I'd like to be able to easily play music stored on my devices (phones, tablets, PCs, Nas) over the stereo system I own, anytime, controlling it with said devices, without having to manually go through multiple setup steps to get everything powered up and paired every damn time. Is it possible to get it all set up once so that I can simply hit play on my phone and hear the music whenever? Seems like it should be doable but I haven't been able to figure out how to get it done without having to go through a whole rigmarole every damn time. 😄 Would really appreciate any answers or leads.

Most of my devices are apple so I use shairport-sync to make airplay2 receivers on low power mini-pc/sbcs. Plug in a USB DAC (chi-fi topping dacs are incredible) and its lossless streaming from wherever. I have them in my office, kitchen, media room, upstairs etc. As far as the "source" for streaming, i just use nPlayer app that can connect to smb shares (full of music/video/etc), its much less to manage. Wife approval factor was high since any phone/device can connect to any airplay reciever without config as long as its on our home wifi. For power savings I have them scheduled to only be on during hours I would normally use them (sleep + wake on lan schedule)

You can run the Jellyfin webui on the rpi and have it stream the audio to it and play via the DAC. Read this: https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/clients/mopidy/#raspberry-pi-remote-controlled-speakers

there are basically endless possibilities I'd say.

• logitech media server with squeeebox clients
• snapcast
• mpd with mopidy
• moodeaudio
• home assistant with one of the integrations.
• plenty more I'm sure

That being said, I would recommend jellyfin over emby.

I use Volumio on a Raspberry Pi with a DAC HAT. The analog output goes to a whole-house distribution system. I installed the Volusonic plugin and it connects to my Navidrome server hosting the music collection. In this configuration, Volumio functions as a control plane. I do everything else (playlists, etc) from the Navidrome web interface. As a bonus, there are several Subsonic apps that work with Navidrome for mobile listening.

I tried Jellyfin, but never got it working the way I wanted. DLNA was particularly difficult. It would play two songs, then stop. I wrote it off as user error out of frustration, and moved to Navidrome. It’s been working well for me, so perhaps it’s worth trying since you already have Volumio up and running.

Note: The prominent comment at the Volusonic link claiming the plugin doesn’t work with Navidrome is over two years old and resolved. Don’t let that dissuade you from trying the plugin.