streaming audio from computer to wireless speaker

Winger98

Moderator
Feb 27, 2002
22,756
4,569
Cleveland
Alright, I need some help and google hasn't been my friend. I want to stream audio from my computer to a wireless speaker in another room of my house so I can listen to podcasts while doing some renovating. It's a windows computer (win7), and your basic home setup with a router for our internet.

Limitations: price. I'm not investing heavily in anything. This is purely a temporary. The wife and I kick around a more serious investment down the road if we're settling in, but I just want something convenient here. Under $50 is a must,and the farther under that the happier I'll be.

Also, I don't have a smart phone, so no streaming from my phone. I need to be able to pick this speaker up on a home network through my router.

Is this something that's doable or just scrap the idea and out the wife's cd player?
 

SniperHF

Rejecting Reports
Mar 9, 2007
42,632
21,042
Phoenix
Maybe an Amazon Echo dot? It wouldn't use your computer, but I'm pretty sure it can play from some podcast sources without being paired to a phone.

I used to use these:

It's a Speaker that takes a microSD card and just plays MP3s so no network. The sound quality was surprinsgly awesome for a $30 speaker but they don't seem to make that particular model anymore.

This one looks similar though I don't know if it's any good:


And the other option would be getting a bluetooth adapter for your PC and then getting a bluetooth speaker. Range might be an issue though.
 

Winger98

Moderator
Feb 27, 2002
22,756
4,569
Cleveland
I was looking at getting a bluetooth adapter but had similar concerns over range. I was looking at something like the Zealot but was hoping I was just missing something on the wifi/network front. It seems a bit odd that there isn't a cheap speaker out there that can just be paired with a home network.
 

SniperHF

Rejecting Reports
Mar 9, 2007
42,632
21,042
Phoenix
There are Wifi speakers but they are generally more expensive and/or very reliant on a phone.
 

guinness

Not Ingrid for now
Mar 11, 2002
14,521
301
Missoula, Montana
www.missoulian.com
Problem with Bluetooth is that your range is at best 20-30 feet, start adding walls or other electronics in-between, and it will be less. It'd be trivial to stream from a smartphone, as Bluetooth speaks are cheap (if sound quality isn't a concern), I used a cheap one, before I bought a soundbar with BT built-in.

For giggles, I just paired to my soundbar, from my desktop, and it connected fine, but it's only on the other side of a common wall.
 

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