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I haven’t used AirPlay on my Denon AVR-X6400H at all yet, but I’ll have to see what its all about. Currently, I just Chromecast from my iPhone to the Sony LED in my media room and the receiver automatically picks up the change and uses the HDMI return channel to play audio coming from the TV itself.
 
I don’t doubt the quality i’m just saying this thing looks like the surround sound system of the early 2000’s.

So... they're an audio company focused on sounding great rather than looking great?


How archaic.


That's against everything Apple stands for in the audio portion of their business. I'll bet Jony could school them on a thing or two.

If you have a big house, this the the type of AV equipment that's required to power speakers large enough to fill a massive room.

In the mansion of a friend, the receivers and amps are tucked away in a cabinet.

HomePod designed to look good in a brick walled hipster apartment with a fixed gear bike in the living room simply wouldn't cut it.
 
My old receiver, a Samsung all-in-one thing, could be streamed to using Bluetooth. A few years ago I replaced it with the Denon X1300W and I did the same.

One day, I was playing music to it from my Macbook when I realised my bluetooth was disabled! I couldn't work out the trickery involved and assumed the bluetooth icon wasn't working for some reason. Rebooted and power-cycled my receiver and still - music was streaming from my laptop to the receiver with bluetooth off. That's when I learnt for the first tine what Airplay was :)

The X1300 isn't getting Airplay 2, but I'm hoping I'm not going to miss it.
 
Are you serious? (And meaning this in surprised positive way)
I read up on this a week ago and the ony ones receiving updates were the 2018 modells which would be x2500.

I took the stab and just ordered a x2400 due to a brilliant deal, but knew I would miss Airplay2.

Do you have a good source or link to the FW for the x2400?

My x2400 got the update yesterday afternoon.
 
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You know if Apple made a receiver, they’d have made all the speaker outputs some proprietary format, or bluetooth, by now.

If Apple made a receiver, they'd build it into the speaker and have no inputs or outputs apart from proprietary wireless protocols, and make you buy a second complete unit if you wanted stereo... Remind you of anything?
 
If you have a big house, this the the type of AV equipment that's required to power speakers large enough to fill a massive room.

In the mansion of a friend, the receivers and amps are tucked away in a cabinet.

HomePod designed to look good in a brick walled hipster apartment with a fixed gear bike in the living room simply wouldn't cut it.

I think Aston441 was making much the same point. I did have to read it three times to be sure though!
 
If Apple made a receiver, they'd build it into the speaker and have no inputs or outputs apart from proprietary wireless protocols, and make you buy a second complete unit if you wanted stereo... Remind you of anything?

c’mon guys. It would be a single usb-c for all speakers. Then you would have to buy the speaker “port” which would split it into 8 usb-c. Then, and only then, would you be able to buy the dongles required.
 
Doubt it. Seems to only be the x4500. I have an x3400 I got for 499, so I knew I would miss his upgrade. I don’t think it’s worth an extra 500 though.

I have updated my X3400 yesterday and I’m “airplaying 2” to it (living room) and to my bedroom Apple TV 4K right now as I write this, so smile your a winner, now go and update that beast of a receiver!
 
So a completely noob question, if someone was evaluating getting an audio system for general TV consumption, I am guessing a receiver is a necessary starting point. Once that is bought, does it make sense to buy standalone 5 speakers or would home pods be able to simulate equally good sound. I am also assuming you can't use Home-pods with TV unless you have a receiver?
In your situation I would checkout the Sonos Beam.
 
Doubt it. Seems to only be the x4500. I have an x3400 I got for 499, so I knew I would miss his upgrade. I don’t think it’s worth an extra 500 though.


If you got a X4400H for that crazy low price, then who cares! But it Airplay 2 works on mine...feel like it always though (had for just a month). I just played music through my homepod and the denon at the same time; both were in snych.
 
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I can confirm the AirPlay 2 update installed on the following AVRs/pre-amp that I have:

  • Marantz AV8805 (2018 model)
  • Marantz NR1608 (2017 model)
  • Denon AVR-X4300H (2016 model)
I tested them all this morning. The sync feature works perfect, and you can set the individual volumes of each, all while raising the "master" volume, and they stay in sync at their relative levels.
 
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You can always use an Apple TV

Yep. I have used an Apple TV for 3 years to play music through my receiver. I figured most people on this site would already have one.

