I’d like to recommend a Tivoli Audio Model One table radio either with or without Bluetooth. It has a stereo aux-in jack that can take any streamer. The audio quality is magnificent. There are heaps on the after-market, and it is still sold new. You would also get good analog FM if your area has good reception (we don’t). It is a beautiful design, and it is marketed as the last build from Henry Kloss. I have two – here’s one.
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If your just looking for a small a small active — but non-smart — speaker with a similar size factor to the Play 1 to connect up to a RPi then a small Genelec 8010 could fit the bill.
But personally, for kitchen use I’d just upgrade to a newer Sonos speaker with AirPlay (or maybe a Flex 2i, Pulse M, Mini 2i if you prefer BluOS over Sonos) and keep everything in one box and you wife happy. Can’t help but think that you risk adding unnecessary complexity and issue by going for a multi box DIY solution, especially in a kitchen.
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Ok got it. If all you want is a kitchen speaker then all of the possible options above are good. Frankly I would not spend a lot of money, would just do an integrated speaker with Airplay - would not even bother with RoonReady as Roon can play to Airplay and frankly there will be no sound quality difference in a tiny speaker. RoonReady would only be useful if you want to group that speaker with another playing over Roon.
However, may I suggest that you give this a thought… Having a speaker system in the house, be it SONOS, BlueSound, or Airplay, is a must for me. So I would suggest that if this is in any way shape or form something you would consider, the very first decision is HOW. SONOS simply works. Airplay does too except the host needs to do a lot more work to stream to your speakers - in SONOS and others they take over a-la Spotify Connect for example. So if this is where you might end up, do yourself a favor and make an informed decision now.
I’ve used roopiie for over a year and literally never had to reset it once. Whereas the sonos decides to stop working now and then. I got rid of a sonos connect for this because it’s got way more options and supports more codecs natively. Buying into other ecosystems isn’t something I want to do when these things cost pennies in comparison and work better in my experience.
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This actually looks like it could be a good option. I’ll have a look at them and see. Cheers
Ok, I understand where you’re coming from and your skill level.
FWIW, I have a large number of SONOS speakers at home and they have all worked reliably so far. I moved to this from having an array of Airplay devices - almost all sourced with Airport Express units, some on Ethernet and some on Wifi. The Airplay ecosystem was not as reliable and it lacked some important features - eg playing Spotify to all speakers at once. At the time I used Airfoil, but the reliability and sound quality of that setup was sub-par.
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I probably should have said in my opening post that i’ve got a masters in DSP and work as an FPGA engineer, and worked 5 years in hi-fi sales to get the money to do education, so am more than happy to do some tinkering if it’ll save me some pennies.
These raspberry pi’s running RooPiie are a proper delight to use if you’ve never tried one. I’ve only used the Hi-fiberry Digi+ Pro so far, but I just take a coax from that to my DAC. Never had any issues from any of the various inputs i’ve tried.
Massive thanks to @spockfish for creating and maintaining a free solution for roon. Invaluable to the comminuty.
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I’m sorry, but this is not accurate. You are an elderly, non-technical fellow whose grandkid set up this new-fangled Roon thing and left you with an aging Sonos device that you decided to replace. Your wife somehow figured out how to use AirPlay. It is my job, and the job of the rest of this community, to explain the basic functionings of audio devices and to ignore your actual needs. Instead, we will advocate vociferously for the products we each individually use since, of course, those are the best products.
Now please stop masquerading as a highly educated, highly competent, highly advanced user and return to your feeble state so that we can explain more stuff to you.
Thank you. 
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I have a few rpis (from when they were cheap!!! ) and even got a Hifi DAC+ ADC Pro just for fun stuffs. Yes the rpi Roon solutions are great. Which brings up the question: Are you using a hat to output analog audio?
Build your own I did. Bought a good QAcoustics centre speaker opened it up and made room for a pi and Hifiberry amp hat. Slightly reworked the crossover wiring to feed off the amp, drilled a whole for a D.C. plug wired that to the power in on the hat. Install ropieee XL. Used Roons DSP to mono the input as it’s a mono speaker. Job done
I also recommend the Tivoli Model One table radio as an inexpensive option that sounds decent … and the Logitech Z50 is super cheap but good enough for background listening (it’s just a single powered speaker with a line input)
BTW… I love this yt channel:
WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER!!!
Nope, Digital hat to put out signal to DAC.
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This sounds like a decent idea. Was it a 3090i that you used?
2090i as it’s been in situ a while and they where cheaper as the older model. It’s been really great little speaker and sounds surprisingly good.
I did the same with an old pair of Celestion F1’stereo speakers which I use in my office. Rewired the binding post on one so it feeds the other speaker.
Yeah, I don’t remember 20/30 series being all that different.
I’ve got a super old pair of MS10i Pearls but i think they’d be a bit big for the space otherwise I might just do something similar with those.
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Dynaudio Music 5
Play5 is a good and simple solution
The Tivoli One mentioned above is very good, also consider the Tivoli PAL. There’s the Bose Soundlink II. Also the Bose Soundlink Mini II. Or consider the Ruark R1 Mk2, which is a real looker. I review radios and speakers in a side gig (for the last 12 years!) so have reviewed all of those mentioned, and owned / own 3 of them. They all sound very good for their type, I’d happily live with any of them. Double check but they should all have 3.5mm inputs (which are starting to become rarer). If you need more info feel free to DM me.
Devialet Phantom I or II depending on budget. Exceptional innovative tech.
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