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AirPlay enable an analogue stereo post Airport Extreme

A

Anaru

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 8, 2014
12
1
Hey all,

I have an Airport Express for the sole purpose of allowing me to AirPlay audio from my AppleTV to my old analogue Hi Fi. The performance is pretty... meh, as I'm sure many of you have experienced.

Anyway, with the Airports being discontinued and AirPlay 2 on the way, what is my upgrade path? Is there a 3rd party equivalent of the Express that has or will likely get AirPlay 2?

When I look for Airport replacements, I only find "mesh network" type products, and that's not the functionality I'm looking for.

*edit: That's Express not Extreme
 
So back to my original question - is there a 3rd party equivalent of an Airport Express, ie a wireless "endpoint" you can send Airplay to, that has an analogue audio out for retrofitting old stereos?
 
Anaru said:
So back to my original question - is there a 3rd party equivalent of an Airport Express, ie a wireless "endpoint" you can send Airplay to, that has an analogue audio out for retrofitting old stereos?
Click to expand...

sadly, it doesn't seem so.
 
You could try to build one yourself: How to set up a Raspberry Pi AirPlay receiver as AirTunes certificate was cracked already long time ago.
You can expect it to appear as AirPlay audio receiver (formerly AirTunes), but HomeSharing will be a no-go.
If AirPlay 2 would also involve HomeSharing authentication, then it will also be not easy to implement without Apple's consent/licensing.

PS Would external DAC not improve your audio quality from the same Express?
 
Last edited:
If you are sending compressed audio, any ole Bluetooth receiver will do the job.

If you wanto keep up with the Joneses and stay with Airplay, an el-cheapo D-to-A box may also do the job.
 
OP, you offered that you're using an Express. I have no issues with the 2nd Gen Express that I took a couple of precautions with. My Express is connected to my main router (at this point a Synology wireless router which replaced a latest gen Extreme) and I switch to the Express solely for listening to music via headphones, generally with a pair of Grado cans. Nothing else is connected wirelessly to the Express; my Canon laser printer is connected to the Ethernet port - there's no other wireless traffic on my Express to conflict with my streamed music except for my Mac's small network needs (like posting here...).

But, when I'm on the road I tote a Audioengine B1, and it's the unit my GF and a few of my employees use. IMHO it sounds better than my Express, and it's hooked up to my sound system. A few of my employees have an AudioQuest Beetle on their desk - I borrowed one for a weekend a couple of months ago and swapped it out for my B1 and it sounded as good as my B1. Yes, Bluetooth - but under $200 as opposed to much more for something like the spendy Arcam rPlay that my snobby brother owns, but I think both the Beetle and B1 do a better job.
 
Bluetooth will give you a better performance than airplay
on the aTV, airplay causes your video to delay a couple seconds at the beginning while the audio syncs up.
bluetooth doesn't have that.

or get an HDMI audio extractor.
it's got an HDMI In and Out. and then analog audio outs
here's a good example
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=10251
it should give you better sound than airplay or bluetooth
 
Thanks for the tips. Not sure why I overlooked Bluetooth - maybe I dismissed it because I assumed Apple's standard would perform better...
 
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