Should I buy AirPort Express ? Or the Belkin Soundform Connect Airplay-2 Adapter ?

[marcusalwayswins]

Hi Guys,

I wanted to ask you guys I have a JBL Soundbar Airplay Speaker but it only uses Airplay-1 and and I also have the HomePods paired in Stereo which I a lot of times use it with my Apple TV, now the problem here despite having 3 Airplay Speakers I can only either use the JBL Airplay speaker separately or Play the HomePods as my TV Speakers but I cannot play all of them at he same time as the HomePods are Airplay-2 enabled speakers and my JBL is Airplay-1.

So I wanted to ask you in today’s time where the Airport Express has long been discontinued and the Belkin Soundform Connect Airplay-2 Adapter is a much recent technological invention and production. Does it now make sense to buy Airport Express ? which has been Discontinued for so many years now and invest in an old technology ? or should I buy and does it make sense to buy the recent generation, current technology Belkin Soundform Connect Airplay-2 Adapter. I am sure some would say both work, but I am saying in terms of Support, Longevity and Technical Support stand Point what does it make sense ? To go for AirPort Express or the Belkin Soundform Connect Airplay-2 Adapter ?

Please advise ?

TIA

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Maybe retire/sell/give away the JBL and buy yourself a more modern Airplay speaker or soundbar?

If as soundbar, it is mostly for watching video, can you wire it instead of leaning on Airplay? Maybe AppleTV to soundbar to TV or AppleTV to TV to soundbar (effectively bypassing the use of Airplay)? If so, you could Airplay 2 to AppleTV and have that output play on it via the wired connection. This would be in the ballpark of using AppleTV like that Belkin or Airport Express.

 

[marcusalwayswins]

Maybe retire/sell/give away the JBL and buy yourself a more modern Airplay speaker or soundbar?

If as soundbar, it is mostly for watching video, can you wire it instead of leaning on Airplay? Maybe AppleTV to soundbar to TV or AppleTV to TV to soundbar (effectively bypassing the use of Airplay)? If so, you could Airplay 2 to AppleTV and have that output play on it via the wired connection. This would be in the ballpark of using AppleTV like that Belkin or Airport Express.

Sorry didn't understand your second Paragraph!!

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

If the Soundbar is mostly used for video from AppleTV, consider wiring it ((a wired connection from) AppleTV to Soundbar OR (wired from) TV to Soundbar) to bypass the Airplay 1 use completely. Then AppleTV can function like the Belkin or Airport Express options when you want to use Airplay 2 (to AppleTV) and play the audio on the (now) wired soundbar.

For example, for simply:

• watching video on AppleTV, a wired connection should push any audio to the soundbar- either directly or first to TV and then TV to soundbar. Tip: if your soundbar has HDMI IN and OUT, you can wire AppleTV to Soundbar (HDMI) so that you could listen to music without needing the TV to be turned on (soundbar HDMI OUT would then connect to TV for when you want to watch video).
• music listening on soundbar, connect via airplay 2 to AppleTV and the wired connection to soundbar should play the music on soundbar.

What I don't know is if Airplaying to AppleTV to play on a wired soundbar can work at the same time and air playing FROM AppleTV to your HPs too. For that you would simply have to try and see... if one of your goals here is to play music on all 3 at the same time.

One other thing: as you complicate your audio system around your AppleTV, you might want to think a little bigger and go the traditional receiver + "dumb" speakers route... for potentially a full 5.1, 7.1 or ATMOS setup. Many modern Receivers can handle airplay 2 just fine- I use it frequently myself- and then you can have true left & right stereo, a dedicated center speaker and some surround speakers... plus optionally a subwoofer too. If so, repurpose the HPs perhaps for other rooms and maybe retire/sell/give away the JBL.

HPs will probably NEVER be more than stereo speakers (no rumors at all for anything more than that) and them plus a soundbar is redundant, since the soundbar is duplicating the left & right stereo job presumably done by the HPs as is. You might want to get a good receiver as your central AV "hub" and get yourself some great speakers to start, then build out as you are able. Connect AppleTV HDMI to Receiver and then you can Airplay either to AppleTV or Receiver to play anything you can airplay on those speakers. A receiver-based setup would also support all other sources you might have/add (game boxes? blu ray? satt/cable? etc.) too.

