Bathroom ceiling speakers with Google cast/aux in?

katie279

katie279

katie279

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Hi all,

It's all nice in theory that we'll have a lovely bath with lights dimmed and music on, but when it comes to it, I never quite get around to it, so I'll looking to automate!

I've got the lights sorted with an IKEA motion sensor hooked up to my home assistant install and a smart button.

I'd now like to also play music from a Spotify playlist when I hit a button, so I basically need a speaker in the ceiling with an aux in port and I'll be sorted.

That's where I'm getting lost - it shouldn't be too hard, it's relatively small ensuite - 4m X 3m so one speaker should do. But struggling to find one that has an aux in, do I need a passive or active one, can I get a cable that converts from my Chromecast dongle to whatever the speakers need?

Any help or links to suitable speakers appreciated!
 
I've got a speaker in the ceiling fed by a little topping amp, the source for this is a amazon dot works well and means we can voice control alexa too :)
 
Ah ok, so I guess if I install a speaker with a line in, I can then connect amp to that and then aux connect the Chromecast into that....

That sounds like it might work! Ok I'll give it a go!
 
Do you mean a Chromecast intended for a TV, or the discontinued Chromecast Audio? I have a bank of the later that feeds into a multizone amp that drives ceiling speakers throughout the house.

An alternative could be something supporting Spotify Connect to connect to the amp. An Echo Dot ?
 
Hi GeX - the latter (ie Chromecast Audio) - likewise have a few (they were basically giving them away at the time! Madness from google as great bit of kit, but was probably one of the first signs that Google had lost their way!).

Basically I'd like to have multiroom capabilities - which the chromecast audio offers, so connecting them up should work? Sounds like you have similar, I just don't have the access to run wires all over the house, hence I need wifi tech!

I'm not sure if I'm mis-remembering, but thought there was also a raspberry pi or esp32 way to get chromecast audios also??
 
Ah, nice! It’s a real shame that they discontinued them.
They work great for multiroom, I have them grouped to allow synchronised music throughout the house. Some rooms have small hifi amps with Chromecasts connected to their line in; essentially what your plan is.
For the bathroom I have https://www.blucubespeakers.co.uk/bcp65-ss/
 
Ah great - have ordered some! Yes, just want to have reliable multi-room audio, so this should sort me nicely!

Thanks for the tips!
 
katie279 said:
Ah great - have ordered some! Yes, just want to have reliable multi-room audio, so this should sort me nicely!

Thanks for the tips!
Click to expand...
dont forget you need an amp with them, there are active speakers that just need power though and some include google cast functionality:


no idea how good it is quality wise but that looks like it would tick the boxes you require functionality wise?
 
Just to get this straight. You want it so that, every time you walk into your bathroom it dims the lights and plays music?
 
rG-tom said:
dont forget you need an amp with them, there are active speakers that just need power though and some include google cast functionality:


no idea how good it is quality wise but that looks like it would tick the boxes you require functionality wise?
Click to expand...
Hmm yes, good point actually - have an amp I could use, but might have a nose at those lithe ones, simplicity has its benefits sometimes! Given the size of the room and tiles everywhere, sound quality is always going to be fairly limited regardless of how much I spend!
 
Bug One said:
Just to get this straight. You want it so that, every time you walk into your bathroom it dims the lights and plays music?
Click to expand...
Heh, no! ;)

I've set up a motion sensor that will turn on alcove/cabinet lights when it's dark (using lux sensor from device outside). Then I've got a smart button by the bath that I've installed where I can set commands - eg one click will turn on mood lighting for a bath and two clicks turns on mood lighting and then plays music through spotify etc etc...
 
katie279 said:
Hmm yes, good point actually - have an amp I could use, but might have a nose at those lithe ones, simplicity has its benefits sometimes! Given the size of the room and tiles everywhere, sound quality is always going to be fairly limited regardless of how much I spend!
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with amp you either will need to put the amp up in the ceiling too, or run the speaker cables to wherever you can actually store the amp etc.

I have ceiling speakers in most of my rooms with a central amp, but it has a (very good) speaker switching box that can only by changed by physically pressing buttons which is annoying as hell if you want to change rooms and you're upstairs and the other end of the house, if i was fitting myself now i'd be getting active ceiling speakers with google cast integrated.
 
rG-tom said:
with amp you either will need to put the amp up in the ceiling too, or run the speaker cables to wherever you can actually store the amp etc.

I have ceiling speakers in most of my rooms with a central amp, but it has a (very good) speaker switching box that can only by changed by physically pressing buttons which is annoying as hell if you want to change rooms and you're upstairs and the other end of the house, if i was fitting myself now i'd be getting active ceiling speakers with google cast integrated.
Click to expand...

We have one Chromecast per room speaker set, when the amp senses input it turns on that channel. We then use grouping of Chromecasts to mix and match - so can do individual rooms or group it like upstairs / back of house / whole house etc
 
Ok my new ceiling speaker arrived today - took about 20 mins to install - very easy! All wired up with Chromecast audio.

Now thinking about more places!

What's the deal with Chromecast audio? Apart from Google have been off the boil and doing generally stupid things, how can I get more Chromecast audios??

Is there any open source way to do this? I saw otteraudio which looks great, but is a way off production it appears.
 
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