Video: Belkin's Soundform Connect Adds AirPlay 2 to Your Existing Speakers

[MacGekko]

Sounds like an expensive solution. For $99 you could get a Raspberry Pi that will do the exact same thing. Or as others have said, grab a used AirPort Express.

Do you have a Raspberry Pi setup? I've been trying to utilize Spotify in my system, an Iphone SE sounds OK, even with the Lightning to 3.5mm Apple cheap DAC, the improvement is marginal, an Apple TV is worse sounding, and internet radio stations sound horrible on the Apple TV. However the audio quality through my mid-2015 Macbook Pro, a simple 3.5mm to RCA jack connection, Spotify through the Chrome web browser, the sound quality is great, a noticeable improvement over the Iphone SE first generation, problem is I'd like to replicate that sound quality without having the need to turn on the Macbook Pro.

Seems like a Raspberry Pi 4 with a HiFiBerry Dac 2 HD could be one solution, if you or others can chime in on this or other options, it would be appreciated, thank you.

 

[eas]

Community has found that real bit perfect 16/44 play is only guaranteed pn airplay 1. Because Airplay 2 is capable of AAC, iOS and MacOS sometimes convert it to lossy.

AudiophileStyle article on this mess.

True when playing back lossless from Apple Music. Not an issue when playing local ALACs you ripped yourself.

 

[JustDacs]

That is very true. So are you suggesting that anything bearing the Airplay 2 name would have to be at least capable even if it’s not enabled?

Capable of what?

 

[JustDacs]

Do you have a Raspberry Pi setup? I've been trying to utilize Spotify in my system, an Iphone SE sounds OK, even with the Lightning to 3.5mm Apple cheap DAC, the improvement is marginal, an Apple TV is worse sounding, and internet radio stations sound horrible on the Apple TV. However the audio quality through my mid-2015 Macbook Pro, a simple 3.5mm to RCA jack connection, Spotify through the Chrome web browser, the sound quality is great, a noticeable improvement over the Iphone SE first generation, problem is I'd like to replicate that sound quality without having the need to turn on the Macbook Pro.

Seems like a Raspberry Pi 4 with a HiFiBerry Dac 2 HD could be one solution, if you or others can chime in on this or other options, it would be appreciated, thank you.

Can’t get Apple Music hi-res from a Pi. You need the Apple usb cable and then connect an external DAC to your iPhone. Will sound wonderful.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Another option is going on ebay and grabbing an Airport Express for $10, which surprisingly works perfectly well. ...though the big olde-timey round brick is limited to Airplay 1.

 

[Uofmtiger]

I got one of these for testing purposes. The main issue I ran into is that Siri doesn’t see it. If I say “Siri play Beatles on Belkin“ (using either an iPhone or HomePod) it says it can’t find a speaker by that name. I have to pair it with another device that can be controlled by Siri then tell Siri to control that device and it works. Not ideal since the old Airport Express that was updated to Airplay 2 and my Denon receiver can both be controlled independently with Siri. I am hoping for an update to fix the issue. Other than that it works as expected.

I am hoping that the lossless issues get resolved when they update the HomePod, but I guess we will wait and see. Until then, I will mainly be using it with Qobuz. I look forward to the day Apple gets all their lossless issues resolved with Airplay 2.

 

[Kaptajn Haddock]

Or, you could buy a cheap used 2nd gen Airport Express, which does exactly the same. Even has Airplay 2.

 

[cupcakes2000]

Could do with the equivalent for printers.

 

[MyAppleWorld]

Apple needs to update the AirPlay protocol to support higher than 16bit/44.1kHz now that they’ve introduced high-res lossless.

If you airplay music from a phone to HomePod, does that mean then that you only get 16bit 44.1 too?

 

[MyAppleWorld]

Would there be sound delays due to the speaker hardware if playing to multiple ap2 destinations?

 

[MacGekko]

Can’t get Apple Music hi-res from a Pi. You need the Apple usb cable and then connect an external DAC to your iPhone. Will sound wonderful.

I think you mean you need the Iphone Lightning to USB Camera 3 adapter but in any case I don't care about Apple Music, they throw too many options at you, it seems to be more about promoting their stations and playlists I don't care about, Spotify has been near perfect in offering recommended music, and if you want near perfect choices for an artist only station, Pandora is better than Apple Music in that regard as well.

