HomePod Best Stereo Receiver for Homepods

[waw74]

The Sonos Beam might be an interesting option? It looks like it has multiple inputs and you might be able to get some other use out of it rather than just a means for transmitting AirPlay 2 audio?

I have the beam, It's only the HDMI-ARC input
It comes with an adapter that will convert toslink (optical audio) to HDMI

 

[kicksology]

You should be able to do what you want with a Sonos product. I think it’s called the Connect. It enables you to to integrate your existing equipment with Sonos which in turn can play to Airplay speakers such as the HomePod.

I too am in the same boat as the OP: I love my HomePods for their small size, audio quality and HomeKit integration, but it's killing me that I can't find a way to stream from a turnable to my HomePods without using a Mac as a go-between.

I contacted Sonos because I too thought that the Sonos Connect and/or Amp might be a solution to this problem. It certainly sounds like those products are designed to do exactly what I'm trying to do, but, alas, after a fair bit of back-and-forth, the Sonos tech informed me that the Connect and Amp will only stream to Sonos speakers. Based on the product descriptions, it sounds like this limitation exists with the just-announced Sonos Port as well.

Unless something significant changes after next week's Keynote, I'm seriously contemplating a shift over to Sonos. I'd keep the HomePods as HomeKit hubs, but, as they currently function, they're too limiting to use as the core of a multi-source home audio system.

 

[Osamede]

To be fair - thats their strategy: they aim to sell a Mac system, not only standalone.

 

[anthony13]

Same as OP. Frustrating to be an Apple fan sometimes as this is a seemingly obvious feature request to me. Of course I want to stream audio to my wireless speaker from a plethora of devices. It never occurred to me that the presumed ‘killer’ feature of the HomePod is Siri, which I almost never use to play music. It’s the fact that the sound quality and volume are so effective in such a tight design. The only solution I’ve mustered is to put an old Mac laptop in line and select the HomePod as the output.