How do you do speakers? I've got a bluetooth speaker but couldn't find a way to control it via HA. It's too far away from the HA server, tried to connect it to a tablet I'm using as wall panel, but then couldn't play music through it. Tried with DLNA apps but that was slow/unreliable. Also tried Browsermod but that didn't work either. Also saw people using a Chromecast with HDMI to Audio splitter and then cast to the Chromecast, seemed overkill to me. Finally, saw some ESPHome projects connected via aux to the speaker, but didn't seem very reliable.

Think best way is to get proper smart speakers like Sonos, but I find them too expensive.

[–] eagleeyedtiger@lemmy.nz 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I would love some smart speakers but I find them pricey as well.

I'm using a Chromecast audio with an old pair of speakers on a smart plug. The speakers are old enough that it only has an IR remote.

I have it setup so:

Chromecast is detected as Playing, speakers turn on.
IR blaster sends commands to set the volume and bass level I like.
Dashboard displays additional buttons for controlling volume via IR blaster.
If Chromecast stops casting, the speakers turn off and buttons on dashboard disappear.

Main reason it's setup this way is I already had the old speakers and getting a Chromecast audio and IR blaster was much cheaper than getting good smart speakers. Although you're right it would be much simpler if I just get some decent smart speakers.

[–] sylverstream@lemmy.nz 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's a nice automation. Where did you get CC Audio? As they are no longer sold.

[–] eagleeyedtiger@lemmy.nz 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I got it shortly after I heard they were discontinued, so there was still some stock floating around. I think it might have been through Dick Smith/Kogan at the time?

If you're willing to go down the Amazon route, I think Echo Dot's have an aux out? They had a device called the Echo Input as well which was like and Echo Dot without the speaker, doesn't seem available anywhere though. I would probably only try this if I could be sure I could disable the microphone and smart speaker functions.

[–] sylverstream@lemmy.nz 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks. Yeah I don't want any cloud based stuff, especially not from Amazon as I'm afraid they will shut down Alexa if they keep losing money on it.

Guess I'll wait for now. Thanks.

[–] eagleeyedtiger@lemmy.nz 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Understandable. I feel like there must be something out there that works as a replacement, I just haven’t looked very deeply into it.

[–] sylverstream@lemmy.nz 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sorry one more post :) I just found this one on Aliexpress which seems promising. Works via a dedicated app but it seems compatible with HA. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003331228026.html

Could be an affordable alternative.

[–] eagleeyedtiger@lemmy.nz 3 points 1 year ago

Interesting, now I’m wondering if I should sell my CC audio for $200 and get one of these 🤔

[–] sylverstream@lemmy.nz 2 points 1 year ago

I saw ESPMuse, which is an ESP32 based speaker, but has terrible reviews.

I just checked TM, CC Audio is sold for $200 there. Crazy. https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/marketplace/electronics-photography/media-streaming/chromecast/listing/4278960673

[–] sylverstream@lemmy.nz 2 points 1 year ago

This is an ESP32 solution: https://www.instructables.com/MQTT-Audio-Notifier-for-ESP8266-Play-MP3-TTS-RTTL/