How to I get all iPad sound, even games, to external speakers?

[Piggie]

At title says:

How do I get the iPad to output all it's audio, when I want it so, say at home in the evening, to an external amp/speakers?

The other day, I connected my iPad up, via the headphone socket, to some Logitek 2.1 speakers and honestly it made the iPad into a totally new product, It bought it to live.

I actually heard things, even in in-game music that I'd never even heard before.

Genuinely a moment of revelation of just how, and I'm sorry to say this, massively crappy the on-board speaker is.

Now I have heard just what I'm missing by using the built in speaker, I'd like to find a way to, when I want, have my iPad output it's sound to some speakers without wires.

Is there a easyish and cheapish way to achieve this?

Thanks.

 

[Night Spring]

Well, it's not exactly cheap, but I have a bose sounddock with a Bluetooth receiver. I'm listening to music through it as I type this in bed, several feet away. I've also played game sounds through this speaker, and the surround effect is quite impressive. I'm sure there are cheaper speakers with bluetooth connection, though if you are interested in quality sound, a few hundred dollars for good equipment is surely worth the expense. Oh, and Bluetooth setup is super simple.

 

[Piggie]

Well, it's not exactly cheap, but I have a bose sounddock with a Bluetooth receiver. I'm listening to music through it as I type this in bed, several feet away. I've also played game sounds through this speaker, and the surround effect is quite impressive. I'm sure there are cheaper speakers with bluetooth connection, though if you are interested in quality sound, a few hundred dollars for good equipment is surely worth the expense. Oh, and Bluetooth setup is super simple.

Thanks for the reply.

I have more speakers, from cheap black plastic to 3ft tall wooden cabinet hifi models than I know what to do with around the house

Some of which, like my Logitek are PC type setups with their own built in amp, also the VideoLogic Digitheatre DTS around one room, and even two proper LARGE hifi Amps that can power anything

The residing point about all of these devices, from the cheapest PC speakers, right up to my Yamaha and Pioneer proper HiFi amps have "line in" inputs.

So, I'm guessing what I really need then is a BlueTooth reciever that can pick up the signal from the iPad, and can convert this picked up signal into a line in signal for putting into the back of any of my many speaker/amp devices.

Albeit I'm not sure how far Bluetooth travels.

 

[Night Spring]

So, I'm guessing what I really need then is a BlueTooth reciever that can pick up the signal from the iPad, and can convert this picked up signal into a line in signal for putting into the back of any of my many speaker/amp devices.

Exactly. Something like this, for instance.
http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-F8Z492-Bluetooth-Receiver-iPhone/dp/B0035JL35O

Not saying this is a good model, I have no personal experience with it, just giving you an idea of the type of product to look for.

Albeit I'm not sure how far Bluetooth travels.

I think if you are within hearing distance of the speakers, it works. Sometimes I switch the iPad sound to bluetooth, forget about it, take the iPad from the bedroom (where I have the Sounddock with bluetooth receiver) to the living room, try to play something on the iPad, get no sound, remember it's on bluetooth, switch back. I do think when I do that, the sound is playing from the speakers in the bedroom, but I've never bothered to walk back to check. In general, I have a hard time imagining why you would want to have sound playing from speakers not in the same room as the iPad, but if you want to know, I can check.

 

[Piggie]

Thanks.

I did see that Belkin model which looks nice and simple and cheap, however reviews seem to say the range it pretty poor, albeit perhaps enough for 1 room, but more importantly the sound quality it pretty poor, ok for speech but not great for quality music.

Yes, after your post I had a little search and I guess a Bluetooth receiver is the cheapest and easiest solution if you already have your own audio equipment with line in sockets.

I of course only have three queries.

1: I'm sure there are good and bad Bluetooth receivers at all price points. I don't know what the differences are.

2: I've not yet looked yet, but I assume there is some setting on the iPad that turns off the speaker and directs all sound to be sent out over bluetooth

3: Do I assume the iPad would only be compatible with certain receivers - Pair up?

 

[Night Spring]

I of course only have three queries.

1: I'm sure there are good and bad Bluetooth receivers at all price points. I don't know what the differences are.

2: I've not yet looked yet, but I assume there is some setting on the iPad that turns off the speaker and directs all sound to be sent out over bluetooth

3: Do I assume the iPad would only be compatible with certain receivers - Pair up?

Can't help you with 1&3 -- we bought the Bose Sounddock before we got the iPad (for use with our iPods), and when the iPad came out, we just added the Bluetooth receiver. So we never did much research on Bluetooth receivers for existing speakers.

