Headless Mac Mini + stereo function like HomePod

[Yodalogger]

I've seen many people use a headless mac mini as a music server in a stereo system but I am wondering if it is possible to use a MacMini in a HomePod-like way where you use your voice and Siri to ask the mac mini to play music.

I haven't seen any solutions out there but wondering if anyone had any thoughts or experience on this issue.

 

[krause734]

You'd want to use a quality microphone but it might work okay. I've been wanting to do this as well and I've found voice recognition is not accurate enough to make it worth it. Same thing with smart home/cars. The technology is not there yet and it's just frustrating to even try.

 

[ActionableMango]

I've seen many people use a headless mac mini as a music server in a stereo system but I am wondering if it is possible to use a MacMini in a HomePod-like way where you use your voice and Siri to ask the mac mini to play music.

I haven't seen any solutions out there but wondering if anyone had any thoughts or experience on this issue.

IMHO it's possible, but not going to work nearly as well as HomePod.

There are different kinds of microphones--you'll need a quality mic designed to pick up voices from a distance. Many microphones will be useless because they are near field and expect you to be a few inches away, or simply because they are cheap crap.

Also to trigger Siri you need to click on an icon or hit a keyboard combination, which are obvious problems due to the fact you'll be running headless. In the keyboard preference pane you can set up dictation to trigger the keyboard combo when it hears a certain phrase. You can make the phrase anything, in fact I wouldn't use "Hey Siri" because that will also trigger your iOS devices.

I tried this myself and basically gave up on it because it was just an experiment, my budget was zero, and my microphone was not suitable. Conceptually speaking, it did work though--I just had to be right in front of the mic.

 

[Yodalogger]

Nice, just for fun I added a mac thunderbolt display from my work computer as the "microphone". It is significantly worse than the HomePod but yes, setting up a dictation trigger worked OK-ish. Tech not quite there yet, but one can keep on hoping.

 

[Yodalogger]

I revisited this project using a Beyerdynamic Phonum microphone (one of those conference room microphones) connected via usb to the Mac mini. I also have an external DAC connected via USB to the Mac mini. It works pretty darn good if you are in the same room as the computer. Also great fun to have the kids come up with the trigger phrases to activate Siri.