Solved! Bluetooth transmitter workaround

[melcarter80]

Hi, I’ve just bought a pure evoke cf 6, all in one system. I planned to use this with the speakers attached for the room I’m in and a Bluetooth transmitter to stream to other Bluetooth headphones and cheaper speakers around the house. However, the only ports I have are aux in, Ethernet and headphones out. The transmitter currently only works when plugged into the headphone out socket, but this immediately cuts out the attached speakers - which I would expect - so I can then only stream music to headphones or speakers in other rooms and not the one I’m in. The only solution I’ve found would be to buy additional speakers for my current room as well, which seems a bit pointless when the attached speakers have great sound quality and the whole system is brand new.

So, is there any workaround to this? Ie a headphone port adapter which doesn’t cut the speakers off?
A converter to use the aux in or Ethernet ports so I can attach the transmitter to one of those?

Or as it is connected to my WiFi, are there other speakers I can just add to my WiFi and not need a direct connection to the stereo?

Sorry for the long post, I’ve just spent hours trying to figure this out and am beginning to lose the will to live

 

[hang-the-9]

Aux In is an INPUT so you can't use that, Ethernet you can't convert to audio out. There are devices that use ethernet to transmit audio but it needs a bunch of extra equipment and they still would use the headphone jack to run to them. You may be able to re-wire the headphone jack to enable both speakers and jack to be on, don't know how though, but should be possible.

Not sure about WiFi, you would need speakers that use WiFi and that device does not seem to be made to use WiFi for speakers, only for streaming music to it.

I think you got the wrong device to do what you want with. A much cheaper Alexa Echo Dot along with some paired bluetooth speakers would do what you want. UE models for example, you can link to the Echo, then you can link several speakers together. I think JBL has models that do the same thing, or Sonos stuff.

https/blog.bestbuy.ca/tv-audio/tv-home-theatre-tv-audio/how-to-use-multiple-bluetooth-speakers

Of course you need to be aware of distance limitations.

I bought the Dot 2 for about $25 or 30 when it was on sale, a UE MegaBoom for $150 when that was on sale. You would need a couple of speakers for what you want, so looking at the same cost for the Dot, and 3 MegaBoom speakers as that radio. If you want 2 speakers, that is a bit over 300.

 

[melcarter80]

Rather annoyingly my original love was for the Sonos, but on looking I decided an all in one playing in stereo with a nice display screen would be perfect for my living room. So after research I was down to the Ruark r2 mk3 or the pure. Attach amazon dot via BT transmitter and stream to echo speakers in my other rooms using one app on my phone wherever I was in the house, simple.

You are however, completely right and out of my options I went with the one that can’t do what I want, as the Ruark is compatible with amazon dot and has several outputs I could use if I just wanted a transmitter - they do also work as Multi-Room in pairs or with their own additional speakers but that starts to get rather expensive and is more than I really need.

To make the Ethernet audio connection, yep I’ve discovered it requires several components. In my quest to make this work I have ordered;

Ethernet audio aux adapters
Female to female aux connecter
Ethernet lead
Already have a transmitter I can use

Idea is to plug Ethernet cable direct into pure stereo, the other end into the Ethernet audio aux adapter, then that aux via female to female connector to aux on the bt transmitter.

Although your point that the audio adapter needs to plugged direct into an aux out socket seems to make sense as they sell the Ethernet adapters in pairs and I would only be using one.

Components arriving tomorrow so I’m going to try anyway. If no luck, I’ll see if there’s anything I can do with the headphone port.

Worst case scenario if / when this doesn’t work, do you know if the Ruark would stream through the pure using a transmitter?

 

[hang-the-9]

Rather annoyingly my original love was for the Sonos, but on looking I decided an all in one playing in stereo with a nice display screen would be perfect for my living room. So after research I was down to the Ruark r2 mk3 or the pure. Attach amazon dot via BT transmitter and stream to echo speakers in my other rooms using one app on my phone wherever I was in the house, simple.

