looking for a streamer/DAC with Airplay 2 + wifi to connect Adam active speakers

[blueone]

https://audioengineusa.com/product_tech_specs/b-fi-multiroom-music-streamer/

Note that the streaming rate is limited to 44.1/16 even when the source is hi-res.

 

[Cmbmd79]

hello,
i am looking for a reasonably priced streamer/DAC with wifi. I absolutely need Airplay 2 (being on apple ecosystem) and would have loved balanced outputs to hook it up with my to Adam active speakers. but balanced will inevitably push the price up and it is not key right now.
I am looking at:
Matrix Audio Mini-i Pro 3 but a little expensive
and:
Matrix Audio Element I ou M but I can't see anywhere if it is airplay 2

then a dumb question but if I get a streamer with a DAC, will the later take over an iPhone DAC?

thanks a lot for your inputs.

Olivier

expand...​

Hello, I built a very nice system in my home and I used Apple Airport Expresses however they since have gone out of production. I was thinking, what happens if one of my 18 multi-room zones breaks what am I going to do? Well I can go on ebay or another marketplace and find one which will work or I can find an alternative which will do the same thing.


I am running my system with the following:
3 of the Dayton Audio MA1240a Multi-Zone 12 Channel Amplifier (Gives me a total of 18 zones)
18 Apple Airport Expresses

I have iPads on the walls etc



On the windows devices I can either use Apple ITunes for Windows or a great app called Tune Blade which finds all the zones and streams from windows devices.


Outside I have Bose Speakers which comprise 6 zones and I am using
Bose Free Space 51 Outdoor In-Ground Speakers - Green

Bose 251 Environmental Outdoor Speakers - Black


Inside my home I am using a mix of the following:
Polk Audio RC60i 2-way Premium In-Ceiling 6.5" Round-Speakers, Set of 2 Perfect-for Damp-and Humid Indoor/Outdoor Placement
Polk Audio RC6s In-Ceiling 6.5" Stereo Speaker | Dual Channel from a Single Location | Perfect for Damp and Humid Indoor/Outdoor Placement - Bath, Kitchen, Covered Porches (White, Paintable Grille)

I have the following zones of audio inside and outside my home:
1. Den
2. Mudroom/Laudryroom
3. Garage
4. Dining Room
5. Living Room
6 Office
7. Guest Bedroom
8. Guest Bathroom
9. Master Bedroom
10. Master Bathroom
11. Dressing Room
12. Outdoor Kitchen
13. Patio Rear
14. Patio Front
15. East side house
16. West Side house
17. Gazebo/Pavilion

So you can imagine what would happen if one or more of my apple airport expresses broke. So I was looking for a solution and I actually tested it this past weekend. I had several goals actually. I wanted to find a way to make any speaker wireless and control through airplay2 and this would go for any speaker whether it had been powered or not because I knew I had some spots left on my amp. I began looking at many different solutions but found many of them to be very expensive such as sonos.


My current set up ran me about (with 3 amps, 17 zones) and all material about $7,020 and that is not including my racks, ubiquiti set up etc. Sonos would have been insanely expensive. I like to have events at my house and enjoy audio in my home. I did find a solution though in the event I break one of my apple airport express devices or can't find anymore. It’s actually cheaper and quite easy to use and like I said above it can be used to make any speaker wireless. Check it out here. The devices I test in this video all work on AIRPLAY 2

 

[m_g_s_g]

Also, you can probably still find the Sonos Connect Gen 2 that works with Sonos S2, but this won't have airplay.

I recently bought a used Sonos Connect (Gen 2) for a similar purpose. I tried hard for months to get used to a Raspberry pi with Volumio, but it was unreliable in my network and difficult to integrate with the HA system. Sonos being mainstream makes that very simple. When I play music, the amplifier and subwoofer are switched on (with some ambient lighting :-).

 

[Cmbmd79]

hello,
i am looking for a reasonably priced streamer/DAC with wifi. I absolutely need Airplay 2 (being on apple ecosystem) and would have loved balanced outputs to hook it up with my to Adam active speakers. but balanced will inevitably push the price up and it is not key right now.
I am looking at:
Matrix Audio Mini-i Pro 3 but a little expensive
and:
Matrix Audio Element I ou M but I can't see anywhere if it is airplay 2

then a dumb question but if I get a streamer with a DAC, will the later take over an iPhone DAC?

thanks a lot for your inputs.

Olivier

Is there any reasons you can't use this device which I show the potential it has in my video? It has Airplay 2, connects via wireless or ethernet to your network for multi-room streaming.

 

[elliott]

I'm in the same boat, and yeah, I'm just going to get another airport express. I've got one running to my minidsp using optical and that's going to my amp and even though the little puck must be 5+ years old, a recent upgrade gave it airplay 2 capabilities and it's worked without fail for at least a few months.

