hardware did you use?
> 
> To clearly state the problem I'm trying to solve: I have 3 stereos
> around my house and I want to be able to transmit audio without lag
> to all of my speakers at once. My house is already wired with
> ethernet in every room. I have a huge local digital music library
> which I want to play.
> 
> I prefer an ethernet based solution to running a lot of new wires to
> create a system that cannot easily be reconfigured (if I wanted to
> movie the master player or add more amplifiers and speakers)
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
Gavin W. Burris
Senior Project Leader for Research Computing
The Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania
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___________________________________________________________________________
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