You are however, completely right and out of my options I went with the one that can’t do what I want, as the Ruark is compatible with amazon dot and has several outputs I could use if I just wanted a transmitter - they do also work as Multi-Room in pairs or with their own additional speakers but that starts to get rather expensive and is more than I really need.

To make the Ethernet audio connection, yep I’ve discovered it requires several components. In my quest to make this work I have ordered;

Ethernet audio aux adapters
Female to female aux connecter
Ethernet lead
Already have a transmitter I can use

Idea is to plug Ethernet cable direct into pure stereo, the other end into the Ethernet audio aux adapter, then that aux via female to female connector to aux on the bt transmitter.

Although your point that the audio adapter needs to plugged direct into an aux out socket seems to make sense as they sell the Ethernet adapters in pairs and I would only be using one.

Components arriving tomorrow so I’m going to try anyway. If no luck, I’ll see if there’s anything I can do with the headphone port.

Worst case scenario if / when this doesn’t work, do you know if the Ruark would stream through the pure using a transmitter?

That aux jack is an input, you can't use it to connect speakers to. It's for connecting an MP3 player, computer or phone to the radio and use the speakers. Looks like the only audio out it has is the headphone jack, which as you noticed disables the speakers. I don't know about the Ruark model so don't know how it works. Did you buy this thing recently and does the place you got it from have a good return policy? Simplest thing would be an Echo device with bluetooth speakers that can pair to each other, unless you are OK with spending more on the Sonos stuff.

 

[melcarter80]

It seems we are on the same line of thinking. I have returned the pure evoke today, was only a few days old so no issues, and bought 2 Sonos Play 1 and a google home mini, yes I am aware they currently don’t connect, but for functionality the google serves me better than Alexa and I can use it independently and with the chromecast on my tv at present. There are statements from Sonos confirming connectivity at some point in the future. In the meantime I believe there is a workaround via apps or using the play 5 with the chrome cast. However I’m going to do more research on which other SONOS speakers will suit my setup and can happily wait a while for the google compatibility as it’s proving highly useful on its own. So I should basically have gone with my original instinct and bought the Sonos to start with, as you quite rightly suggested.
I will now be sticking with Sonos and get advice on which product to get next before the actual purchase. But for now at least I’ve made a good start and know I can get the whole house connected over time.
Many thanks for your help and knowledge

 

[hang-the-9]

It seems we are on the same line of thinking. I have returned the pure evoke today, was only a few days old so no issues, and bought 2 Sonos Play 1 and a google home mini, yes I am aware they currently don’t connect, but for functionality the google serves me better than Alexa and I can use it independently and with the chromecast on my tv at present. There are statements from Sonos confirming connectivity at some point in the future. In the meantime I believe there is a workaround via apps or using the play 5 with the chrome cast. However I’m going to do more research on which other SONOS speakers will suit my setup and can happily wait a while for the google compatibility as it’s proving highly useful on its own. So I should basically have gone with my original instinct and bought the Sonos to start with, as you quite rightly suggested.
I will now be sticking with Sonos and get advice on which product to get next before the actual purchase. But for now at least I’ve made a good start and know I can get the whole house connected over time.
Many thanks for your help and knowledge

Need to be careful with "future features", they don't always get done. If you can link the google home mini to another one, you may be better off with just getting a few of those for voice controls through the house, then connect one of the Sonos speakers to one of them, and link the second to the first speaker. So one "main" google home is wired to the first speaker and controls the audio. The secondary google home is used to get your voice commands for playing stuff which is sent to the speakers from that first device connected to the speaker. The second Sonos plays the music in another area since the speakers are linked.

 

[melcarter80]

From what I can gather, I could only link the google mini to a play 5 at present due to lack of aux inputs on other models. So with songs I’d end up having to buy way more speakers than I actually need. It’s looking like my best option to cover everything I want is to either buy speakers with chromecast built in or chromecast audios to add to other speakers, that way I can have different branded speakers and still sync to play in groups etc. via the google home app. The slight annoyance is I then have to go to each source I wish to stream from independently rather than it all just being in one app, but that’s not really a big issue. I now just need to find speakers, with amazing sound quality that don’t cost a fortune.