 

[Jungstar]

has anyone heard of the RASPDAC MINI? it has a I-Sabre ES9038Q2M DAC
https://www.audiophonics.fr/fr/lect...our-raspberry-pi-4-dac-es9038q2m-p-14577.html

I have a DAC with the Audiophonics I-Sabre ES9038Q2M DAC HAT and Rasberry Pi4. There is just no display, nor remote. I added them together with Volumio. It sounds very clean and good. But I'm no specialist. i tried both with an external power supply and with getting power from the PI. I can't hear the difference. If you are OK paying the extra 30 EUR I would buy what you link to and save the hassle of assembling it yourself.
But it is VERY GOOD
Airplay yes
Spotify yes
or you can use Volumio on your PC and stream high end music such as FLAC and DSD.

 

[Martinvb]

Hi, my experience with the recently introduced Audiophonics RaspDAC Mini LED is also quite positive. Previously, I used a RPi3 with HifiBerry Digi+ Pro with iFi 5V clean power supply. It took some fiddling around with the RaspDAC to settle with the current setup, as a standard p.s. is not capable to feed the DAC sufficiently. I now use a 5V 3A silent power adapter from Allo, which seems sufficiently stable (no more flashes indicating ‘low power’ issues). After the power swap the sound stage was a huge step forward (more detail and transparency). To test if I can pull even more out of the DAC, I have ordered a 5V 2.85A p.a. (Allo Nirvana), which will take a few weeks to arrive. The current setup is nice and clean, but the album art on the LCD is not that impressive For some reason the external miniSD card adapter does not work, so the card remains in the DAC. Very satisfied with the result. BW, Martin

Audiophonics RaspDAC Mini LCD w. Volumio
NAD D3020 amp w. 2x Kef LS50 (Meta)

 

[JeanOxidant]

I've been thinking about solving/improving the same thing too while already having a working setup.
iPhone/Mac -> Airplay over WiFi -> AirPort Express (1e Gen) -> MiniJack/RCA -> Amplifier Marantz 7005 -> Alesis Monitor One.

I don't hear a difference with CD's or this setup using the amplifiers DAC
Mac -> USB -> Amplifier Marantz 7005 -> Alesis Monitor One

( Playing quality vinyl records gives a better sound )

I was thinking of replacing the Airport express by the Sonos Port and using the Coaxial out the the amp or using it as a DAC.

1) will it make a difference or do I keep the Airport until it melts down?
2) I mainly need a device that is connected to the network (Wireless or wired ) and receives Airplay and has a coaxial out.
a) The Sonos does the trick, but aren't there any alternatives (cheaper?) with this minimal set of features?
or
b) do I have to go for a better quality DAC ( then the Airport and the one in the Marantz ) and connect that via RCA to the amp?

thanks & Cheers!

 

[AdamG]

I've been thinking about solving/improving the same thing too while already having a working setup.
iPhone/Mac -> Airplay over WiFi -> AirPort Express (1e Gen) -> MiniJack/RCA -> Amplifier Marantz 7005 -> Alesis Monitor One.

I don't hear a difference with CD's or this setup using the amplifiers DAC
Mac -> USB -> Amplifier Marantz 7005 -> Alesis Monitor One

( Playing quality vinyl records gives a better sound )

I was thinking of replacing the Airport express by the Sonos Port and using the Coaxial out the the amp or using it as a DAC.

1) will it make a difference or do I keep the Airport until it melts down?
2) I mainly need a device that is connected to the network (Wireless or wired ) and receives Airplay and has a coaxial out.
a) The Sonos does the trick, but aren't there any alternatives (cheaper?) with this minimal set of features?
or
b) do I have to go for a better quality DAC ( then the Airport and the one in the Marantz ) and connect that via RCA to the amp?

thanks & Cheers!

Welcome Aboard @JeanOxidant.

 

[Behrend]

welcome to the forum

Well it depends on what you want. The Airport also has a digital (optical) out. If you only want to use the Maratz build in DAC you can go that road.

 

[JeanOxidant]

welcome to the forum

Well it depends on what you want. The Airport also has a digital (optical) out. If you only want to use the Maratz build in DAC you can go that road.

unfortunately it hasn't (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AirPort_Express) .
I've tried with an AppleTV (3rd Gen) optical out to the DAC of the Marantz but it gives a nasty tick.
It doesn't have this when contenting my tv to the amp so I suppose it will be some clocking issue with the AppleTV (?) .
When I connect he AppleTV to my TV and go analog from the TV to the amp ... same tick

now for the question, do I want to go that road?
I don't hear any difference between the Airport DAC and the Marantz, or they are both same quality (good/bad) or it's me
another option could be using another DAC and connecting analog to the amp.

