Naim muso here. It’s very good for what it is. I get home open the app press play and off it goes. It sounds better than any other all in one.
My father heard mine then went out to get one for his kitchen. He doesn’t use his big hi-fi any more.

Proper hifi with proper speakers here, you know, just in case the neighbours would like to listen too…

The ‘still using’ is maybe a moot point if the question is whether on not something is ‘in the basket’ of frequently bought goods. I don’t use any smart speakers and still use my hi fi but the component parts of it are between15 and 50 years old.

For me and the mrs

Small Sonos system in the TV snug (beam and 2 ones) – almost forgotten we have it as is discrete most of the time. We turn up the volume for films sometimes. Just sounds great with a little surround coming in now and again.

Don’t play music on it that often but when we do it more than acceptable. Most often streaming 80 mix off amazon for Saturday morning cleaning……..

I think once Ive sorted the guitar room and synth room I might go for some older separates and bigger speakers

Have a Yamaha R-N500 receiver in the front room hooked up to a set of Warfdale speakers for music and tv duties

Also have a Cambridge Audio amp in the garage also hooked up to a set of Warfdale speakers

Both set ups have a Alexa input connected for streaming music

The ‘still using’ is maybe a moot point if the question is whether on not something is ‘in the basket’ of frequently bought goods

And that is it, for all the still using lot what happens if it goes pop or you want to put music into a new room?

New room is unlikely, but if any of the units on mine go pop, I’d be on Richer Sounds for a direct replacement. Or maybe even find an electronics boffin to fix the broken thing.

And that is it, for all the still using lot what happens if it goes pop or you want to put music into a new room?

Replacements still available. No requirement for “new room”.

I like the look of separates and much prefer the sound too.

Our lounge is pretty big with a big, blank wall so TV stand with separates on + some nice Jamo’s on some Partington stands sits lovely in the space.
The wife wasn’t so sure but that’s one internal decor battle I won 🙂

My modern Yamaha amp has Music cast so, if we want to, we can put some wireless speakers in other rooms and run it all through the app..

If it goes pop I’ll replace it with similar, although my amp still has 3 years warranty on it as the old one broke.

Well actually it got damaged when we moved.

Separates for 5.1 surround in the lounge and extra zones in kitchen/bathroom.
Also separates for Hifi having just replaced all the crossover capacitors in my celestion 66’s.
Amazed at the difference in sound quality (but not too surprised as one cap was stamped 1973…….) unfortunately I have nowhere to leave them set up anymore so will probably have to sell them soon
: (

An Oppo 205 HD bluray player is the hub of the system – acting as a digital pre-amp.

it only has one HDMI input so I have an HDMI switch box feeding it, and then Apple TV/Virgin box/chromecast into the hdmi box.

it also has optical and digital coax inputs and a USB input so it can act as a USB DAC, and I have a silent NUC based PC using it as such, with a silent NAS with my ripped music on.

The Oppo runs balanced to an analogue pre-amp – A Music First TVC passive pre-amp which uses transformers for volume control. This then runs unbalanced to 2 Quad 909 mono amps and into my Stirling Broadcast LS3/5a/AB-2 speakers. I have versions with Cicable external crossovers but I am not using them at the moment.

I also have a REL Habitat subwoofer waiting to go on the wall and provide the .1 of the AV setup.

I can airplay from my tablet to the Apple TV for BBC iPlayer radio downloaded content.

I am setting up my turntable and have a Korg DS-DAC-10R and a Rothwell Headspace to get that digitally into the PC.

Run Roon on the PC which has a great interface and would let me broadcast to multiple zones in the house using chromecast devices, and I bought 3 recently.

I might investigate the possibility of broadcasting the digitised turntable output as a high-res Internet radio station which would allow input to Roon.

Still have the remnants from a hifi system bought in, I think, the early 80’s. Manufacturer probably doesn’t exist any more, Duel is the name. Amp and tuner are still serving me well. Turntable has long since gone as has the speakers. Various CD players have been and gone but the Rega is still working its magic with my CDs. Speakers are B & W bookshelf, wouldn’t want them on a proper bookshelf cos they’re pretty heavy but definitely powerful.

One of life’s pleasures is to kick back with some wine or beer and really listen, no distractions allowed.

Separates here too. I bought a decent Denon system (incl CD player) from John Lewis about 12yrs ago and recently added 4 more speakers to it. Added a Bluetooth link into the back of it to play all the guff via Apple Music and Souncloud etc after someone recommended a Philips Bluetooth link on here one day (thanks, otherwise I probably would have chucked all my gear and bought something with Bluetooth in it already)

Don’t like Sonos, far too expensive and “ohhh ya, I’ve got Sonos blahdiblah ya” writ large in any Pub gossip mongers.

Will not go down the Alexa route nor any “shout at speakers to explain what I want to hear, thanks” stuff either. I have 3 devices linked to my set up so just pick one and play from that. I also don’t need google suggesting anything for me thanks, I am a functioning human whose able to make decisions for myself. I can also write a list of shopping on my phone, or walk around picking stuff up and placing it my basket based on choice and me being there to choose for myself.

