Airplay enabled speakers vs buying airport express

[SHNXX]

I was wondering what u guys thought about this.
Would you buy an airplay enabled speaker for some light listening (I have an amp for more serious stuff) or would it be preferable to buy an airport express and hook it up to speakers/amp?

 

[waw74]

if it's going to be in the same place as your existing amp and speakers, i would go with the airport express. mainly for ease, and to avoid having extra speakers.
(and a side note, all of the expresses have optical out, just need a mini toslink cable)


if someplace else, it depends on the location, and how much you're using it.
you can get better quality sound for less money by doing airport express + speakers, but you need someplace to hide the cables and extra gear.

the airplay speaker selection is pretty wide, both in quality and price, but you get a nice package you can hide on a shelf.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

It depends on what you want to accomplish. If you're looking for something portable, built-in AirPlay is nice. Plus a lot of them are much more reasonably priced than when they were first introduced. The Klipsch G-17 MSRP of $549 is kind of crazy but Amazon has it for $289 now; some like the Philips AD7000W are cheaper than a current-gen AirPort Express!

 

[SHNXX]

These speakers will go into the bedroom--kind of a large one so I don't want to listen to boom box quality of sound.
I also want to hook these up to my tv.

Another set of speakers I want to use in a second living room.
First living room has a tv with 3.1 and I have a home theater setup with 5.1 so I want to have the second living room equipped with something stereo.
I might be willing to spend a bit more for that but I'm not an audiophile.

 

[waw74]

i have the B&W A7 in my bedroom, it's a bit pricy, but the sound is nice. nice and full sounding, good bass. but about $650
the remote isn't the best, its' small and egg shaped, hard to figure out which end is up, there is a small dent in the back that helps by feel, but visually you have to look closely to get it right. but with an all in one remote that can be fixed.

it's nice in that it will switch inputs automatically. and will power itself on and off as needed. the line in is analog or optical.

i use mine for airplay and hooked to my roku.

---
another advantage of airplay speakers is basic control of your music (pause/play, skip forward/back) some speakers have buttons on them, but all should have buttons on their remote.

you have remote control via the iOS remote app also. but a hard button is nice.

----
also once you start adding rooms, take a look at airfoil, it will let you select a single app on your computer and send audio from that. (or whole system audio also, but since mountain lion that's been built into OS X)

with both airfoil and iTunes you can stream to multiple speakers all in sync. (iOS is limited to one destination)

also with airfoil they have another program (airfoil speakers) that will act as an airplay target, so you can play something on iOS and send it to the the computer, then from there off to multiple locations.

there is a delay of about 2 seconds in airplay, so playing video can be a bit problematic. and if you do the the airfoil speakers thing i mentioned, it's 2 hops, so 4 seconds

 

[kyjaotkb]

I bought a used previous-gen Airport Express for €30, working like a charm... That's a difficult price to beat...

 

[warvanov]

The AirPort express will offer more flexibility. I've had one since the original was introduced years ago and I swear by them. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend one.

 

[Peace]

I own a Yamaha RX-v473 receiver with built in Airplay and 3 HDMI ports with a pass-thru.all the external audio goes through that from any Apple device in the house.

If you're looking for a new receiver with power check into it.

 

[SHNXX]

I own a Yamaha RX-v473 receiver with built in Airplay and 3 HDMI ports with a pass-thru.all the external audio goes through that from any Apple device in the house.

If you're looking for a new receiver with power check into it.

Not looking into receiver at the moment because I already have one for home theater.

----------

i have the B&W A7 in my bedroom, it's a bit pricy, but the sound is nice. nice and full sounding, good bass. but about $650

the remote isn't the best, its' small and egg shaped, hard to figure out which end is up, there is a small dent in the back that helps by feel, but visually you have to look closely to get it right. but with an all in one remote that can be fixed.



it's nice in that it will switch inputs automatically. and will power itself on and off as needed. the line in is analog or optical.



i use mine for airplay and hooked to my roku.



---

another advantage of airplay speakers is basic control of your music (pause/play, skip forward/back) some speakers have buttons on them, but all should have buttons on their remote.



you have remote control via the iOS remote app also. but a hard button is nice.



----

also once you start adding rooms, take a look at airfoil, it will let you select a single app on your computer and send audio from that. (or whole system audio also, but since mountain lion that's been built into OS X)



with both airfoil and iTunes you can stream to multiple speakers all in sync. (iOS is limited to one destination)



also with airfoil they have another program (airfoil speakers) that will act as an airplay target, so you can play something on iOS and send it to the the computer, then from there off to multiple locations.



there is a delay of about 2 seconds in airplay, so playing video can be a bit problematic. and if you do the the airfoil speakers thing i mentioned, it's 2 hops, so 4 seconds

That looks pretty.
It looks like the kind of modern furnitures I like.

Do you think it sounds as good as two speaker setup?

Still not sure about airport express vs airplay though.
I will have to search YouTube for airport express audio setups.