 

[Behrend]

The wiki artical you attached clearly says, that all Airport Express have an optical output. It doesn’t have the usual Toslink connector but a 3,5mm Socket for the diode
With a Toslink to 3,5mm Jack Adapter you can attach your amp to the Express

Edit: The Airport is actually really capable as measured here by
https://kenrockwell.com/apple/airport-express.htm#perf
But some firmwares create issues like ticking or distortions. Up/downgrading to a specific version can help
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/airport-express-firmware-update-terrible.2134953/

 

[josephlau]

I am using this system.

From Apple TV 4K, through Airplay to the Airport Express (v7.6.9) which is connected to the unbalanced input of the Studio Monitor (Mackie MR524).

You don’t need a pre-amp for volume control as Airplay support it which can be done by the Siri Remote or iPhone or even Apple Watch. The sound quality of Airplay won’t be changed by volume as it is streaming in full volume.

In you like, you can use iPhone with a USB Audio Interface which connected to T5V, you can streaming from iPhone via Apple USB dongle to the Audio Interface (I am using Motu M4) and then you can remote control its volume and choice of music by Apple Watch.
If you have spare iPad Pro, you can connect it to the USB-C interface of the Motu without the stupid USB Dongle. That‘s the setup I am using for audio recording and editing.

 

[Jhify]

I was looking for the same thing as I like to keep software separate from amp and speakers and prefer active speaker. To me, the major plus of airplay2 is to control volume remotly with an "always on" device you can forget about. Balanced output is a must have as rcas over 5+ meters long will most likely pick up interferences from all the electronics I have in the room.
Seems like the only two option on the market right now are NAD C658 and CAMBRIDGE CXN V2. Both seems utterly expensive for a device I want to hide in a closet and never interact with.
Marantz nr1200 could be an option but I'd rather have active speakers.
There'll probably be more options in a couple of years I guess I just have to be patient but if there's anything else I missed out feel free to give any inputs.

 

[sammywez]

Hey guys chiming into this thread... Ive been looking at this same challenge myself.

Looking to push via airplay (apple music) to my powered speakers (Adam T7Vs).

Current thinking is using the Belkin SoundForm Connect into a DAC. (https://www.belkin.com/us/speakers-...nect-audio-adapter-with-airplay-2/p/p-auz002/).

Has anyone tried this? Looking like it would work well with digital out into an external DAC.

Phone/Macbook Airplay 2 > Belkin SoundForm Connect > Toslink > Schiit Modius > Balanced XLR > Adam T7V monitors

Seems like the best solution for around $500AUD (or $300USD). Thoughts?

Will put to the side that nagging desire for his-res lossless capability.... oh why Apple have you released 24bit without upgrading airplay

 

[elliott]

From the link, looks like it's 100USD. I looked at this a little while ago as it's kind of the only game in town. I ended up getting an old airport express for 35 dollars on ebay.

 

[Phorize]

hello,
i am looking for a reasonably priced streamer/DAC with wifi. I absolutely need Airplay 2 (being on apple ecosystem) and would have loved balanced outputs to hook it up with my to Adam active speakers. but balanced will inevitably push the price up and it is not key right now.
I am looking at:
Matrix Audio Mini-i Pro 3 but a little expensive
and:
Matrix Audio Element I ou M but I can't see anywhere if it is airplay 2

then a dumb question but if I get a streamer with a DAC, will the later take over an iPhone DAC?

thanks a lot for your inputs.

Olivier

It only supports airplay one via shairport and has single ended outputs but this is very keenly priced, well engineered and measured very well:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/allo-boss2-review-stereo-streamer.22916/

Comes with pre-installed moode audio or diet pi.

Airplay 2 support is working in the development version of shairport. I’d expect this to be working well fairly soon and integrated into moode audio at some point:

http://moodeaudio.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=1954&highlight=Airplay+2

 

[Snoopy]

Cambridge cxn V2.

You get a display.
Digital pre-amp.
Multiple inputs and outputs.
XLR and RCA out.

A digital output in case you want to use a external DAC

Chromecast, AirPlay 2, QOBUZ, tidal, Spotify connect.

Support for usb sticks, NAS drives.

12 volt trigger in and out.
A fancy remote control.
Streammagic app that works with Android and Apple.
Also Roon support.

 

[Foulchet]

It seems that it hard to find consumer-ready Airplay 2 streamers, especially small ones (there are HEOS amps etc., my NR1200 has it, with it but thay are full-size streamers). This restricted choice made me choose the Belkin Soundform connect (which i did not purchase from now but in a close future) also, I will plug it to my DAC with an optical connection. I prefer having this flexibility than buying an all-in-one solution even if it seems overpriced (sometimes I prefer investing on overpriced gear with the form factor and precise function i want instead of looking for best value solutions). Airport express seems better but I cannot find one even used in France or overpriced.

 

[ianh]

The AirPort Express has audible click issues with latest FW. I had to downgrade them to 7.6.9 to get rid of it. Sadly 7.6.9 does not support AirPlay 2.