shairport-sync VS Mopidy MusicBox

It's worth noting that shairport-sync exists. Perhaps it could be made easy by knitting some functions together?

You want SnapCast. You'd run snapserver on your Linux box and snapclient on your Pi's. Snapserver has support for Airplay (via shairport-sync) and Spotify (via librespot). I recommend using MPD for your music library, as I don't think PlexAmp can output audio in a way that's useful for snapserver.

I use shairport-sync for airplay (https://github.com/mikebrady/shairport-sync), complete instructions via: https://blog.adena.dev/blog/apple-airplay-on-raspberry-pi-in-7-easy-steps

If you’re interested, you might be able to get Airplay 1 & 2 support by running shairport-sync on your pi.

The plan is to run shairport-sync on the Omega 2 and have audio output to a 2x50w class d amplifier board.

To replace it, I've purchased in-ceiling speakers and a Control 4 Amp (C4-16AMP3-B) which I can control via the network. I plan on using shareport-sync for AirPlay and librespot for spotify as the sources to play music. 90% of the use for my whole home audio is for music.

ShairPort-Sync allows my Mac to listen for a AirPlay with multiple instances available, each pointing to different settings as per this GitHub Issue, which would allow me in theory to run multiple AirPort plugs and output each to an Alexa. Rarely would I ever need to have them playing all at once, and at this point I don't really care about maintaining pure audio quality or latency. I just need to be able to get out of my office and move to the kitchen, then back to my office without needing to spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to move what I was listening to on my iPad into my Echo Show

The benefit of the Pi is the open source software, in particular I use https://github.com/mikebrady/shairport-sync in order to turn it into an AirPlay 2 receiver, which I can stream to using my phone or laptop. It's my main way of sending audio to my hifi setup.

The only option I know of would be to use multiple raspberry pi’s running Shairport-Sync. I’ve been using the airplay 2 version for about a year and it works great. You might be able to build a server and run multiple instances of shairport with multiple audio cards. https://github.com/mikebrady/shairport-sync

So, after looking around, I realised that just like the Nest Hub 2nd gen, the Nest Audio also has a (sort of) exposed debug USB port. And these devices are (originally) running Linux. Since the Nest Hub 2nd gen has been jailbroken, I'm hoping that I can do the same on the Nest Audio, with a singular purpose: to inject a ShairPlay service, which would run parallel to the Chromecast services, which would allow me to use them as native AirPlay2 speakers.

Is there a reason you need to use carplay instead of something like pi musicbox? What exactly is the USB dongle for?

I saw something here on reddit where people were taking the little $5 raspberry pi zero's and basically building their own chromecast audios with them. I am not sure this is the same thing I saw but I found this on google. https://www.pimusicbox.com/

I have a few rooms in my house which I have audio, but they are far enough apart that I won't be trying to stream to all at once. I am also a mostly Apple user, so I use Raspberry Pi's with Hifiberry AMP2 and shairport-sync (AirPlay target). I can select any of the Pi's as the speaker output on any Apple device. There's also a pre-made Raspberry Pi distribution called pi music box which also offers other protocols than AirPlay.

Get yourself a Raspberry Pi and battery pack if you're mobile, and check this guide out. That'll run Spotify 24x7.

Look what I've found: https://www.pimusicbox.com/ This should perfectly suit your needs..

Currently, my plan is to use https://www.pimusicbox.com/ with some sort of DAC, an undetermined raspberry pi model, and a micro SD card for storage (total flac library is just under 500 gigs). I'm not incredibly well versed in pi projects (have made a few successful retropie builds for friends) and am an amateur when it comes to coding and linux. Regardless, this project will be a hobby , so learning, failing, and growing are all part of the plan.

Pi MusicBox

https://www.pimusicbox.com/ I found this which has chromecast support and airplay, but it doesn't support rpi4 it seems