True, and I have an Apple TV in every room, also one with an HDMI de-embedder that I use for sending audio to my 2nd zone/outdoor patio.

But the nice thing about AirPlay 2 - you don't have to find the remote and/or turn on your TV/stereo. Just selecting the receiver from the Airplay menu automatically turns it on and music starts playing.
 
Here's the issue for real audiophiles:

Airplay is a badly compromised system for hifi audio. First, it is limited to 16bit 44kHz. Even Chromecast Audio goes up 24bit 96kHz. If you're happy with CD quality audio then Airplay is....OK, but audio has come a long way in the past 10 years so let me ask you are you happy with your 1080p TV or do you want 4K? Why then would you compromise on audio?

Second issue is Airplay wants to control the clocking of the musical stream. Taking control of the clocking away from the end devise is a compromise. This gets complicated so Google the term, "RAAT and clock ownership" to read some discussions about why Airplay's scheme for managing clocking is not ideal.

When you start to go over $1,000 for audio components, you're near the price range where quality should really matter. A much better way to go about this is to buy devises that are roon ready. NAD is doing this as well as ELAC, Bluesound, Creek, Naim, Krell, PS Audio, and many more. What a roon ready device does is integrate with the roon player (kicks iTunes in the butt) and allows for all audio formats including FLAC up to 32bit 384kHz, DSD up to 512, and Master Quality Authentication MQA files), It allows for the endpoint to own its own clock, allows for multi room audio. It is a far better system if you really care about music.

It seems Denon and Merantz could easily updated their devices to be roon ready if they go through the process. At that point their receivers could be considered by more serious audiophiles.
 
You know if Apple made a receiver, they’d have made all the speaker outputs some proprietary format, or bluetooth, by now.

If Apple made a receiver it would have had:
- lightning connectors for the speakers, because existing connectors are archaic ("old" speakers could still be connected through special Apple dongles)
- touch bar instead of a volume knob
- all text in menu replaced with emojis
- can with compressed air to blow of that destructive dust from (heavily reinvented) receiver buttons
 
Uh, Marantz and Denon make great receivers, rock-solid boxes that will last many years, maybe even decades if the dust is cleaned and vents are unobstructed. Unlike the Macbook Pro, their receivers don't skimp on size or components for "looks." It takes watts and sinks to power 7 or more channels, and you need a big-ass I/O panel to accommodate all kinds of AV equipment, lots of speakers, many different connections, etc.


Eh, comparing two completely different pieces of gear, nice one!!
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Here's the issue for real audiophiles:

Airplay is a badly compromised system for hifi audio. First, it is limited to 16bit 44kHz. Even Chromecast Audio goes up 24bit 96kHz. If you're happy with CD quality audio then Airplay is....OK, but audio has come a long way in the past 10 years so let me ask you are you happy with your 1080p TV or do you want 4K? Why then would you compromise on audio?

Second issue is Airplay wants to control the clocking of the musical stream. Taking control of the clocking away from the end devise is a compromise. This gets complicated so Google the term, "RAAT and clock ownership" to read some discussions about why Airplay's scheme for managing clocking is not ideal.

When you start to go over $1,000 for audio components, you're near the price range where quality should really matter. A much better way to go about this is to buy devises that are roon ready. NAD is doing this as well as ELAC, Bluesound, Creek, Naim, Krell, PS Audio, and many more. What a roon ready device does is integrate with the roon player (kicks iTunes in the butt) and allows for all audio formats including FLAC up to 32bit 384kHz, DSD up to 512, and Master Quality Authentication MQA files), It allows for the endpoint to own its own clock, allows for multi room audio. It is a far better system if you really care about music.

It seems Denon and Merantz could easily updated their devices to be roon ready if they go through the process. At that point their receivers could be considered by more serious audiophiles.

Humans sight is not developed as much as hearing, meaning that for our sight 1080p is beyond what we could perceive compared to 44-48kHz of sound - actually the human eye is not trained, so as to distinguish completely 1080p image, let alone 4k/8k, etc... I hope I made my point clear, sorry English is just my second language...
 
How about some investigative journalism, Macrumors, and find out for us what Yamaha's plan is for their receivers & AirPlay 2??!! I am particularly interested in the TSR-5790...
 
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