As for directing sound from the iPad to Bluetooth, first you pair the iPad with Bluetooth from Settings > General > Bluetooth. Once you pair the iPad with a Bluetooth receiver, if you are on 4.2.1 or above, you get the AirPlay icon anywhere you have sound settings, and you can switch between Bluetooth and iPad speakers on the fly. Like I said before, it's pretty simple and easy to use.

 

[Piggie]

Can't help you with 1&3 -- we bought the Bose Sounddock before we got the iPad (for use with our iPods), and when the iPad came out, we just added the Bluetooth receiver. So we never did much research on Bluetooth receivers for existing speakers.

As for directing sound from the iPad to Bluetooth, first you pair the iPad with Bluetooth from Settings > General > Bluetooth. Once you pair the iPad with a Bluetooth receiver, if you are on 4.2.1 or above, you get the AirPlay icon anywhere you have sound settings, and you can switch between Bluetooth and iPad speakers on the fly. Like I said before, it's pretty simple and easy to use.

Thanks.

After a bit of searching I've found this, which might seem to offer the best quality/brand/performance for the price:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467128533&pf_rd_i=468294

Does anyone know if the iPad supports the newer, higher quality "Latest apt X bluetooth technology" that this unit supports?

.

 

[Roadking]

You could get a jawbone jambox. It is pretty small, portable and has a bluetooth receiver already built in. It obviously won't get the iPad to connect with your existing speakers but it is another alternative.

www.jawbone.com

 

[Piggie]

You could get a jawbone jambox. It is pretty small, portable and has a bluetooth receiver already built in. It obviously won't get the iPad to connect with your existing speakers but it is another alternative.

www.jawbone.com

Thank you very much for the information.

I had seen this item reviewed before now and look an interesting product.
If I was on the move with my iPad it may be something to consider.

Personally for me, at £160 UK Pounds it does feel a bit overpriced for a rubber brick speaker, albeit I understand it does go quite loud.

I would rather have my audio through some nice quality HiFi speaker at home though

 

[gatearray]

The iPad's built in speaker is not "massively crappy" by any means for a device it's size. It actually has a resonant bass chamber inside which is something a laptop does not, and sounds better than most laptop computers built-in speaker as well.

I would guess that you're probably not an audiophile if you just realized internal speakers on any portable device suck compared to using headphones, a speaker dock, or a wired home stereo system. I hate to break it to you, but all built-in speakers on everything you own are massively crappy by your logic.

 

[Piggie]

The iPad's built in speaker is not "massively crappy" by any means for a device it's size. It actually has a resonant bass chamber inside which is something a laptop does not, and sounds better than most laptop computers built-in speaker as well.

I would guess that you're probably not an audiophile if you just realized internal speakers on any portable device suck compared to using headphones, a speaker dock, or a wired home stereo system. I hate to break it to you, but all built-in speakers on everything you own are massively crappy by your logic.

I would try and be honest with my views on these things and no beat around the bush, but come on, be honest, the iPad speaker is very poor indeed.

It may be good for the size it is, but saying something like this 1" speaker is good for a 1" speaker, does not negate the fact that a 1" speaker is still a very poor speaker. I use that as a general example as opposed to the size/shape of the iPad speaker.

I would guess that any transistor radio over the last 40 years probably has better sound than the iPad, again that's not saying the iPad is bad for getting some sound out of a tiny device, but it's still poor.

It's common sense that there should really be two speakers, as you have 2 ears, unless you were born with one or have had a tragic accident in the past, and also that the speaker should be on the front of any device facing your ears.

I accept technically that would mean some design change, however, that does not make it wrong to say this.

One tiny mono sound output facing sideways, away from your ears is poor, end of. No matter how you wish to dress it up. It's poor.
Yes, you may it's good enough for what it needs to be in your opinion, or not bad considering the size of it, but neither or those points makes it any less poor.

Sorry if that upsets anyone me saying this, but then I have to be honest.

Note: I would say this about ANY device, I've no axe to grind against the iPad, There is every chance the Motorola Xoom's speaker/s will be just as bad, as I've not heard them yet, I cannot say. I did see one tablet, I believe from Creative which had front facing speakers. Seeing as Creative are generally deemed as "into sound" I might expect they would put more effort into a tablet with better sound than others may deliver.

 

[Uofmtiger]

Have you considered an Airplay device like the Appletv2 or an Airport Express? From what I have read, blutooth will compress the audio. ( do not go this route for gaming, there is a delay)

I do like the cheap blutooth device above that sends the signal out to a receiver, though. I am going to pick one up for my bathroom/Tivoli Pal setup. I have a cheap Motorolla bluttooth speaker and it isn't loud enough to hear in the shower. I don't need ultimate sound quality in this setup. It might come in handy on vacations, too. Thanks for the link!

