Small Speakers for multiple rooms?

[crof2003]

Looking for some suggestions:

I'm looking to build a home network of Chromecast connected speakers - probably about 4 to 6 total to cover the majority of rooms.

What i need some help with is suggestions for the speakers. They need to sound good at a moderate volume (fill a bedroom), have 3.5 aux in, be a single small box (maybe about 6-12" long). Hopefully they would be under $100 each (not including the Chromecasts). They will be stationary.

I've been looking and I see a lot of Bluetooth portable speakers with batteries that sound great, but I can't help but think all those extras are adding significant cost to each speaker. Two examples are the Jam Heavy Metal speaker and the Sony H.ear.

So...does anyone know of other better suggestions, or does anyone know what the name of the category of speaker I'm looking for is so I can do more research? Anyone do this already and have advice?

Thanks!

 

[Kaido]

Would a CastDock X2 from Grace Digital be what you're looking for?

https://www.amazon.com/Grace-Digital-CastDock-X2-Chromecast/dp/B01EXCTQBO

$92 shipped & even has a special port for your Chromecast. Amp is built-in.

 

[crof2003]

So I know this is a stale thread, but wanted to update on what I did.

I ended up getting jam heavy metal speakers https://www.walmart.com/ip/Jam-HX-P920-Heavy-Metal-Speaker/45701554

I went into a few different stores to listen to their demos of the speakers and this one sounded the best to me and was in my price range. This speaker isn't perfect (example, when turn on/off a voice prompt says "powering [on/off]" very loudly and there is no way to turn that prompt off), but it fits my needs perfectly and sounds great to my ears.

I found that they don't seem to be making speakers that have their own amplifier inside that are not battery powered or Bluetooth.

So now I have about 4 of these around my house, and to me it's a great house audio solution. It wasn't exactly cheap (about $100-120 per room) and it's not always flawless (sometimes it will stop playing), but now I can play music from multiple devices to multiple rooms and they are synced so I can walk around the house and i'm surrounded by my music. I love it

Would a CastDock X2 from Grace Digital be what you're looking for?

https://www.amazon.com/Grace-Digital-CastDock-X2-Chromecast/dp/B01EXCTQBO

$92 shipped & even has a special port for your Chromecast. Amp is built-in.

I had no idea something like that existed and it looks really cool - thanks so much for posting it. I shyed away from it though because it got reviews that its bass was overly strong and not adjustable. My personal preference is for a balanced sound so I was pretty sure I wouldn't be happy with them.

 

[JSt0rm]

I like those sonos boxes for small speakers. They dont sound bad for home stuff.

 

[crof2003]

I like those sonos boxes for small speakers. They dont sound bad for home stuff.

Am I incorrect in thinking that Sonos can only be used with other Sonos? I chose these in part because they had an aux/line in port so they can be used with anything that has a 3.5 jack. That let me plug in Chromecast audios to them. I didn't look into Sonos at all cause I had heard they were all basically proprietary only.

But I guess by the time I was done the cost was probably similar to sonos haha.

 

[JSt0rm]

I really dont know. I only listened to a small speaker some girl had that was punching above its weight class for sure. I do know you can add more of them and they will all connect. Im sure that tech is proprietary.

 

[queequeg99]

Unless I'm missing something, the solution you came up with comes in well below the cost of the most affordable Sonos speaker (even with the Chromecasts included). The Sonos Play 1 costs $200 (sometimes you can find two for $350 sales). Of course, I don't know how your solution sounds compared to the Play 1. The only Sonos speaker that I know of with an aux-in connection is the Play 5, which is about $500.