1. With Airplay, can you easily adjust volumes in different zone (from your iDevice)?
2. How easy is it to group and ungroup zones? I understand it's easy for different people to play different music to different zones....but say I have all the rooms on the lower level playing my music, and my wife is in the office and wants to listen to her music in there...how easily can I drop just the office, so she can pick it up?
3. What hardware do you use to run Airplay/what kind of drop outs do you have? Like I said even in a small apt. I would get terrible dropping. I was using a flat Airport extreme and two OLD Airport expresses (I am assuming that was my dropping problem).
4. Can you input to Airplay? I have a pretty large LP collection that I can connect to my Sonos system and thus play all over the house if I want. I would hate to give that up.
5. Is there any way to make all of your Airplay devices talk to each other? For example with Sonos I start a playlist and start working on my computer. If I don't like a song I can hit the skip button my computer, OR if my wife doesn't like the song SHE can hit the skip button from her computer, phone, iPad whatever. Does Airplay have this functionality yet?
That's all I can think of for the moment. Thanks in advance.
1. There are several ways to implement Airplay, so the answer is "it depends". If you have the audio app running on a computer, and have Airfoil running, you can launch AFRemote app on iOS and control each speaker individually for volume and to turn on and off each speaker. If you don't have Airfoil running, you would need to use iTunes and Remote.
2. I don't think that Apple or Airfoil has ever seen this as a need. There aren't zones with Airplay. However, if your wife is listening with Airfoil on via a computer and you are just streaming directly from Rdio on iOS to an Airplay speaker. You would turn off Rdio (stop sending audio to the Airplay speaker) and use AFRemote to start playing her audio on the Airplay speaker in your location. Instead of using a zone, you would have a list of every Airplay receiver/speaker available and you would turn them on and off independently.
3. I have had an older Airport Extreme in the setup for years. It is now used in Bridge mode to a TP-Link Archer C5 (however, I had a Linksys AC900 prior to that and used the Airport Extreme by itself prior to that). They have all worked fine in my setup. I change out routers more often than most because I review tech, however, I was perfectly happy with the Airport Extreme.
I do have an Airport Express in a sunroom on the back of the house. I would have dropouts in that area when I was out in the backyard because I would lose contact with the wifi router in the house. I fixed that issue with a home plug (power line ethernet). It now works as good as the Airplay receivers in the house.
There are also wifi boosters that can strengthen your signal. I have tested the TP-Link RE200 AC750 and it can provide a lot more range in the home. Personally, I prefer power line ethernet in combination with the Airport Express because you can then just use the Airport Express to expand your wifi signal.
The Airport Express I use every day is in our bathroom because I stream music or podcasts to it while I am getting ready for work. It is wifi only and works without any issues even in the moist conditions of the bathroom. The sunroom Airport Express is in a room that has no heating or air conditioning, so I spent $55 on an older Airport Express rather than spending $350 on a Connect and it has worked out there for over a year without a problem.
My main system and bedroom system both have ethernet connections.
5. I believe iTunes Remote/iTunes has this capability. I mainly use Rdio and it can control what is playing on iOS or a computer running Rdio. It can skip, start a new song, etc right from the Rdio app running on any computer or iOS device. If you run Rdio on a computer with Airfoil, you can skip or switch Airplay speakers with AFRemote. I am pretty sure Spotify Connect works the same way, but I haven't tested it.
I want to mention that the type of setup you are describing where everyone listens to the same music isn't really what Airplay is for (although I have mentioned the workarounds even though I rarely use them). Airplay is more about the individual listening to their own music from their own device.
Personally, I don't want to listen to my girlfriend's music all the time. I would rather be in my office listening to the music I like and she can listen to what she wants in the living room, for example. To me, this is a better way of listening to music rather than having a song come on that I like just to have here skip the song from the other room. It is like traveling on vacation in the car where were are both locked into listening to music that overlaps both of our tastes. I would rather have complete control of what I am listening to. If I want to listen to jazz, which she doesn't like, I can, without having her change the source to something else.
If you want to continue listening to music the way you are now, I think you are better off with Sonos. It is better for one pipeline without a computer being necessary.
Like I mentioned before, there will be use cases that are better for Sonos and use cases that are better for Airplay. Personally, I have no use for Sonos with the way I listen to music, but I realize that some people have different needs.
