Morning,

Was looking to replace our old radio in the kitchen with a set of speakers connected to a Google Audiocast so we can cast the Radio or songs off Google Play Music.

Been having a brief look around and seems you either invest in some £200 speakers or get a Bluetooth portable speaker.

Is there anything in between people would recommend? Something that is relatively compact but doesn’t require batteries and turning up full whack to hear? Somewhere between the £30-£50 mark?

Have people worked Google Audiocast well?

Cheers,

P

Either I’m misunderstanding what you’re doing, or you’re overthinking it. Just get a Bluetooth speaker and pair to your phone, then play your music. JBL Flip is well regarded on here.

I bought a pair of 2.1 pc speakers for about £30 from pc world, hid them on top of the kitchen cabinets and hooked them up to a chromecast. The sound isn’t far off a friend’s small sonos that they have in their kitchen.

Have chrome casts hooked up to the other stereos in the house and the multiroom works perfectly

Cougar – Moderator
Either I’m misunderstanding what you’re doing, or you’re overthinking it. Just get a Bluetooth speaker and pair to your phone, then play your music.

I guess the OPs asking for a specific recommendation of something decent, rather than just a generic blue tooth speaker.

Cougar – Moderator
JBL Flip is well regarded on here.

sneaky edit! 😆

Yeah, sorry. (-:

You can either use an amp and speakers, or a set of powered speakers.

You could use a set of PC speakers, though these won’t be the most attractive. Or, a set of bluetooth speakers that have an Aux in, or a radio with an Aux in.

Has your existing radio got Aux in?

Something like the M-Audio AV32 (75 quid on amazon)? Small bookshelf speakers with RCA inputs and an integrated 10W amp.

I just bought a Blaupunkt sound bar from sainsburys for my tv reduced to £40.
Having set it up I discovered I can also connect it to my phone via Bluetooth.

I’m redoing my kitchen in few months – I’m going to fit one above the fridge freezer mantle for music in the kitchen, and garden when the bifolds are open.

If you start looking at active speakers, consider a little amp like this:

that you can hide away, screw to the bottom of a cabinet. sticky velcro tape to hold the chromecast puck.

Now you’re all set to use any speakers you like, big, small, cheap, expensive, new, second hand (eg Wharfedale diamond 9.1, £55 on the bay), those spare ones in your / your brother-in-law’s loft…

Edit:

We’ve got something similar in the bedroom, line in from a knackered digital radio. Turns out it’s the speaker that’s knackered, the receiver and headphone socket part works fine. Radio stays under the bed, tiny wee amp on the bedside cabinet.

I bought my wife a little Bose Bluetooth thing, cost about 90quid I think. Wasn’t expecting much from it, my wife places aesthetics over sound, but have to admit it’s fantastic.

Beyond that if you want real speakers don’t buy new just do a bit of research and buy something off eBay. I got a set of kef coda for the office, playing off my pc via a dac and amp, for 20quid or so and they are pretty good indeed, and I’m quite fussy about sound quality.

I’ve got an old O2 Joggler running squeezeplay in the kitchen and connected it to a pair of (wired) Yamaha NX50 desktop speakers. They sound great, plenty loud enough and have auto power off so just turn on when they detect an audio input.
Just checked on Ebay, £89 new but a few used ones going for £30-£40.