> There are many commercial solutions out there that provide functionality similar to balenaSound. Most of them though come with a premium price tag and are riddled with privacy concerns.

The problem that I have with proprietary solutions isn't the privacy or the cost. It is that there is a high probability that they will be unsupported in a couple of years.

I have been looking for a way to have whole-home audio, preferably over IP but it doesn't seem like there is a polished, open solution.

The Bose SoundTouch speakers have an HTTP API that you can hit. HomeAssistant picks them up and can route audio to them out of the box. Not exactly the polished solution you're looking for, but it's a start:

https://bosedevs.bose.com/categories/soundtouch-api

The open source Logitech Media Server still receives updates and used in conjunction with raspberry pis with decent audio adapters, it works fine. It also works with old Squeezebox hardware, of course. Good controller apps exist on android and iPhone now as well.

(I mean, it depends on your definition of polished...)

I have four chromecast audio's, they're fantastic and still supported, though who knows for how long.

They stopped selling the audios, which is definitely a bad sign.

This is what I currently use. But between it not being open enough to use easily for a lot of situations. (example as the default audio output of my laptop, there are solutions but they aren't great). And of course I never know when they will turn it off or make a change that breaks it for me.

Looks like https://github.com/badaix/snapcast is powering the audio coordination under the hood.

Noted at the bottom of this page, https://www.balena.io/blog/turn-your-old-speakers-or-hi-fi-i...

I have created something similar using Snapcast, gmrender-resurrect, MPD, Home Assistant, Jellyfin and Navidrome. gmrender-resurrect makes "casting" possible from the phone.

This provides many different options but the core of it all is Snapcast. It is great.

It really bugs me how Deezer doesn't have an answer to Spotify Connect.

Apple music doesn't either.. Deezer doesn't want to implement.

If someone really wants to solve this issue, they should create a Raspberry Pi Speaker. Maybe a simple pi Zero would be a good start to keep it super small.

I wonder how hard this would be. I came across this [0], but don't know anything about it, and the only thing I ever added to a Pi is the camera.

[0] - https://shop.pimoroni.com/collections/pirate-audio

Well, too small does not sound to good. I fiddled around with Boxsim [0] and for a Visaton FRS7 [1] I got a box volume of approx 2 litres. Driven by a HifiBerry MiniAmp [2] with bass reflex tube this sounds surprisingly well. Software is raspian buster with mpd and upmpdcli.

[0] http://boxsim.de german website but english program download available

[1] https://www.visaton.de/en/products/drivers/fullrange-systems...

[2] https://www.hifiberry.com/shop/boards/miniamp/

Hmmm...seems like somebody's already done this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBGkirCt2RU

Cool !

Loads of similar projects. For example this one - https://youtu.be/Kqj3WW_95To

I’ve grown increasingly interested in whole-home audio using Roon. Maybe this would be one option?

I’ve also been considering turning my shower bathtub into a speaker using a surface transducer. Not sure how to weatherproof it along with a cheap amp.

What is the cost "per room" for all the hardware items? I'm not too familiar with the RasPi costings to just glance over and say it would cost X. Assuming of course I have all the speakers already..

The last submission of this url https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22535817

.. and another https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22535817

So? It's 8 months old without any discussion.

Those are the same links.