The Time Capsule is one of Apple’s best products. It is extremely useful for those who would otherwise not backup their machines as often if they had to plug in an external drive instead of automatically backing up your machine while you work wirelessly. I think Apple is making a big mistake getting out of the router business. While buying a router is not as necessary as it was in the past due to ISPs including one in the subscription cost, many users will always prefer owning and choosing their own. I have always preferred using the modem and router of my choice and this is the main reason why I don’t have FiOS today. I was really excited when they finally completed wiring NYC only to find out that you must use their gateway. Using the Time Capsule just for backups after I just bought one would’ve made it an extremely expensive backup machine.
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Apple Begins to Sell Out of AirPort Base Stations [Updated]
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You can wirelessly do time machine backups by plugging a hard drive into a synology router, or by using any router with a synology NAS.
guys, can you tell me: is AirPorts the only way to turn traditional 35mm jack speaker into Airplay Speaker?
Correct!
There are some other active things it can do, packet inspections data usage logging... can look at a chart log of how my latency has fluxuated over the past day, Ohhh ahhh lol. Most techies like/want it always online for nerdy ocd completness sake ;-) but practically its fluffy unimportant functions that most people dont need, so their entitere system is designed to not need controller after configuration is set. Controller can come and go.
Nope... I have traditional speakers all over my house that are fed by a preamp DJ style mixer for control. And that mixer receives its audio signals from 3 different computers, and televisions with Apple TV’s (among other sources like microphones, instruments, etc.).
In my usage, I can airplay music and videos to any of the Apple TV’s from my phone or any of the computers if I want.
Or, I can just send the audio straight to the mixer and leave the video on the computer or phone.
If all you want is music, you can skip the airplay method, and just use a wireless signal. Transmitter on the computer, receiver plugged into the 3.5 mm plug on your speakers. It’ll work just as well for music / audio.
If you want video and audio, then you could AirPlay to an AppleTV and then connect the speakers to your television for audio.
Or... just use the AppleTV to select and play audio and video without involving AirPlay.
Lots of simple methods. All depends on how crazy you want to get.
I’m set up for everything I might “think” about doing on impulse. Others don’t need anything as complex.
That's weird, my opinion is also based on facts.
Maybe we should keep it that way and call it a day.
I used AirPort products for a dozen years and decided to move over to the Ubiquiti AmpliFi products since there was no reason to invest more money into a dead end product line. I wrote a short review on here about it. Whether you choose a standalone AmpliFi HD router, a router and one mesh point, or the entire system in one box (router and two mesh points) it is a superior solution to the old AirPort stuff. The app is much more modern and customizable and I find the overall system performance and stability to be outstanding. With the AirPort line being discontinued it remains to be seen how long Apple will actively support the product line. I'd say firmware and software updates from here on out will be quite rare if any are released at all.
Agreed. Strongly suggest avoiding the kit, though, since as of now the mesh points can’t be repaired with other. Amplifi routers, so if you expand your system with a second router it makes things very inflexible. Personally, I’ve gone with four Amplifi routers. Costs a bit more than mesh points but far more flexible in terms of placement. (I happen to have three rooms hard wired with cat 6)
Maybe the setup is different, but here in Wash DC they provide ethernet from the ONT that you can run into your own router. I've been doing that with Airport Extreme for several years. Just upgraded to gig service and same thing. (which reminds me - I need to return the router they sent that I don't need).
You could just do what I did. This works really well, and the drive stays out of the way and I never see it.
I also have a second drive that I leave in a drawer at work, and bring home every month or so to do a second off-site backup.
You can use a hard drive plugged into a synology router.
Or you can put a synology NAS anywhere on your network.
Both solutions provide time machine backups.
Very disappointing - I've owned one of each variant since release and never had a problem - only one has ever died on me and the rest still work (including the alien ship).
