Sonos alternatives for streaming audio

[Kaplin261]

Sonos connect amplifier is $500

My alternative for this is a $30 chromecast and $7 HDMI to vga adapter that separates the audio. The headphone audio port on the adapter is linked up to a old pioneer reciever can be sourced on craigslist for under $50

[wienerdog]

I like my Chromecast!  You might also look into using a Raspberry Pi.  They are excellent little devices for $35 that are much more flexible than Chromecasts if you are a little Linux savvy.  Never hurts to learn!

http://www.hifiberry.com/ampplus

That would be for a high end system at $100.  You can google streaming raspberry pi player and come up with all kinds of neat ideas. I have found the Raspberry Pi community to be excellent with sharing information.

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/838501/Raspberry-Pi-as-low-cost-audio-streaming-box

[Kaplin261]

I like my Chromecast!  You might also look into using a Raspberry Pi.  They are excellent little devices for $35 that are much more flexible than Chromecasts if you are a little Linux savvy.  Never hurts to learn!

http://www.hifiberry.com/ampplus

That would be for a high end system at $100.  You can google streaming raspberry pi player and come up with all kinds of neat ideas. I have found the Raspberry Pi community to be excellent with sharing information.

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/838501/Raspberry-Pi-as-low-cost-audio-streaming-box

Would love to tinker around with a raspberry pi but at this moment just don't have the time. Also how do you control the PI.

The beautiful thing about the chromecast is your phone is the remote control. I have one now that I use for audio and video and its amazing how well it works for such a cheap price.

The reciever I'm using is just one of those 15 years ago models I picked up at a thrift store for $30. MOSFET power with 100x2 rms watts. Perfect for splitting down to multiple speakers thru out the house.

A wemo switch is a item I might add because my reciever is mounted in a unused part of my house and could save electricity by not leaving the thing on all the time. Then with the help of software I can turn the reciever on when I transmit signals to the chromecast and turn it off when I stop.

[wienerdog]

Also how do you control the PI.

Pi MusicBox as shown in the second example is just a web page served from the pi so any browser works for control.



The same pi could also serve up a home automation server like Domoticz.  I run it for lights control, temperature monitoring and energy monitoring.  The pi draws less than 4 watts.

[Kaplin261]

Also how do you control the PI.

Pi MusicBox as shown in the second example is just a web page served from the pi so any browser works for control.



The same pi could also serve up a home automation server like Domoticz.  I run it for lights control, temperature monitoring and energy monitoring.  The pi draws less than 4 watts.

Home automation is on my list of things to do, with costs being upwards to $400 for what I want to do with a Smartthings Hub I just can't justify that will bring that much value to my life.

I like PI idea but it would require a learning curve. I bought a arduino a while back and never did anything with it.

[Manguy888]

I'm a big DIY fan and have a raspberry pi that I use to emulate video games, but I will say that my wife bought me a Sonos 4 years ago and I've found it to be such a great purchase even for a cheapskate like myself.

Unlike almost every other piece of technology in my house, sonos just works. I've never had to unplug or reboot the thing, I've never had a problem with the phone controller app. It integrates spotify, Pandora, etc seamlessly. I have two of them and they can play the same music in perfect sync, or split and play two different streams of music. No lag, nothing. I feel like a salesman writing this. I guess I'm just saying that if 500 is something you can afford, a sonos is one of the better uses of your disposable income, especially if you think there's a good chance you'll buy a bunch of DIY stuff, never get it working right, and give up.

[Spork]

Can I be a bit of a Luddite that has not a clue what exactly a Sonos does and ask: what are you trying to do?

I've had wireless streaming audio since around 1999...  built out of nothing.  My first box was a 133mhz pentium that someone threw away.  My setup is way old and outdated, but you can do a crapton with NOTHING.  Historically I've used icecast to broadcast it in house, then just used a wide variety of things to catch the stream.   Currently I catch the stream with: laptops, ipods, tivos, etc.  Remote control is via a web page.

I would not recommend my setup... just because it is old and outdated... but: Just google around and build something out of old computer parts.  Raspberry PI sounds fun, too... but not something I've tried before.

[wienerdog]

Anyone have a Nexus Q?  I was one of the first to pre-order.  Luckily Google ended up giving it to me free after they realized it wasn't ready for production.