 

[Piggie]

Have you considered an Airplay device like the Appletv2 or an Airport Express? From what I have read, blutooth will compress the audio.

I do like the cheap blutooth device above that sends the signal out to a receiver, though. I am going to pick one up for my bathroom/Tivoli Pal setup. I have a cheap Motorolla bluttooth speaker and it isn't loud enough to hear in the shower. I don't need ultimate sound quality in this setup. It might come in handy on vacations, too. Thanks for the link!

Thanks, yes, I have read things about Bluetooth compression, but then I've also googled around and seen articles about Bluetooth massive CD quality improvements, with articles dated 2007, so I'm guessing these improvements have happened now.

I would like to know the answer as I don't really want to spend £60 / $100 and then find out I'm disappointed with the audio quality over bluetooth

Apple TV2 would be an option, but I thought it was just really am iTunes extension and I don't wish to need my computer on.

If the Apple TV can pick up a signal from an iPad and output all iPad audio into a sound amp connected to the iPad2, I may well buy an AppleTV2

Perhaps someone can clarify this please?

Again, would an Airport express play game music and sound effects to an Amp when connected to an iPad with no computer being turned on?

Thanks

 

[Uofmtiger]

Again, would an Airport express play game music and sound effects to an Amp when connected to an iPad with no computer being turned on?

There are two ways to stream.
(do not go this route for gaming, there is a delay)
One way is streaming you iTunes library fom a computer. Obviously, you need a computer on to do this.

The second way is to stream from the iPad. You do not need a computer on to do this. You just need to be on the same network.

I would be interested in hearing about a blutooth device that doesn't compress a signal to a lossy format. I read about a device that was supposed to be coming, but I haven't researched to find out if such a product is on the market.

 

[Piggie]

There are two ways to stream. One way is streaming you iTunes library fom a computer. Obviously, you need a computer on to do this.

The second way is to stream from the iPad. You do not need a computer on to do this. You just need to be on the same network.

I would be interested in hearing about a blutooth device that doesn't compress a signal to a lossy format. I read about a device that was supposed to be coming, but I haven't researched to find out if such a product is on the market.

Like you I also would like to know about current BlueTooth quality.

Esp the link I posted to the QED device:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/QED-uPLAY-W...0OF2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1296321565&sr=8-1

Which says: uPlay uses the very latest BlueCore 5 Bluetooth and apt-X audio encoding technology

I don't know if the iPad supports this new standard? Someone must know?

Also here: http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/New-Products/QED-Live-uPlay-Bluetooth-Receiver.html

Note: Remember I want games to play their music and sound effects to my external speakers and iTunes is not going to do that is it?

 

[Uofmtiger]

Note: Remember I want games to play their music and sound effects to my external speakers and iTunes is not going to do that is it?

I have airplay devices (see my sig). Every iPad app with audio that I have tested will send the audio stream from the iPad to the airplay device.( do not go this route for gaming, there is a delay)

Airplay does not need iTunes or a computer on to work. It will work directly from the app. The iPad will give you a choice in the volume setting of whether you want the audio to be sent to the iPad or to an airplay device.

 

[Piggie]

I have airplay devices (see my sig). Every iPad app with audio that I have tested will send the audio stream from the iPad to the airplay device.

Airplay does not need iTunes or a computer on to work. It will work directly from the app. The iPad will give you a choice in the volume setting of whether you want the audio to be sent to the iPad or to an airplay device.

Thanks.

So all I need is my iPad, an amp/speaker with a line in socket and this:

http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MB321B/A/AirPort-Express-AirTunes

And all audio (music, movies, games etc) from my iPad will play on my amp/speakers, with no sound coming from the iPad's built in speaker?

All being transmitted via wifi from my iPad to this Airport box?

 

[Uofmtiger]

Thanks.

So all I need is my iPad, an amp/speaker with a line in socket and this:

http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MB321B/A/AirPort-Express-AirTunes

And all audio (music, movies, games etc) from my iPad will play on my amp/speakers, with no sound coming from the iPad's built in speaker?

All being transmitted via wifi from my iPad to this Airport box?

That pretty much sums it up. I am not guaranteeing that it works with every app...however, it has worked with every app that I have tried. (do not go this route for gaming, there is a delay)

The added benefit of the airport express is that it will also send out a digital optical signal if you have a receiver/DAC with a digital input. You just need an optical to mini adapter.

Here is more about airplay on the iPad:

http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/airplay.html

 

[Piggie]

That pretty much sums it up. I am not guaranteeing that it works with every app...however, it has worked with every app that I have tried.

