I need ideas to automate a record player connection

I have an old record player, but the thing is that I can't connect it to any sound system by wire.

I bought a Bluetooth transmitter so that I could connect it to the speaker.
On the one hand, the audio quality is ok (I'm not an audiophile by any means), and the delay is very much acceptable.
On the other hand, pairing the transmitter and the speaker is a pain in the ass (especially if I wanted to change the speaker), also as the transmitter is portable, its battery life is not great (I guess I could disassemble it and power it directly).

Another setup that I come up with was transmitting music over LAN using RPi Zero with an external soundboard.
Pros:
- It seems to work well with streaming to any Chromecast device, so I could play music basically anywhere, also straight from the Internet browser.
- I was able to create fun automation with Home Assistant (scan NFC tag, turn socket with Rpi and record player, stream straight to Chromecast speaker)
Cons:
- The delay was soooooo long
- Starting RPi was taking a good while

So my question is - maybe there is something out there that could combine (most) of pros, and not the cons? Bluetooth transmitter on which I could select to what sink I want to connect to, or some audio-over-LAN solution?
Thank you, for any help.

Submitted by pkonowrocki

Comment Below