[Kaplin261]

Anyone have a Nexus Q?  I was one of the first to pre-order.  Luckily Google ended up giving it to me free after they realized it wasn't ready for production.

Engadget is saying it is nothing more than a novelty item.

[grantmeaname]

Seems a little kludgy, OP. Did you know you can just buy a cheap bluetooth receiver?

If your laptop, tablet, or other music-playing device has bluetooth, you can buy one of these and connect to the receiver as a bluetooth device. You still would need wires between the speakers and the receiver, but you wouldn't have to physically plug the computer into the receiver at least.

I went ahead and ordered one of these as my christmas present to myself (whoa, big spender over here). It's working great, and the range is really impressive -- I never would have guessed it would work from the next floor up.

If you're looking for a cheap, kludgy way to add a bit more functionality to your audio set up, I'd highly recommend this.

[Kaplin261]

Seems a little kludgy, OP. Did you know you can just buy a cheap bluetooth receiver?

If your laptop, tablet, or other music-playing device has bluetooth, you can buy one of these and connect to the receiver as a bluetooth device. You still would need wires between the speakers and the receiver, but you wouldn't have to physically plug the computer into the receiver at least.

I went ahead and ordered one of these as my christmas present to myself (whoa, big spender over here). It's working great, and the range is really impressive -- I never would have guessed it would work from the next floor up.

If you're looking for a cheap, kludgy way to add a bit more functionality to your audio set up, I'd highly recommend this.

I looked for a bluetooth receiver and could not find one under $200, this included searches on ebay and craigslist. Just to get a receiver that has HDMI is going to cost you $90 on ebay after shipping.

I love Monoprice!! Didn't know they made a bluetooth stereo adapter. So with the adapter from monoprice were kinda doing the same thing except your device is then tied up sending a bluetooth signal to the device and your phone or tablets power is going to drain faster.

The cool thing about the chromecast it uses a network connection to receive commands on what to stream from the internet. My phone uses the wifi connection to tell the chromecast to play pandora and then my phone is free and not tethered to that device. Wifi will also go twice as far. The power consumption is 5v at 0.5 amps or 2.5 watts, the old pentium computer I was using was 300 watts not to mention the stability of a microsoft setup crashes at the worst times.

I don't see how it is kludgy, once its plugged in on the back of your receiver you will never see it or have to do anything to it. You operate it from your phone, pull up the pandora app and hit the cast icon and you have music. It does take the chromecast about 10 seconds to boot up and start streaming.

[lemanfan]

One software that I like:  https://volumio.org/

Works on Raspberry Pi and several other hardwares. :)

[rednhez]

I have one of these in my car and in my bedroom.  Right now they are on sale for less than $20 on Amazon and it connects to the wifi in your house, just like SONOS, and shows as an AirPlay device or DLNA.  Higher audio quality than Bluetooth.  To power it you just need a usb port.  This way you can use an existing stereo or amplifier.

http://www.amazon.com/SABRENT-Receiver-Portable-Speakers-WF-RADU/dp/B00L26YDA4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1438016194&sr=8-1&keywords=sabrent+wf-radu&pebp=1438016196017&perid=1ZDFW940HXJEJ7KX88XC

For the most part it has worked pretty well, occasionally it cuts out (probably due to the neighbors wifi conflicting with it, changing the WIFI channel should help) so i have been looking at used airport express routers on ebay ($20-30) which hopefully with be 99% reliable and can be used for airplay.

[Kaplin261]

I have one of these in my car and in my bedroom.  Right now they are on sale for less than $20 on Amazon and it connects to the wifi in your house, just like SONOS, and shows as an AirPlay device or DLNA.  Higher audio quality than Bluetooth.  To power it you just need a usb port.  This way you can use an existing stereo or amplifier.

http://www.amazon.com/SABRENT-Receiver-Portable-Speakers-WF-RADU/dp/B00L26YDA4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1438016194&sr=8-1&keywords=sabrent+wf-radu&pebp=1438016196017&perid=1ZDFW940HXJEJ7KX88XC

For the most part it has worked pretty well, occasionally it cuts out (probably due to the neighbors wifi conflicting with it, changing the WIFI channel should help) so i have been looking at used airport express routers on ebay ($20-30) which hopefully with be 99% reliable and can be used for airplay.

Are you using Android or IOS to connect.to this?

[rednhez]

Are you using Android or IOS to connect.to this?

iOS