 

[The Man]

Hi Guys,

I wanted to ask you guys I have a JBL Soundbar Airplay Speaker but it only uses Airplay-1 and and I also have the HomePods paired in Stereo which I a lot of times use it with my Apple TV, now the problem here despite having 3 Airplay Speakers I can only either use the JBL Airplay speaker separately or Play the HomePods as my TV Speakers but I cannot play all of them at he same time as the HomePods are Airplay-2 enabled speakers and my JBL is Airplay-1.

So I wanted to ask you in today’s time where the Airport Express has long been discontinued and the Belkin Soundform Connect Airplay-2 Adapter is a much recent technological invention and production. Does it now make sense to buy Airport Express ? which has been Discontinued for so many years now and invest in an old technology ? or should I buy and does it make sense to buy the recent generation, current technology Belkin Soundform Connect Airplay-2 Adapter. I am sure some would say both work, but I am saying in terms of Support, Longevity and Technical Support stand Point what does it make sense ? To go for AirPort Express or the Belkin Soundform Connect Airplay-2 Adapter ?

Please advise ?

TIA

I have bought multiple Airport Express 2nd gen because it is cheap. Setting it up is still supported on iOS and Mac Ventura I believe, but for how long who knows? Some say the Belkin output is not so great. And you need the Belkin app to set it up. How long will Belkin support it? I don't trust electronics that need an app to set up, as these things will soon become useless when apps are not updated. Apple Airport has worked well over the years. Don't know if I trust Belkin to be pain free setup and to be reliable.

 

[The Man]

I know Apple support for the Airport will eventually stop. Will you not be able to set up an Airport in the future iOS and Mac OS? It would be a harsh thing to do by Apple, but we're talking about Apple. Anyway, for now I'm good with having a reliable Apple product, even if it is second hand.

 

[marcusalwayswins]

If the Soundbar is mostly used for video from AppleTV, consider wiring it ((a wired connection from) AppleTV to Soundbar OR (wired from) TV to Soundbar) to bypass the Airplay 1 use completely. Then AppleTV can function like the Belkin or Airport Express options when you want to use Airplay 2 (to AppleTV) and play the audio on the (now) wired soundbar.

For example, for simply:

• watching video on AppleTV, a wired connection should push any audio to the soundbar- either directly or first to TV and then TV to soundbar. Tip: if your soundbar has HDMI IN and OUT, you can wire AppleTV to Soundbar (HDMI) so that you could listen to music without needing the TV to be turned on (soundbar HDMI OUT would then connect to TV for when you want to watch video)

Sorry took sometime to understand this. So you are saying if I have a wired connection going from the Soundbar to Appe TV Maybe all three speaker will play at the same time..But my soundbar only has a 3.5MM Jack Aux in Port. I don't know where can I connect that in Apple TV ? And the soundbar also has a USB port so I don't know if I can make any use of it this way.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Actually, with this info, it sounds like the Soundbar is just OLD... probably needs to be retired/repurposed.

Modern soundbar will have HDMI IN and that would give you the direct connection (AppleTV HDMI to Soundbar (to TV) or AppleTV HDMI to TV and TV "arc" jack to Soundbar).

But the bigger point is that you are trying to force a lot of things to work wirelessly together that are really not meant for that. In my own case, I go the traditional way: RECEIVER

• AppleTV HDMI out to Receiver
• Receiver HDMI out to TV
• Receiver powers "dumb" speakers and that gets me full surround sound.
• When I want, I can Airplay from Mac or iDevices to AppleTV or to Receiver for music listening.
• If I had HPs, I'd use them in other rooms for more of their primary purpose (music listening).

As is, perhaps retire the soundbar and just use the HPs. OR use the soundbar for television watching and HPs for music.

