Compact alternative to Sonon play 5 or Bose soundtouch 30

[jai]

Hi

I am new to this forum hence this could be a repeat or slightly out of place for the pro's ... I have been considering buying a sonos play 5 or bose soundtouch 30. After doing some search I came to understand that there could be better alternatives to these two. My budget is limited to USD 500 or so.

I am not particularly interested in streaming music from internet so it will be OK if there is Wifi or bluetooth connectivity to stream music from mobile or PC plus aux in or RCA in.

thanks in advance

 

[highfigh]

HEOS by Denon is a good option- you can send music from a smart phone or tablet to it and it sounds better than Sonos, IMO. It doesn't have a battery, so it's not completely portable, but it does sound good and it can use WiFi or Bluetooth. Another good option is SoundCast.

 

[David cook]

Listen to the same song throughout your home on multiple speakers via wifi (no speaker wires) without losing audio quality or spending $1000 on a SONOS type system. Google Home (this is this base unit that you talk to like the Amazon Echo). Ask it to play a song, ask for weather conditions, set alarms, play trivia & much more. With a Chromecast Audio “puck” you can ask “Google Home” to play a song on any speaker that has a 3.5mm audio input that you can plug the “puck” into. With a Chromecast Ultra “puck” hooked up to a HDMI TV port you can ask “Google Home” to play a YouTube video that will instantly play on your TV.
1. $79 Google Home – wifi base unit that cast the song or video
2. $35 Google Audio puck – the wifi receiver that accepts the audio cast
3. $69 Google Chromecast Ultra – the wifi receiver that accepts the video cast

Wifi – the audio quality is at least 10x better than the most advanced Bluetooth & lets you transmit to multiple speakers and at a greater distance that Bluetooth. Speakers – I like the Harmon Kardon Onyx Studio 4 - $155 - online at Amazon. So buy a $79 (XMAS Sale) Google Home, 2 Chromecast audio pucks $70, a Chromecast Ultra puck $69, and spend $310 on (2) Harmon Kardon Onyx Studio 4 speakers and you’ll have a killer system for $528 plus tax. Don’t have $500, if you have any powered speaker(s) that have a 3.55 mm input you should be able to use them and cut the cost of the speakers. You can even hook the audio “puck” up to your existing stereo receiver "aux input" and use it. One last thing, with quality speakers you’ll love it for the cost!

 

[jai]

Listen to the same song throughout your home on multiple speakers via wifi (no speaker wires) without losing audio quality or spending $1000 on a SONOS type system. Google Home (this is this base unit that you talk to like the Amazon Echo). Ask it to play a song, ask for weather conditions, set alarms, play trivia & much more. With a Chromecast Audio “puck” you can ask “Google Home” to play a song on any speaker that has a 3.5mm audio input that you can plug the “puck” into. With a Chromecast Ultra “puck” hooked up to a HDMI TV port you can ask “Google Home” to play a YouTube video that will instantly play on your TV.
1. $79 Google Home – wifi base unit that cast the song or video
2. $35 Google Audio puck – the wifi receiver that accepts the audio cast
3. $69 Google Chromecast Ultra – the wifi receiver that accepts the video cast

Wifi – the audio quality is at least 10x better than the most advanced Bluetooth & lets you transmit to multiple speakers and at a greater distance that Bluetooth. Speakers – I like the Harmon Kardon Onyx Studio 4 - $155 - online at Amazon. So buy a $79 (XMAS Sale) Google Home, 2 Chromecast audio pucks $70, a Chromecast Ultra puck $69, and spend $310 on (2) Harmon Kardon Onyx Studio 4 speakers and you’ll have a killer system for $528 plus tax. Don’t have $500, if you have any powered speaker(s) that have a 3.55 mm input you should be able to use them and cut the cost of the speakers. You can even hook the audio “puck” up to your existing stereo receiver "aux input" and use it. One last thing, with quality speakers you’ll love it for the cost!

Thanks David for such a valuable and detailed information. I guess this should help me a lot. I wasnot aware of the google puck/chromcast audio (will check if they are available in asia).
Could you tell me if amazon echo can be used with google chromcast audio? since I have an echo dot and so far google home has not been launched (though it will be shortly) in india.

Also the onyx studio costs slightly more than bose soundtouch 10 and somewhat less than bose soundtouch 20 (or sonos play 1 and play 3 you can say in place of bose). So I am confused about the audio ouput of onyx studio? Is it possible to compare it with anyone of the sonos or soundtouch models so that I can do price vs returns comparison. (My apologies for asking you too many things)

Many thanks in advance

 

[jai]

HEOS by Denon is a good option- you can send music from a smart phone or tablet to it and it sounds better than Sonos, IMO. It doesn't have a battery, so it's not completely portable, but it does sound good and it can use WiFi or Bluetooth. Another good option is SoundCast.

Thanks buddy for your time and input. I will certainly check this system