I discovered something annoying about the Google Home products: None of them have a wired audio out. I use my M-Audio studio monitors as the speakers for my TV, but I was going to get a sound bar instead and then repurpose the monitors for the Mini or the Hub. Once I realized that none of the Google Home speakers had an audio out jack, my plans were foiled.
It’s clear that Google is pulling an Apple here and intends for these connections to be wireless, probably bluetooth. But then I saw that you can, for like $15, get a Chromecast Audio widget. I’ll plug it into my monitors and then just use the Hub to play music through it.
But there’s more! I can actually create a speaker “group” and play music throughout the apartment! Studio monitors in the living room, Mini in the kitchen, and the original Home in the bedroom. Maybe I’ll even have my morning NPR wakeup broadcast to every room, too.
And since my TCL TV has built-in Roku, I can of course stream stuff to it as well. And with the new TaoTronics soundbar, so it should sound good too.