Hate all that “Ho Alexa, ya I’d like some beans ya” crap…

Yeah, so enough from me.

I bought a Chrome Mini (I think it’s called that) while buying my telly a couple of months back – it was cheap (not the telly, the other thing). It sits there unused pretty much all the time. Once the novelty wears off they seem pointless. (And I can reach light switches quite easily). The speaker is garbage. And cos I don’t do streaming (only from my own NAS) it can’t play anything by voice control – I have to cast from my phone. Which I don’t cos it sounds rubbish. The best use of it was when I was painting, up a ladder and my music ran out, I said ‘Oi Google, ya tell me a story ya’ and it told me Little Red Riding Hood 😆
(Sorry, just an agreement with bikebouy there)

DezB

Subscriber
I bought a Chrome Mini (I think it’s called that) while buying my telly a couple of months back – it was cheap (not the telly, the other thing). It sits there unused pretty much all the time. Once the novelty wears off they seem pointless. (And I can reach light switches quite easily). The speaker is garbage

Probably a Google Home Mini.
To be honest, it doesn’t sound like you are the target customer for it.
While the speaker can play music, something the size of a ice hockey puck is never gonna sound great and if you don’t have any streaming subscriptions that does limit it’s usability somewhat. I think the speaker in the small devices are more so they have some way of communicating back to you.

I bought a Google Smart speaker for the kitchen recently (Onkyo G3) for £60 down from £200 and the intention was never really to use it as a ‘smart’ speaker. I just wanted something that I could tie into the Chromecast Audio in the living room & the bedroom. I already had another Chromecast Audio that i was planning on hooking up to some kind of active speaker, but the deal on the Onkyo meant that it made good sense to buy that.
And – while we don’t use a great deal of the smart functionality, it is pretty useful. I can start it playing music while my hands are covered in food or wet from washing up, or get it to play any radio station; something that yours should be able to do. It can also skip tracks & with Spotify if there is a song I like I can just ask Google to add it to my favourites, rather than have to do that through my phone.
It is also quite useful for setting cooking timers & whereas with a traditional egg timer you can only have one time set, with this you can set several timers to run concurrently.
As I say, I only bought it to tie into the music side of things, but actually it is a lot more versatile than that & is a decent bit of kit for £60.

Hmm, timer, one thing (amongst many, no doubt) that I didn’t think of. I still push the little buttons on my cooker. I might try it tonight. Be a nice surprise what it does when the time is up (no spoilers please!) 🙂

for the pro column

Yesterday, said Good Morning to my speaker when I got up, it told me the weather forecast, ran trhough my appointments for the day and any reminders I set – like bring laptop charger to work, tells me about traffic or public transport delays for my trip to work then plays 6 Music.

When I get home I can transfer the podcast, music or radio I was listening to on my phone to the speaker and carry one listening.

Cooking timers are great and you can set multiple ones.

Next up wanted to listen to an album I didn’t know the name of that I don’t own and it found it told me what it was and played it.

Other days I’ve asked it to do some maths, covert some quantities, look something up or tell me when the next tram to, bus to etc. while I’m getting ready.

I was a little sceptical but if you get stuck in it soon proves it’s worth

I’ve ditched the separates system, now it’s all Sonos (sorry bikebouy). PLaybar and sub in the living room, 3&5 in the kitchen / diner and the first play one smart system in Microbits room, but will get another couple of 1’s for upstairs, mainly Nanobits and my bedroom. I love being able to have it all on demand, frankly the time to sit and listen to an album was so pre kids I wouldn’t even recognise a decent sound system anymore as it’s normally listed to when cooking / working etc. Not really gone smart as yet for myself as I just don’t use it and like my apple music so it won’t be controlled properly by Alexa
PS, the Sub on Sonos is epic – it’s able to actually make adjoining rooms vibrate while being crystal clear while in the living room. Can’t believe how good!

Recently bought a second hand arcam receiver – playing through some Mission bookshelf speakers. Stunned by how good it makes my music collection. Sometimes I’m planning to do something in an evening but just get distracted listening to albums instead. It’s genuinely beautiful to listen to. Feeding it through a raspberry pi (and a hi-fi berry) with all my music on a usb stick (Flac). Can then control it via my phone so no messing about with CDs etc. Will probably add a zone 2 so I can repeat listening in the kitchen.

Genuinely baffled at people who spend lots on music equipment then stream really low quality stuff from the t’internet

…though I will admit, the prospect of a cable free existence does appeal!

Sony AV amp and Monitor Audio Radius (with rear ceiling speakers and BK sub) in the Living room.
Yamaha DAB AV amp and ceiling/wall speakers in the Kitchen
Teac DAB mini separates system in the office with the Radius 90 speakers that used to be surrounds, linked to ceiling speaker in the shower room.

Streaming music via Airplay from an always on mac (using spotify on the phone as a remote).

All installed during the house build so no wires visible anywhere…..

All the smart speakers are very convenient but they don’t touch the sound quality of a half decent set of speakers and amp IME (and it’s not as if my hearing is great).