I have a sauna with built-in bluetooth speakers. I’m currently using it with a bluetooth connection from my iPhone. Although this works, I would like to have a more permanent setup in which the sauna would be a dedicated zone in Roon so that I can launch it without any fiddling and keep it’s own queue. The endpoint must have wired ethernet and ideally it is Roon Ready.
I’ve been browsing the community and based on different topics, I’ve looked into the following:
RoPiee - bluetooth out seems to have been supported at one time but not longer is. Therefore not an option. Is this correct?
Wiim Pro - Product webpage mentions bluetooth receive and transmit, but there is no references to the transmit functionality in the user manual. Can anyone confirm that it works with bluetooth speakers?
Bluesound Node - seems to tick the boxes, although it is somewhat expensive for the intended purpose.
Any feedback on the above or alternate suggestions are appreciated.
Tried the wiim output, don’t have a Bluetooth speaker but it worked to my headphones.
I’ve never been able to get my node or powernode to output over Bluetooth.
Thank you both for the information and suggestions.
@Joost_Hoogland in all honesty, I didn’t consider the difference between DietPie and RoPieem thinking that it was one and the same. I now understand that RoPiee is ready to go image of RoonBridge for Raspberry Pi, whereas DietPi is just a lightweight Linux for the Raspberry Pi which would still require installing the RoonBridge.
Although I should be able to get the RoonBridge up and running, my Linux skills are somewhat limited. From what I hear, bluetooth on the Pi can be somewhat of a PITA, which is what concerns me most. Maybe something to tinker with when I have a little more time.
@ged_hickman1 thank you for confirming that the bluetooth headphones are working. I guess there is a good chance that a bluetooth speaker will work just as well. Do you have any idea if the bluetooth transmit introduces delays that mess up synchronous play in multiple zones? This is a behaviour I’m seeing when using the Bluetooth transmit on my Marantz SR6015 (not Roon Ready).
Today my Wiim Pro arrived. It’s bigger and at the same time lighter than expected.
I was up and running in minutes. A firmware update made the Wiim Pro show up as a Roon Ready device. A simple change of the audio output setting from the default line out to bluetooth and selecting the bluetooth speaker in my sauna and I was able to stream from Roon to the sauna.
I’m very impressed with it. I’ve only had it a couple of weeks and it’s updated once already.
In rock steady synch with my naim Atom and powernode when the neighbours are out too
I now understand that RoPiee is ready to go image of RoonBridge for Raspberry Pi, whereas DietPi is just a lightweight Linux for the Raspberry Pi which would still require installing the RoonBridge.