But, to try to get more than 2 speakers for video-viewing purposes going with Airplay, you are going to find it much easier- and better- to consider the receiver-based approach.

As is, you have redundancy. Soundbar is attempting to play left & right (and probably center channel) and HPs are also attempting to play left & right. There's probably no option to configure that soundbar as center channel only and that's what I meant by "complicating" your setup for video-watching purposes.

When someone wants better than stereo for video watching, the receiver-based approach is best option. It leans on "dumb" speakers and some receivers could put upwards of 11 speakers all around you with 1 or 2 subwoofers too (if desired). That can make the audio of video be heard as intended in full surround or ATMOS vs. faking it with soundbars and/or HPs, generally limited to stereo at best.

If you really want all wireless and you really want more than 2 speakers, consider the Sonos offerings over HPs. Sonos has plenty of options for setting up wireless surround sound systems with subwoofer. Sonos has surround sound all worked out in their software as opposed to HPs which are entirely focused on stereo at best (with not even a rumor that Apple is working on adding anything more in that direction).

I hope this is helpful. You can get what you appear to want- you just need to go at it differently. HPs are great for what they are- stereo speakers. If stereo is good enough for you, retire the soundbar and enjoy your video viewing in HP stereo. If the reason you want to get BOTH going together is that stereo is not good enough for you, you appear to be ready for traditional stereo + center channel speakers at a minimum. Receiver will make that easy and any mix of wired speakers will be much more in sync than wireless options. At any time, add a few rear speakers for true surround sound. At any time, add a sub for bass beyond anything you can get out of HPs or the soundbar.

Whether you built it out slow or all at once, the receiver approach will resolve the issue in a very complete way and give you fantastic audio for video purposes and for music listening purposes too. It will also work with everything instead of being limited to "walled garden" options. Anything that can show video and/or play audio could be hooked in and also play (correctly) on the receiver-connected speakers.

 

[marcusalwayswins]

Actually, with this info, it sounds like the Soundbar is just OLD... probably needs to be retired/repurposed.

Modern soundbar will have HDMI IN and that would give you the direct connection (AppleTV HDMI to Soundbar (to TV) or AppleTV HDMI to TV and TV "arc" jack to Soundbar).

But the bigger point is that you are trying to force a lot of things to work wirelessly together that are really not meant for that. In my own case, I go the traditional way: RECEIVER

• AppleTV HDMI out to Receiver
• Receiver HDMI out to TV
• Receiver powers "dumb" speakers and that gets me full surround sound.
• When I want, I can Airplay from Mac or iDevices to AppleTV or to Receiver for music listening.
• If I had HPs, I'd use them in other rooms for more of their primary purpose (music listening).

As is, perhaps retire the soundbar and just use the HPs. OR use the soundbar for television watching and HPs for music.

But, to try to get more than 2 speakers for video-viewing purposes going with Airplay, you are going to find it much easier- and better- to consider the receiver-based approach.

As is, you have redundancy. Soundbar is attempting to play left & right (and probably center channel) and HPs are also attempting to play left & right. There's probably no option to configure that soundbar as center channel only and that's what I meant by "complicating" your setup for video-watching purposes.

When someone wants better than stereo for video watching, the receiver-based approach is best option. It leans on "dumb" speakers and some receivers could put upwards of 11 speakers all around you with 1 or 2 subwoofers too (if desired). That can make the audio of video be heard as intended in full surround or ATMOS vs. faking it with soundbars and/or HPs, generally limited to stereo at best.

If you really want all wireless and you really want more than 2 speakers, consider the Sonos offerings over HPs. Sonos has plenty of options for setting up wireless surround sound systems with subwoofer. Sonos has surround sound all worked out in their software as opposed to HPs which are entirely focused on stereo at best (with not even a rumor that Apple is working on adding anything more in that direction).

