I am hoping to tap the Plex hive-mind for some assistance in my home audio setup. I’m looking for audio only at this time, which is making the research a bit tough, because many articles are specific to streaming video as well.
Current setup is as follows:
-2 Polk TSx330T tower speakers wired into a Polk PSW111 subwoofer, which is then wired into a Lepy LP-2020A Digital Amp. I’ve been using an RCA to AUX cord from here to play audio from various sources.
-Plex Media Server: Version 1.13.5.5332, running on a PC with Windows 10, located on a separate floor directly below the speaker setup described above. This PC is always on, and is also used for gaming and watching movies in the basement. I built this mainly to be a PMS, as it was previously running on my iMac, and I didn’t want to keep my iMac on all the time (in office on same floor).
-Amazon Echo Dot 2nd Gen (recently purchased, can still send back).
My main goals are to be feature-rich, but also be simple enough to use so my wife can play music on her own without fidgeting with a bunch of options. Alexa seems to assist with the simplicity, as we can ask her to play music from Plex, but I’d still like to be able to go in and control/browse this music from the Plex Mobile App, which I cannot do if Alexa plays Plex content directly to the aux output on the Echo Dot. From what I understand, the only way to do this with Alexa would be with a dedicated Plex Media Player plugged into the whole setup, as I’d be able to remotely control this via the Plex Mobile App, and have Alexa set this as the default Plex Player. Additionally (this is where I think I’m limiting myself), I’d like to be able to Airplay audio from Apple devices (iPhones, iPad, Macbook Air) to the same speakers - for example, if we are watching a movie while we cook, to have the video play on the iPad and the audio synched through the speakers.
I’ve both tried and pondered a number of different solutions and setups (including a 10 year old Airport Express that died, and Airfoil with and old repurposed iPhone, iPod, and Droid), and can’t seem to land on a solid one. I should specify that I am not married to Alexa (open to Google, Apple, etc…), and I am open to spending some additional money to make this all work the way I want. To make matters even MORE confusing, I want the ability to do multi-room audio at some point (I used to have this working pretty well with Airport Express and Airfoil - however Apple just killed the Airport express line!)
- Pondered: Sonos Amp - (new one to be released 2/19 can receive Airplay2 - also I believe has multiple lines in, so I could theoretically plug in turntable + Alexa or a dedicated PMP?) I’m not sure Sonos will solve this with Alexa, as we have to ask Alexa to play music TO Sonos, but the default music source does not include Plex and is limited to: Amazon, Spotify, pandora, iheartradio, tunein, deezer, siriusxm, Gimme radio. Question - can we initiate playback to Sonos via Plex thru Sonos Mobile app, and then ask Alexa to control volume, skip tracks, etc…? Conversely, can we ask Alexa to tell Plex to play music through Sonos, and then control Plex via Sonos app? This seems like the best and simplest route (but most expensive), especially if I expand to multi-room, but I’m not sure it will give me the features described.
- Tried: Built Raspberry Pi 2 Model B+ revision 1.2 with RasPlex. The sound quality is awful on this, static emits from the speakers during playback and also when playback is paused. Considered installing a DAC to this to correct issue, however, there was no elegant way to have this also be an Airplay receiver (I created the setup based on edjonesy’s comment here: Apple AirPlay) which worked OK for audio only, however the Airplay audio did NOT synch with video when playing from iPad or Macbook.*
- Pondered: hardwire PMS to speakers upstairs, make this default PMP with Alexa. Does this hurt my “simplicity” goal, because the audio from the PMP will always default to speakers upstairs? As mentioned, we use the PMS to watch movies and play games downstairs - which I also want my wife to be able to control easily.*
*With options 2 and 3, and any option with a dedicated PMP for Alexa to control, does that then mean I cannot have Alexa’s audio transmit through the speakers, and I’m limited to using the built in speaker on the Echo Dot?
This all is starting to make my head spin. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!
