https://github.com/badaix/snapcast#Snapcast

https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2016/02/18/multi-room-aud...

I use shairplay[0] to stream from an iOS/macOS device, and Mopidy[1] with the Iris UI[2] to play server-side from your music collection, Spotify, or other internet radio.

[0] https://github.com/juhovh/shairplay

[1] https://mopidy.com/

[2] https://github.com/jaedb/Iris#readme

My "speakers" are cheapo Bluetooth speakers with a raspberry pi attached to the back. Works beautifully and reliably. If the old Sonos devices have line in, maybe this is a way to continue using them?

From here on it'll be a Pi connected to an amplifier and speakers that won't try to subvert my will simply to listen to music.

I also liked Roon Bridge on the Pi (and felt the audio output was slightly improved, although made no effort to counter the placebo effect) but couldn't quite justify the cost.

I used to share my DAC between my laptop and my desktop this way. Whenever I plugged my headphones in, it'd default to them on the local device, and the remote would default to the network device. I could walk away from my desktop while playing something, and it'd continue playing on whichever I had my headphones plugged into.

i like the ikea symfonisk speakers but won't buy them for the same reason.

The hardware is great, but their constant software updates are TERRIBLE!

I would never a product from them again and I tell everybody who comments / asks on our home set-up the same thing.

Want to play music but they want you to update? Guess what? No option but to update right away.

The app consistently changes UX and REMOVES functionality making it extremely frustrating.

Feels like a company that is in harvest mode and driving towards irrelevance.

For me, the biggest gripe is that its a pain in the arse to get networking to work when your configuration gets more complex than an "average person" living in a small house/apartment. Especially when there are multiple ways to make a wireless network connection across your property, and/or you have multiple subnets. At this point, I can bring down half my home network by connecting a new Sonos box, before I've changed some of its default configurations (which you can't do until you have it fully setup and connected).

My second biggest gripe is that they don't make rack-able multi-channel units. I'd love to rack one or two of these in my wiring closet instead of having a stack of Connect:AMPs on shelves.

Denon apparently now has a Sonos competitor that at least partially solves the second issue. I'm curious to see how it compares, but I've got enough Sonos gear that I'm not really ready to seriously consider replacing it. (And once all my stuff is setup, it does work rather painlessly.)

This is flat out false.

Far too often, I open the app and just want to play something. It prohibits me from doing so until I update software.

It is an incredibly user hostile and annoying behavior in an otherwise good product.

I explained why I wouldn’t take it and my main argument is that any “smart” device isn’t exactly reliable in the long term, be it missing updates for old hardware, cutting out features, servers that stop working etc.

He got a simple Amp with a single volume knob now and some decent passives. Phone connects via line cable.

I use something exactly like this product (an old one from monoprice actually I believe). Simply plugs into the back of a 2.1 speaker set I have. Guests at my place love it, they can easily just connect to the Bluetooth and play through speakers. Pretty seamless. Not sure of any quality drop, my speakers aren't the best.

This is quite nice, because it allows me to stand up and walk around while the PC continues its audio playback.

Let’s see how the future of smartphones pans out, when it comes to audio jacks tho : )

Fully realizing the hit on privacy, I understand the thing enough and, more importantly, trust my particular manufacturer enough that it simply outweighs that concern for me.

But they brick their older hardware or render them purposefully useless so as far as I'm concerned they are evil as fuck now.

Are you talking about some other way to stream it?

https://github.com/philippe44/AirConnect

on a raspberry pi, works great

Except for Airplay my several years old speakers work fine. I’m happy with the support so far.

Then I saw that they were Sonos-based, and immediately noped out of buying any. I'm not keen on buying something if the vendor can yank features (or worse, brick the gear they sold like Logitech did) at their whim.

Maybe it’s because I’m no longer in the business of amassing a horde of mp3s and instead use Spotify and amazon music.

Maybe it’s because I haven’t opened the Sonos app in months, and instead use Alexa’s integration or Spotify’s integration to play my music.

I do wish our Play One could proxy Airplay to the others.

I wish AirPlay behaved more like Line In does (on speakers that support that), where the Line In devices become available to any speakers on the network.

Did they ever support this? They don't have built in Bluetooth, and I think they only talk NFS and Samba(?) for audio servers.

The other integrations over UPnP/SOAP (IIRC) are for sending it audio URLs or instructions to play Spotify, Google Play, etc.

Some of these pieces might have been pulled out with recent API updates?

I don't have firm details, only forum hearsay, and I'd love to find out what's actually going on with Sonos' APIs.