Dear Ralf,
thanks for your opinion. I also looked to the different scenarios for the sound setup in my home and I agree that there are different approaches. IMO all have pro/cons, there is no gold standard.
You propose a decentralized system with gadgets distributed in every room. The individual end-stations would need to be kinda smart to announce themselves to a kind of multi-room network, need something to synchronize themselves to the other zones and probably could only play 1 source at the time.
My setup is centralized, with all the hardware except the speakers located in a cabinet. Every user can choose within the software MPD what music plays where (from local database, web radio and know also spotify). All music is in perfect sync. I can distribute additional sounds (door bell, announcements) on top to every active zone. Switching zones without limitation and independent of users (every family member can control with own mobile phone) is something that no decentralized can accomplish from within one app. Also the sound does not break down if any control client disconnects.
Audio output only stops if the central server stops - and this is true for both scenarios! Your setup would not distribute the local web radios, my setup would not distribute the analogue audio... where is the difference?
I dislike the wireless solutions (Blutooth, Wifi) to distribute music. Further I don't want to invest money in a closed hard/software eco system (e.g. like Sonos, Russound). Who knows how support and replacement is in some years... Open decentralized solutions (often based on RPi) are much more failure-prone and worse in sound quality than my setup, I think.
Further you emphasize "consumer grade" a lot - yes I am a consumer, the setup is not meant to be a professional grade music studio or concert location. I want to be able to play music in my home in multiple rooms with a little more comfort - sometimes in sync (mostly party background music), but often each family member takes it own audio to the own location.
So, I don't see your point...
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