• The new Esparagus Audio Brick project is now heading to Crowd Supply!

    andriy.malyshenko • 10/28/2025 at 13:59 • 0 comments

    It’s the next step in the Esparagus Audio Brick - a DIN-rail-mountable, hi-fi audio board built around ESP32 and TAS5825M DAC that integrates perfectly with Home Assistant and ESPHome - Crowd Supply campaign is about to launch.

    If you like what we’ve been building so far, now’s the time to help spread the word — share the campaign page, mention it in your communities, and let others know that open-source audio is moving forward.

    Pre-launch page: https://www.crowdsupply.com/sonocotta/esparagus-audio-brick

    Thanks to everyone who contributed ideas, tested firmware, or helped shape the project so far. This one really grew from the community.

  • Youtube overview of the Brick

    andriy.malyshenko • 10/18/2025 at 12:28 • 0 comments

    Just put together an overview of the Esparagus Audio Brick, a little bit of background, hardware and software overview.

  • Why I Built the Audio Brick

    andriy.malyshenko • 09/09/2025 at 11:22 • 0 comments

    A few years back I was hunting for a reasonably priced I²S DAC with amplified output that could work with an ESP32. There were plenty of DIY projects floating around — usually a dev board wired to an Adafruit module or some random breakout — but after the tenth time re-doing jumper wires and being stuck with a 5 W USB power ceiling, it stopped being fun.

    That led me to the TAS5805M. It was inexpensive, could push way more power than I needed (20–25 W per channel), and the simplest driver fit in a screen of code. I slapped one on a custom board, and suddenly I had a clean, compact ESP32 audio setup that could actually drive real speakers. From there, I retrofitted an old radio, made an internet streaming box, and spun off a bunch of one-off audio toys.

    Fast forward a few iterations: I had the Louder-ESP and Louder Esparagus boards, plus Raspberry Pi hats, and eventually stumbled on the squeezelite-esp32 project. That opened the door to Bluetooth, AirPlay, Spotify Connect, and multiroom audio — all running on ESP32. Around the same time, folks in the community suggested integration with Home Assistant and Music Assistant, and that turned out to be a game-changer. Suddenly, automations like “play the morning radio when the kitchen lights turn on” just worked.

    Somewhere along the way, I realized there were still DSP features hidden inside the DAC that weren’t being used. With some custom drivers and later a full ESPHome component port, we unlocked a 15-band EQ, automatic fault handling, and proper gain control. That made the whole thing not just usable, but tunable — you can actually match your amp to your speakers like you’d expect from expensive commercial gear.

    That brings us to today: the Esparagus Audio Brick. It’s compact, DIN-rail mountable, and powers two audio channels each. You can run it stereo, mono, bi-amp, or as a dedicated sub channel, then add more Bricks until your house sings. It supports Home Assistant (Music Assistant, Snapcast, LMS protocol), gets OTA updates, and stays fully open-source.

    I see it as the missing piece between hacky ESP32 dev board setups and overpriced closed-system solutions. It’s built to be hacked, but also solid enough to deploy permanently.