I am looking for a pair of WiFi RoonReady stereo speakers for my garage so I can listen to music while working on my race car. I would mount these speakers on the wall about 7 feet up. I am not looking for the ultimate in fidelity here but I want them to sound good.
What are some good options?
pair of Bluesound Pulse Flex, you can buy wall mount brackets seperately.
Yeah, if you want all-in-one you’re basically looking at either Bluesound speakers or the Elac Z3. If you’re happy to go down the RPi route (or other intermediary kit) then that opens up a host of other options, both powered and passive speakers.
A pair of powered speakers and use your phone as an end point either wired in or get a Bluetooth dongle.
Or get a Beocreate module and use it to add power to speakers with a raspberry pi.
Now that Chromecast is supported it opens up a few lower cost speaker options to. Both JBL and Harmon Kardon offer a few that get reasonable reviews. Or like me I had some Pure speakers knocking about that happened to have USB A socket and line in so I hooked up my spare Chromecast to it. The speaker powers the Chromecast to so its fully portable.
I believe I’ve read elsewhere that Chromecast only supports creating multi-device zones with other Chromecast units. If that is indeed the case, this could be a shortcoming if the OP wants to group the garage with the rest of the house for playback anywhere.
@Speed_Racer what is your budget? And are you seeking a proper stereo pair or will make do with a single speaker system?
Also, as has been stated, to use a Chromecast Audio puck would open up options:
But as @cwichura has advised:
would you need to play in other areas of the house whilst listening in the garage?
I have also a few CCA pucks and love the stability Roon has achieved with the casting, I have been using my CCA pucks almost exclusively since Roon released the update and haven’t looked back. Prior to that they were gathering dust, literally.
Back to speakers…
I am currently looking at a pair of Ruark MR1 mk2’s which have great reviews (and optical input to take dig-in from CCA puck
I have the Audioengine A2+ which are great for their size, but need room to breathe, oddly for a small desktop speaker, hah (they have a reknowned mid bass hump which makes them relatvely huge sounding but can be overpowering)
Also I have the Audioengine a5’s which are excellent, much more balanced than the A2+.
Finally I have the Kef X300A Wireless which were loads when I bought them back in 2013 but now can be found for much less. They are the best of the bunch. Highly detailed, excellent soundstage, engaging, yet lush and smooth sounding, which means they disappear when listening properly on stands. Not sure how they work with the Roon ready thing.