Wireless Music Receiver

The purpose of this blog has always been to teach about my various geek inventions, gadgets I buy, tricks to get the most out of some technology, or simply to teach you about something few people know about, such as: how to choose a bicycle or how to read headphone specifications, but those are stories for another time. Today I want to show you how to make a music receiver that can be easily controlled from your phone.

I know several inexpensive ways to do this: a Bluetooth receiver, an Android HDMI stick, or my favorite – a Chromecast.

The first method is the easiest and allows you to send music from your phone to an amplifier connected to a speaker. The advantage is that it’s very simple… the downside is that there tends to be cuts in playback. If you’re interested, you can check out this type of product.

The second method uses an Android HDMI stick. You can install an app called XBMC (now called Kodi) on these devices. It’s a media center that can connect via Wi-Fi to your computer’s music library or wired to a USB drive. It can also be controlled from your phone with several apps available on the Google Play Store. It’s a very good solution, but the downside is complicated setup… you have to share your PC folder, assign a static IP to the device running XBMC, link the phone app, and other complications… not to mention actually installing XBMC on the device. But if you’re interested in trying it, you can download it for your PC at http://kodi.tv/. I’ll possibly cover this app in another article later.

But as the wise proverb says, third time’s the charm, and my favorite method is using a Google Chromecast. Now the question is: What is a Chromecast? This device is a bit larger than a USB drive, connects to an HDMI port, and is controlled via mobile apps or websites like Netflix, Deezer, Spotify, or Plex (Plex deserves another article later, but it would allow you to send videos from your PC). All of this uses your Wi-Fi network.

What Do We Need?
Basically, the idea is to use Deezer or Google Music to send music to the Chromecast. For this we will need:

Obviously a Chromecast: 35 USD or $33,990 (bip.cl).
An HDMI audio extractor, the cheapest on Amazon is this one, costing 10 dollars. (Some TVs have this built in.)
A phone connected to the same Wi-Fi network as the Chromecast.
An audio system with a 3.5mm input – basically speakers that can connect to the phone; the investment size depends on your preference.

Steps

Connect the Chromecast to the Wi-Fi network. This must be done with the Chromecast connected to a screen or TV with an HDMI input. You configure it by installing the app for PC or phone (available on Android and iPhone) and can be obtained from Google’s site.
Once the Chromecast is configured for the Wi-Fi network, connect it to the audio extractor and connect the speakers to the device’s audio output. (A monitor is not necessary now.)
Install Google Music on your phone or use it from your PC via its website. Make sure you are connected to the same Wi-Fi network as the Chromecast.
Connect to the Chromecast using the icon:
Enjoy like I am doing right now.