The added benefit of the airport express is that it will also send out a digital optical signal if you have a receiver/DAC with a digital input. You just need an optical to mini adapter.

Here is more about airplay on the iPad:

http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/airplay.html

Thanks, I'll look into this as this seems the better option for Apple products.

Only one final query, as it's nicer asking someone who's actually using it.

Given that my iPad, like most other people's is connected to my secure WiFi router in my home to give me online access.

Can the iPad as the same time as it's connected to my router, also connect to the Airplay, which is also, I believe, WiFi, or do you have to turn one off/switch between them?

Thanks

 

[jonhcox]

Can't help you with 1&3 -- we bought the Bose Sounddock before we got the iPad (for use with our iPods), and when the iPad came out, we just added the Bluetooth receiver. So we never did much research on Bluetooth receivers for existing speakers.

As for directing sound from the iPad to Bluetooth, first you pair the iPad with Bluetooth from Settings > General > Bluetooth. Once you pair the iPad with a Bluetooth receiver, if you are on 4.2.1 or above, you get the AirPlay icon anywhere you have sound settings, and you can switch between Bluetooth and iPad speakers on the fly. Like I said before, it's pretty simple and easy to use.

I like the idea of that setup, especially as I have a Sounddock. Which Bluetooth receiver did you get? Exactly what I am looking for.
-Thanks

 

[gatearray]

Thanks.

So all I need is my iPad, an amp/speaker with a line in socket and this:

http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MB321B/A/AirPort-Express-AirTunes

And all audio (music, movies, games etc) from my iPad will play on my amp/speakers, with no sound coming from the iPad's built in speaker?

All being transmitted via wifi from my iPad to this Airport box?

Airplay is not appropriate for games, actually. There is a delay of 2 seconds or so on the sound, so all game sounds will not be in sync with what you see on your screen.

This is the case with music and piano apps, too. Their sound can be sent over wifi to the AE but what you play on the keys in realtime is only heard a couple seconds later.

Bluetooth is your best option for realtime wireless sound in games, but the headphone out is by far the best option sonically.

 

[Piggie]

Airplay is not appropriate for games, actually. There is a delay of 2 seconds or so on the sound, so all game sounds will not be in sync with what you see on your screen.

This is the case with music and piano apps, too. Their sound can be sent over wifi to the AE but what you play on the keys in realtime is only heard a couple seconds later.

Bluetooth is your best option for realtime wireless sound in games, but the headphone out is by far the best option sonically.

OMG.......... I'm so glad you posted this.

I was looking very seriously at getting an Airport Express as it sounded exactly what I was after and answered all my problems.

As you say, yes, 2 seconds is totally hopeless for games. For music playback, yeah, no problem, but games..... Worthless.

Phew, that was a close call !!

So Bluetooth is poor quality you reckon, so in reality I'm stuck with a wired connection to the headphone socket for best quality really?

With Airport if I wanted to use it for music playback around the house?

 

[bigp2]

Like you I also would like to know about current BlueTooth quality.

Esp the link I posted to the QED device:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/QED-uPLAY-W...0OF2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1296321565&sr=8-1

Which says: uPlay uses the very latest BlueCore 5 Bluetooth and apt-X audio encoding technology

I don't know if the iPad supports this new standard? Someone must know?

Also here: http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/New-Products/QED-Live-uPlay-Bluetooth-Receiver.html

Note: Remember I want games to play their music and sound effects to my external speakers and iTunes is not going to do that is it?

The iPad doesn't support apt-X currently, but you can buy an iPad dongle from Sennheiser or Ceative that have apt-X.
Alternatively you can just use the built-in Bluetooth to connect to the uPlay using the default codec. You should get around 10m range with the Bluetooth. Maybe a little more in open space.

Phil

 

[Piggie]

The iPad doesn't support apt-X currently, but you can buy an iPad dongle from Sennheiser or Ceative that have apt-X.
Alternatively you can just use the built-in Bluetooth to connect to the uPlay using the default codec. You should get around 10m range with the Bluetooth. Maybe a little more in open space.

Phil

Thanks.

Yes, 10m would do for my needs at the moment, just in my main room.
I must admit, I would like to know how bad stereo sound is via Bluetooth before spending out around $90

 

[Stetrain]

Thanks.

Yes, 10m would do for my needs at the moment, just in my main room.
I must admit, I would like to know how bad stereo sound is via Bluetooth before spending out around $90

I use a set of Bluetooth stereo headphones (sennheiser px210bt) and even though I don't use the apt-x codec (just plain A2DP) they sound just fine. I use them with my laptop, desktop, and iPhone and get nice stereo sound. If you're a true audiophile then you will probably notice compression, but it should for sure be a far step up from your internal iPad speaker.