Tactile screen for streamers

[RosalieTheDog]

I use a Wiim and a Google Chromecast for audio streaming from Tidal. The phone works perfectly well, but I've grown to dislike having to keep the same device that connects with my every possible distraction, work, messages closeby when listening to music.

I'd love to hear if anyone has ideas for a small tactile screen to use as a 'remote' for Chromecast and / or Wiim. The first and easiest option is an always-on tablet, but I dislike the idea of having all those functions which I don't need (camera, microphone, the whole android or ios context); in the end it would end up like the phone. A second option is something like a smart display (Google Nest, Amazon Echo etc), but I don't want those spyware devices in my house and I don't have or plan on getting any other 'smart' devices apart from the audio streamers. Are there reliable open source smart display alternatives anyone is using?

Best,

 

[Timcognito]

There are several large Android Tablets on sale for $100-150. I have a dedicated 10" Samsung Tablet that I bought for $80. I use Roon, Bluesound Qobuz and HP apps and have stripped out all other apps that don't have to do with music except the internet which is handy with Roon and finding things. I think that is the cheapest and most functional and has a large screen as all those apps have a lot of information, NAS collection, steaming radio, album art and such that makes it easier to navigate as a single dashboard. Maybe rethink the tablet and size thing.

 

[somebodyelse]

Because they need the apps you're pretty much stuck with using a phone or tablet. You might be able to use one of the third party Android-based OSs like Graphene or /E/ to avoid most of the unnecessary bits, but that's probably too complicated for most people. An alternative might be to move to LMS, depending on the state of Tidal support now. That would let you stream to both Wiim and Chromecast endpoints and use touchscreen running Jivelite (the gui from the squeezebox touch) or the web interface in a dedicated fullscreen browser. These will include some degree of DIY.

 

[RosalieTheDog]

Thank you so much for the suggestions. I guess for my use case and given my limited DIY experience, a tablet is in the end the most comfortable option.

 

[Timcognito]

Thank you so much for the suggestions. I guess for my use case and given my limited DIY experience, a tablet is in the end the most comfortable option.

You will see it's a good one if you dedicate it to purpose. With the things it has to do it does not have to have a lot of power or memory, just BT and WiFi and uninstall unused apps. Again a bigger screen makes a better dashboard. Search https://slickdeals.net/ for current deals, good luck.