I got sick of having to remotely access my FIL's netgear router supplied by his ISP to troubleshoot that I bought him a 1TB Time Capsule about 3 years ago. Since that time, I've had zero calls to troubleshoot his net connection. So maybe that's Apples problem with Airports and Time Capsules - they made products that are durable and require minimal maintenance.
I say 'made' because I don't believe that Apple are making such products anymore - everything is made with forced upgrades in mind. So much so that I don't own any 'new' from Apple after 2014. **Apart from my Watch which was actually consigned to the archives this week as well due to buggy and unreliable software.
But this is just another step in the (rapidly increasing) downward slope of my relationship with Apple - by removing the products that 'just work' with each other and not resolving software issues has made me look at alternatives across the board.
I got sick of having to remotely access my FIL's netgear router supplied by his ISP to troubleshoot that I bought him a 1TB Time Capsule about 3 years ago. Since that time, I've had zero calls to troubleshoot his net connection. So maybe that's Apples problem with Airports and Time Capsules - they made products that are durable and require minimal maintenance.
I say 'made' because I don't believe that Apple are making such products anymore - everything is made with forced upgrades in mind. So much so that I don't own any 'new' from Apple after 2014. **Apart from my Watch which was actually consigned to the archives this week as well due to buggy and unreliable software.
But this is just another step in the (rapidly increasing) downward slope of my relationship with Apple - by removing the products that 'just work' with each other and not resolving software issues has made me look at alternatives across the board.
No! I posted that before, but things get lost hear. Search for airplay DAC. Yamaha WXAD-10 is one option, there are others.
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This is not really a solution. I am supposed to by a computer/apple TV to make speakers wireless? And the ATV doesn't even have an audio out, just HDMI.
As I mentioned, if all someone wants to accomplish is making a wireless connection to speakers that aren’t near their music device (computer, iPod, whatever), then all they need is a transmitter and receiver.
Plug the transmitter into whatever has your music and either a USB or audio jack. Plug the receiver into the speakers wherever they are located. I’ve seen such solutions available for $10 to $20. And of course more expensive solutions are available as well.
I covered a variety of options in my prior response. I didn’t say anybody needed all of the equipment. I just illustrated some of the solutions I used because I have a crazy system for entertaining a crowd. But I illustrated simple alternatives as well.
What you are describing is how wireless audio works. Transmitter and reciever. I think what was asked for is whether somoenone knows of a device that would replicate the audio airplay capability of the airport express.
Yes, as you said, there are options for wireless audio. Bluetooth is common, but it has its own issues. You can use any device that you can put airfoil or similar on. Android phone as well. You can connect a computer, etc.
I know from personal frustration, that all I need is a device that was meant for that. Airport express fits that pretty well. It works wiht my ATV, phone and computer. I can airplay sound to it from all the device, while I do not need another media device to reside next to my amplifier.
Technically you are correct. But I know what search results you get if you google airplay audio adapter. Little to nothing usefull. This information on airplay DAC is a bit lacking or harder to come by, if you don't know that this is the termin to search for.
I know there are tons of options and ways to resolve this kind of issue. But some of us just want a box that takes airplay and plugs it into existing speakers. I am not buying a new amp, mine is great. I am not buying a homepod, heck is not even available where I am at. I don't have a need to buy the latest tech, some devices are good even after 40 years, why chuck those? Because Apple decided that all we need is a homepod?
Yep, once you get out of the fresh out of high school, fresh out of college crowd, Apple products suck for good sound.
I don't have a device, but is the audio quality put out via the AEx toslink/3.5mm jack better than via wireless airplay? It's already streaming over your network either way . . . (honest question to which I don't know the answer).
Yeah the controller software only needs to be running if you want to make any configuration changes. The cloud key is not required to remote access, you just need the Unifi Controller software running (whether it is on a Cloud Key or your home computer/server does not matter). You log in, go to Cloud Access, and enable. Having the software always running also allows for traffic monitoring so you can see what devices and what type of traffic is using the most bandwidth which is pretty neat.
