#Speaker Group Recommendations

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

silk hawk
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I'm looking for suggestions/recommendations for speakers to pair with my current setup to make a speaker group of sorts for my living room. I currently have a google nest mini as my assistant, (i also have a xiaomi smart speaker in another room, if this affects your recommendations) and I want to add two more wifi-enabled speakers to make a speaker group with the nest mini. The speakers don't need to have assistant capabilities at all, since the nest will be utilized as that, so they don't need to have microphones.

vast sand
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might use music assistant for that, there you have options to group speakers.

unkempt echo
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Universal groups are not synced in MA tho.

vast sand
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right

unkempt echo
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Something to take into account 😛

I personally use airplay2 for grouping, i stream to 7 Wiim pros with no sync issue.

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Be aware that minis can only be grouped wiht other google stuff

silk hawk
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My primary issue is the actual hardware I should use, 😅 I'm unsure what to look for in speakers, should I just search up "smart speakers with no microphone" or can I just disable the voice assistant option on speakers?

unkempt echo
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I higly recommend wiim products, they are great at this. But they are ont he pricey end.

vast sand
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and good sound stage

unkempt echo
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They can also auto-calibrate with an external mic or a simple phone

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great feature to get a consistent sound in different rooms/speaker sets

sharp plover
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If you want sync'd sound you won't be able to mix and match eg with the Nest. You'd likely be better off buying 3 speakers if you specifically want three

Wiim, Sonos both do a good job of syncinc and can work well with HA, but they're both a bit on the pricey side. For a cheaper option you can use Raspberry Pis and similar SBCs with Squeezelite and just attach dumb speakers. None of those options inter-operate though, so it's very much a "pick one platform per room and stick with it" type of situation

silk hawk
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Thanks for all these suggestions!!!

unkempt echo
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So importing might come out cheaper than buying sonos, and you won't be locked onton Sonos ecosystem

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I personally like wiim cause it uses regular protocols

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Airplay, DLNA, even CAST to mix with google speakers

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(wiim pro and over only, the wiim mini DOES NOT sync with google stuff, the wiim pro does)

silk hawk
unkempt echo
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No, you will need a separate device for that.

I personally run HA Assist with voice previews

silk hawk
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If so, I might just buy that and two of the minis, and then move my existing smart speaker/assistant to another room

unkempt echo
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They do not; But they are great music streamers.

I like having dedicated devices personally, all in one stuff always break imo

silk hawk
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Ugh I hate getting into smart home stuff

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Neverending expenditure

unkempt echo
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And it never ends 🥲

silk hawk
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HAHAHAHAHA

unkempt echo
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I'm at 130 zigbee devices, and 101 things on my wifi at all time

silk hawk
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Started with lights and now I'm knee-deep and it's only getting worse

unkempt echo
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Welcome to Home assistant haha

silk hawk
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I'll have to do some more research about wiim

unkempt echo
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I got 8 local voice assistants to give you an idea, and I got a 3090 just to feed the LLM

silk hawk
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Honestly this is the first time ive heard of that bra d

unkempt echo
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I suggest you do! They are very cheap compared to sonor

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They make the DLNA chips for many speakers

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wiim is just their own brand

silk hawk
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Yeah sonos is so expensive even in my region

unkempt echo
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AND locked in

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Wiim pros does : Airplay, Bluetooth, DLNA, Linkplay, Tidal connect, Sptofify connect, Roon and Linkplay

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Sonos does sonos and maybe cast

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Also note that wiim minis are ONLY wifi, no ethernet port

silk hawk
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If I may ask, do you have a setup similar to what I'm envisioning? Like a group of smart/wifi-enabled speakers connected to each other or smth

unkempt echo
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I run pros since they can be wired in.

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Yep

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I have 7 zones, all playing at the same time

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7 wiim pros, each with 2 speakers and an amp ( Or not if it's active speakerS))

silk hawk
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Each zone has multiple speakers as well?

unkempt echo
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2 speakers per zone

silk hawk
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Mmmmm

unkempt echo
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You could do more tho

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Just split the cable

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but you only get 2 channels stereo

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So you could set 4 speakers in a stereo setting, or mono

silk hawk
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But both speakers in each zone are smart or are they dumb devices u just set up properly in HA

unkempt echo
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(I got everything in MONO, since i got 7 sets and the sound is weird with stereo when pacing around)

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The speakers are dumb devices

silk hawk
unkempt echo
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The wiim pro feeds them

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It looks like this in my HA

silk hawk
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Aaaaaaaaaa

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Ok guess I'll have to get my hands deeper into HA to achieve what I'm looking for

unkempt echo
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AND MA!

Screenshot_2025-11-26_at_12.32.59.png
silk hawk
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I was hoping I could just connect the devices to my network and be done with it

unkempt echo
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I use them solely wiht Music assistant

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But you can use your phone and their app/spotify

silk hawk
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Yeah i guessed as much

unkempt echo
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But VERY solid with MA. Over airplay2

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You can group and degroup from it

Screenshot_2025-11-26_at_12.34.00.png
silk hawk
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Oh so your wiim pro acts as your amp for each zone?

unkempt echo
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Wiim pros have no amplification.

You either need an amp, or active speakers

silk hawk
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Mmmmm

unkempt echo
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I use both depending on the room

silk hawk
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Gotcha

unkempt echo
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I use 200 watts speakers with amps,a nd 40 powered ones in smaller rooms

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got like 8 200 watts and the rest is 40watts

silk hawk
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Oh wow

unkempt echo
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Ye.... I like music 🤷‍♂️

silk hawk
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This is also the first time I've considered using dumb devices as part of the smart home system

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Thats a pretty neat thing to learn about

unkempt echo
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Well the speakers are just endpoints, the Wiim does all the job really

silk hawk
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Yeah even still;

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Used to just seeing smart devices as endpoints themselves

unkempt echo
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And you're better off this way too 😛 Since you can replace the speaker independantly if you want better quality down the line

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some nice Polks

silk hawk
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Thats true

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I guess this is why people keep asking how to make their dumb devices smart on reddit

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There's so much precedent

unkempt echo
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honestly, it's ecologically worht it! Since you don't discard it

silk hawk
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I feel like I just crawled out of a hole in the ground

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HAHAHAHA

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Thanks a lot for all this info

unkempt echo
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And you had to stumble upon the guy with 300 IoT devices lmao

silk hawk
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Mindblowing

unkempt echo
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I also got like 600,000 songs locally here

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to feed into music assistant

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most in flac

silk hawk
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Any info is good info honestly

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Overwhelming a bit but still

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As long as I'm learning, happy to be overwhelmed

unkempt echo
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Ping me if you ever get any more questions 🙂

silk hawk
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Thanks a lot again