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"Smartifying" my hi-fi system

blog.rgsilva.com

31–40 of 67 posts

Re: "Smartifying" my hi-fi system

#31

Hope this comment section doesn't discourage anyone from posting cool hacks like these on "Hacker" news.

Agreed, to be honest. What's wrong with hacking on Hacker News ...?

It was a very fascinating read, too. I enjoyed how descriptive he was throughout (not exactly implementing the same thing though, haha.)

Re: "Smartifying" my hi-fi system

#33

I know I’m gonna get downvoted because this is HN and obviously massive kudos for engineering something amazing… but seriously this is a massive sledgehammer to crack a walnut! Just connect a phone to the Aux jack and run the Spotify app…

Agreed-- hacking value sure, but... I guess there's just so many more pain points to solve in the home theater/discrete audio space that it bothers me a bit to have talented folks twiddling about on problems so handily solved by the big product teams of our era.

Re: "Smartifying" my hi-fi system

#34

This is like a 21st century version of those cassette tapes with 3.5mm jacks; the ones you could use to play CDs from your Sony discman through your car's stereo. Great work OP!

>.> I still use one of those. I drive a 2001 Mustang, so it doesn't even have aux input (let alone Bluetooth). They work great, to be honest.

Huh, In the early 2000s I did support/product for a cassette based MP3 player. A 2001 Mustang would've been right in our wheelhouse!

Re: "Smartifying" my hi-fi system

#35

This is quite a yak shave. You can run Spotify on one computer and have it output to speakers connected to another computer using Spotify. Remote control. I do it all the time. So you can run Spotify on your desktop, and control it from Spotify on your work laptop.

In case anyone is unfamiliar, Spotify Connect is Spotify's solution for casting and remote controlling one or more Spotify speakers from a Spotify client on the same network. Any Spotify client can act as a speaker, and the system seamlessly connects to other smart home speaker systems like Google Home. When multiple Spotify clients connect to the same Connect session, they collaboratively control the music that play…

unless you have a multi-point bluetooth audio deviceconnected to multiple devices running the spotify app.

Re: "Smartifying" my hi-fi system

#36

This is quite a yak shave. You can run Spotify on one computer and have it output to speakers connected to another computer using Spotify. Remote control. I do it all the time. So you can run Spotify on your desktop, and control it from Spotify on your work laptop.

I noticed other stories at the bottom that shave (collective name of yaks) of yaks:

- Reverse engineering and fixing a streaming app

- Bypassing anti-cheat software

- Reverse engineering and fine-tuning Asustor NAS fans

- Reverse engineering Asustor's NAS firmware

- Reverse engineering my NAS fan speed sensor (sort of)

- Reverse engineering Positivo's smart home app

- I got bored, so I hacked my TV

(speaking of yak shaving, do you know of the Yakalo¹, a cross breed between a yak and a bison?)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakalo

Re: "Smartifying" my hi-fi system

#38
This was what the Google Chromecast Audio was amazing for. £30, a fibre optic output. Then they killed it. I still have one and use it every day, and they’re fairly sought after so prices on eBay are more than twice the retail price

Re: "Smartifying" my hi-fi system

#39

This was what the Google Chromecast Audio was amazing for. £30, a fibre optic output. Then they killed it. I still have one and use it every day, and they’re fairly sought after so prices on eBay are more than twice the retail price

I’m running three of them, they work perfectly with audio in sync outdoors and different rooms indoors.

I wish there was some equivalent still available.

Re: "Smartifying" my hi-fi system

#40
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what do you mean you can't use the skip buttons? I think they mean the physical skip buttons on the device. By presenting it as a USB device the skip buttons can work on device. Except that: "My main next steps, in no particular order, would be... Detecting track navigation: if you go to the previous or next tracks, emit a signal to somewhere. This would allow triggering a track change on the stream source, such as…

Skip buttons on which device? The HiFi [remote] itself? I'd imagine that doesn't work in the 1-PC route either. If it does, then the problem is solved because it will have the correct effect in the 2-PC route.

It’s mentioned several times in the article that the author wants the physical skip buttons on the HiFi system to work, which can’t be done with any number of computers connected via 3.5mm
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