[stuff4ben]

I really wish someone would come out with a $25 "box" that sits on top of my bookshelf speaker that allows me to Airplay to it and power said speaker with a ~50w class-D amp. Then if I have multiple ones, it would allow them to pair and setup stereo or surround sound. I might even pay $50 for it. Kinda like a Sonos Amp but not at that price point.

[lode]

Does https://sonocotta.com/louder-esp32/ look like something you might be looking for?

[stuff4ben]

Whoa, yeah that does look very promising!!! Thanks!

[nzach]

I'm thinking about getting an Audiocast M5[0]. It seems to do exactly that. The price seems to be around US$ 30.

[0] - https://audiocast.io/

[stuff4ben]

Doesn't look like the Amp50 is available to buy...

[dmd]

That's missing the 'amp' part.

[atrus]

You're 75% correct, one of the 4 products does have an amp though.

[zubiaur]

WiiM makes a few. With or without amp. It can be had for about ~40 refurbished from what I suspect to be their eBay store.

Airplay 2. I have it hooked via optical to a soundbar.

[whywhywhywhy]

Whats the justification for Sonos Amp being 31 times the price you're willing to spend? Niche problem or is the tech inside it worth that?

[ssl-3]

Everything Sonos is already expensive. It's got the lifestyle-product tax built in.

Anything involving Sonos with wires increases support cost. Simply involving wires produces new ways for people to screw things up (as if supporting their wireless-only customers wasn't expensive enough).

And those who are using wires but not screwing things up gain the ability to expand and improve their audio systems in their own ways, without paying the Sonos tax to do so. They can buy/upgrade whatever speakers they want from any manufacturer in the world, while keeping the same Sonos Amp. That represents lost opportunity, so the amp gets taxed harder.

(The tech inside the Sonos Amp isn't particularly novel. It's just a small Linux box with a trick proprietary software stack and some audio hardware.)

[stuff4ben]

I do like my Sonos setup (have a pair of Era300s, an Arc Ultra, Sub4, and Sub Mini) and now that they've fixed the app issues, it works really well. And the sound quality is good enough for me. I just wish the Amp product was about half the price. It doesn't do all that much more.

[patja]

Squeezelite-ESP32 is a solution that is sort of aligned with this scenario. No airplay and you would need an amp module to get to 50w.

[JackMorgan]

After reading this comment I also wanted the same thing and found this https://www.up2stream.net/products/up2stream-mini-receiver-b...

[broknbottle]

I went with iPod Hi-Fi + AirPort Express connected via mini toslink to mini toslink cable.