I have an IKEA BILRESA which is basically an iPod click wheel in a little portable Zigbee/thread device. I really wanted to have this control my music, and it will be through Music Assistant and Home Assistant that I achieve this.
I'm still waiting on the Alexa devices integration improving, or picking up some real speakers, both of which are in the works. Then I will hook that up with a local LLM voice assistant in every room (including the bathroom; shower music!)
Achieving this without Music Assistant would be a pain. If things all go right I won't really use the clunky interface much anyway
First I'll use them for music assistant. If I end up making some voice satellites, I'll have to see what the audio quality is like before ditching the Alexa speakers.
I don't believe anybody has found a way to use non-stock firmware. I'd love to jailbreak them if I could