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Pine64 launch $50 smart speaker for Home Assistant tinkerers

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31–40 of 69 posts

Re: Pine64 launch $50 smart speaker for Home Assistant tinkerers

#31
post #12

I'm half surprised they are still around as they seem to never restock most of their products, and half pleased they are still around and releasing products.

> as they seem to never restock most of their products There is a product development strategy (I'm not sure if there's a formal name for it) where you're given a lead on a finite-but-large supply of parts you can acquire for absurdly cheap; so you buy the batch; develop and price a product around the part; market your product until you run out of the part; and then, rather than switching over to paying retail for th…

> There is a product development strategy (I'm not sure if there's a formal name for it) where you're given a lead on a finite-but-large supply of parts you can acquire for absurdly cheap; so you buy the batch;

This is how Aldi and Lidl fueled their growth. Instead of focusing on thousands of different product offerings, they looked at a narrower selection of products (~20 times smaller than their higher end competition) they can buy in very high volumes at substantial discounts. Their offering is defined by what is available for them at the time to buy under those conditions. Instead of ensuring a specific product is always available on the shelves, they might just stock a different product at specific times.

This is less obvious when 90% of their sales are under their private label but the supply behind it is whatever they can negotiate for a better deal.

Their "middle aisle" is the perfect example of this, it really just stocks a mix of whatever is the cheap product of the week and may no longer be available next week at the same price so they stock something else.

Re: Pine64 launch $50 smart speaker for Home Assistant tinkerers

#32

i just wonder how good it sounds. open audiophile grade hardware is something of a gap.

Nah. A true audiophile would be analog only - no room for anything digital, smart or connected. “Wifi EM interferes with the sound”

No, I don't know any audiophiles who think analog is superior. Digital is objectively better sounding

Re: Pine64 launch $50 smart speaker for Home Assistant tinkerers

#33

Would love for Pine64 to thrive. I don't own any of their products, but I am glad they exist.

Same. Well, I did buy the PinePhone Braveheart edition a few years ago, but never did much with it. I keep an eye on the PinePhone Pro and PineNote in particular, these could be fantastic but it seems the software ecosystem is quite slow to develop. What I like about Pine64 is that they go for low price points. Most of their products seems to be priced in line with low- or mid-end proprietary alternatives. Yes you ca…

> What I like about Pine64 is that they go for low price points.

Sometimes I wish they would charge a little more and use that extra $$$ to pay someone to make the things work. there are too many rough edges that a full time developer would just fix, but nobody in the community gets "a round touit". These are things I could fix, but after my day job and getting my kids to everything I don't have energy left to focus.

Re: Pine64 launch $50 smart speaker for Home Assistant tinkerers

#34
I’m having déjà vu… ThirdReality had released “Voice and Music Assistant Dev Edition,” which looks exactly like Pine Voice Smart Speaker.

https://www.thirdreality.com/products/voice-music-assistant-...

EDIT: but unlike Pine, ThirdReality one comes with quad-core ARM A53 CPU; 256MB RAM; 512MB flash; and can actually do audio processing. The price is about 1.5 times higher though

Re: Pine64 launch $50 smart speaker for Home Assistant tinkerers

#35
post #30

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.

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/

That's missing the 'amp' part.

Re: Pine64 launch $50 smart speaker for Home Assistant tinkerers

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah. A true audiophile would be analog only - no room for anything digital, smart or connected. “Wifi EM interferes with the sound”

No, I don't know any audiophiles who think analog is superior. Digital is objectively better sounding

Maybe not anymore, but that used to be a thing. I suspect some are still left, but I stay away from the places where audiophiles hang out.

Re: Pine64 launch $50 smart speaker for Home Assistant tinkerers

#37
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. Well, I did buy the PinePhone Braveheart edition a few years ago, but never did much with it. I keep an eye on the PinePhone Pro and PineNote in particular, these could be fantastic but it seems the software ecosystem is quite slow to develop. What I like about Pine64 is that they go for low price points. Most of their products seems to be priced in line with low- or mid-end proprietary alternatives. Yes you ca…

> What I like about Pine64 is that they go for low price points. Sometimes I wish they would charge a little more and use that extra $$$ to pay someone to make the things work. there are too many rough edges that a full time developer would just fix, but nobody in the community gets "a round touit". These are things I could fix, but after my day job and getting my kids to everything I don't have energy left to focus.

As an embedded engineer, I tend to agree. Their hardware looks good, but I am not going to spend my free time getting their software to work as well as I know it could if they hired someone like me.

Huh, maybe I should contact them, since I am freelancing now….

Re: Pine64 launch $50 smart speaker for Home Assistant tinkerers

#38
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I don't know any audiophiles who think analog is superior. Digital is objectively better sounding

Maybe not anymore, but that used to be a thing. I suspect some are still left, but I stay away from the places where audiophiles hang out.

It’s still a thing, but it is no longer based in objective reality.

Re: Pine64 launch $50 smart speaker for Home Assistant tinkerers

#39
post #35
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/

That's missing the 'amp' part.

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

Re: Pine64 launch $50 smart speaker for Home Assistant tinkerers

#40

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.

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