I hope this is helpful. You can get what you appear to want- you just need to go at it differently. HPs are great for what they are- stereo speakers. If stereo is good enough for you, retire the soundbar and enjoy your video viewing in HP stereo. If the reason you want to get BOTH going together is that stereo is not good enough for you, you appear to be ready for traditional stereo + center channel speakers at a minimum. Receiver will make that easy and any mix of wired speakers will be much more in sync than wireless options. At any time, add a few rear speakers for true surround sound. At any time, add a sub for bass beyond anything you can get out of HPs or the soundbar.

Whether you built it out slow or all at once, the receiver approach will resolve the issue in a very complete way and give you fantastic audio for video purposes and for music listening purposes too. It will also work with everything instead of being limited to "walled garden" options. Anything that can show video and/or play audio could be hooked in and also play (correctly) on the receiver-connected speakers.

But if I have an Airport Express all of these Hick Ups will be overcomed and all 3 will play altogether right ?

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

If Apple has Airplay 1 and Airplay 2 set up to work well together so that they will sync audio. That soundbar needing Airplay 1 may be the problem. Apple may be the problem by not making 1 & 2 sync as if everything is Airplay 2. AppleTV may be a problem by favoring the current Airplay standard vs. the old one and/or maybe it doesn't want to "throw" audio to both Airplay 1 & 2 and/or do so in perfect sync.

There's LOTS of variables in play here. You can try it and see what happens. That may be the only way to know.

If it doesn't work, you can replace the soundbar with a newer one and move the Express or Belkin plus old soundbar to another room to perhaps use as a music player in there.

 

[marcusalwayswins]

If Apple has Airplay 1 and Airplay 2 set up to work well together so that they will sync audio. That soundbar needing Airplay 1 may be the problem. Apple may be the problem by not making 1 & 2 sync as if everything is Airplay 2. AppleTV may be a problem by favoring the current Airplay standard vs. the old one and/or maybe it doesn't want to "throw" audio to both Airplay 1 & 2 and/or do so in perfect sync.

There's LOTS of variables in play here. You can try it and see what happens. That may be the only way to know.

If it doesn't work, you can replace the soundbar with a newer one and move the Express or Belkin plus old soundbar to another room to perhaps use as a music player in there.

You keep saying Replace Soundbar ! agree that is the option, but I am not looking at that option as of now. Because that soundbar is amazing for its sound. I have been told and so I was confirming here if I have an Aiport Express connected with a AUX In cable with the soundbar it would also convert the Airplay-1 Soundbar into Airplay-2. Simple no need for any further complications and head breaking.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I don't think anyone will likely be able to confirm your core question. Buy the Belkin or Express to find out yourself.

I'm suspicious of the many variables: will AppleTV be able to "throw" synched audio to both Airplay 2 and Airplay 1 devices at the same time? Will Airplay 1 and 2 be able to work together like that? Will audio sent via wire from Express be in sync with the same audio thrown to HPs via Airplay 2? etc.

Someone may chime in here eventually with a confident answer because they've done the same. But if you are looking for quick answer, you probably should just buy the device and see. If it works, great. If it doesn't, then you don't have to feel like you wasted money as the device + that soundbar could potentially be repurposed if you decide at any point you would want to get everything on Airplay 2 level.

Express is an old, discontinued device from Apple. Perhaps buy the Belkin for this test from somewhere you could return it if it doesn't work?

I fully get wanting to cling to old hardware that still performs well. Apple just generally doesn't support that want for very long. Even HP 1 can't stereo sync with HP 2 and that's only a a few years old product.

When it comes to speakers, speaker life can be 10-20 or more years. Apple doesn't seem to want 10-20 year useful life anything. They want us to replace-repace-replace. That's a core concept in the argument against "smart" speakers and in favor of "dumb" ones. You are bumping into a complication of leaning on smart and wireless technology issues right now. You MIGHT be able to get it to work as you want but the shortcut to knowing is probably just buying the supporting device and trying.

Else, live with it for a while and maybe someone will show up in this thread with the same setup and confidently confirm or refute the concept.

 

[212rikanmofo]

I just bought the Belkin sound form and it works perfectly with my setup. I use it to hook it up to my subwoofer and it requires no app whatsoever. Works great!