Anyway which DAC do you use?

 

[Philberttheduck]

Sounds like an expensive solution. For $99 you could get a Raspberry Pi that will do the exact same thing. Or as others have said, grab a used AirPort Express.

What raspberry pi does AirPlay 2? Can it also be a Bluetooth receiver because I’m seriously interested

 

[page3]

Such a simple and brilliant idea. Reminds me of the ChromeCast Audio which was Google’s short-lived version of this. Good to see something similar in the Apple ecosystem.

Chromecast Audio was a brilliant device and one I still use daily.

So much better than Airplay as it frees up the source device and playback is at full quality.

 

[JustDacs]

I think you mean you need the Iphone Lightning to USB Camera 3 adapter but in any case I don't care about Apple Music, they throw too many options at you, it seems to be more about promoting their stations and playlists I don't care about, Spotify has been near perfect in offering recommended music, and if you want near perfect choices for an artist only station, Pandora is better than Apple Music in that regard as well.

Anyway which DAC do you use?

Yes any hi-red, not just Apple Music. And yes that’s the cable I was referring to. I use a topping. Various ones. D50s is great for the money.

 

[symphony1010]

idea is nice...price is not.

at first I was thinking I could use this for my portable speaker.....saw the price. NOPE. I can just get a HomePodMini.
The idea to have it playing music outside and inside would be nice but not at that price.

oh well, for Hal the price I might be interested.

BUT, if you have really high-end speakers and want to connect to a system of AirPlay speakers you already have or just connect for the first time into AirPlay then I can see the price not being a big deterrent.

Perhaps you would prefer the next price point for such devices? https://www.bluesound.com/products/node/
There are devices incorporating AirPlay priced above that but, really, for what it does the Belkin is priced quite reasonably.

 

[joecomo]

The Pi emulates Airplay 2? Hows that one work?

ist doesn’t - but might in the not so far away future

 

[joecomo]

no ethernet, no POE - no buy

 

[willybNL]

Just missing the speaker-out directly .

Normally, speakers need an AMP, so this isn't a "AirPlay 2 to Your Existing Speakers", it's a "AirPlay 2 to AMP/Receiver".

 

[paulryan21]

I have three of these in my house. Works really well. Half the price - https://www.amazon.com/M5-Audiocast-iHeartRadio-Supporting-Supported/dp/B06WRSXVBR

 

[Piggie]

Great product, shame it's 4 times the price it should be

Shame so many companies don't still understand if they price items for Apple equipment at the level they should be priced, them they will rule and be the default device than tens or hundreds of millions will buy, but instead get greedy because it's for an Apple product, and such devices never become a product than most people buy

 

[JustDacs]

I have three of these in my house. Works really well. Half the price - https://www.amazon.com/M5-Audiocast-iHeartRadio-Supporting-Supported/dp/B06WRSXVBR

Because it’s not airplay 2 and it doesn’t have digital out so you can use a better external DAC.

 

[MacCurry]

It doesn't look like there are many options for 24-bit/192 KHz output. Even the Andover Audio Songbird device is limited.

Songbird provides lossless decoding of music files from High-Resolution services up to 24-bit/192 kHz. In order to provide compatibility with legacy audio equipment, and to facilitate reliable multi-room streaming capability, its digital output is resampled to CD quality resolution of 16 bit/ 44.1kHz.

 

[bingeciren]

I am dearly hanging on to my second gen Airport expresses. I cannot understand why Apple kills useful products. Airport Express had Airplay with both analog and optical output and ATV3 had optical output and Apple decided to delete it on ATV4. Why?

 

[Spock]

Exactly the same thing? Really? Where is there a Rasperry Pi solution that talks to Airplay 2?

Do old Airport Express routers implement Airplay 2? Don't think so.

I was wrong about AirPlay 2 on the Pi but the last generation AirPort Express does support AirPlay 2 with the last firmware update.

 

[BuddyRich]

Really, the old Airports or ATVs with optical are better. The Airport also can be a wifi->ethernet bridge, and the ATV can play music directly from Apple/your iTunes in the cloud (or at least I'm pretty sure it does, I can never remember these things anymore).

There is no Music app on the ATV2/3, but you can use Home Sharing and files on itunes locally. The other issue is the ATV2/3 force resamples everything to 48Hz... Airplay is only 16/44 anyway but to resample 44 to 48 can be pretty bad.