AirPlay 2 bridge?

[bhigh]

Does anyone know of a reasonably priced AirPlay 2 bridge? Everything I'm able to find is either a full blown receiver and amp, or a stand alone speaker like a Sonos.

I'd like to find an easy way to add support to my receiver without replacing it. Something with SPDIF or analog out would be fine. Basically a chrome cast audio, but for airplay.

 

[DuxServit]

How’s about Airport Express. I believe it has SPDIF out.

https://kenrockwell.com/apple/airport-express-audio-quality-2014.htm

 

[bhigh]

It's discontinued, and the prices on eBay are all over the place. It's surprising that Apple added airplay 2 support, honestly.

The apple TV would work, but it's not hitting the sub $50 price I'd like

 

[ElNino]

There are no Airplay 2 bridges with optical out other than the discontinued AIrport Express. Apple TV is still locked to resampling everything to 48kHz so it’s hard to justify as a music bridge, plus you need an HDMI de-embedder.

If you can wait, Airplay 2 was reverse-engineered in December and work is underway on adding support to Shairplay-sync, which should eventually be usable on a Raspberry Pi.

 

[bhigh]

Resampling doesn't bug me too much, and since my AV receiver has HDMI in that's simple enough. I'd like to have something smaller to use with powered speakers that I have in other rooms too, which is where the AppleTV would really fall down.

I found this post on modifying the IKEA speakers, but it's a hack job and still only one channel.

I guess I'll have to wait for the Raspberry Pi to get support.

 

[Wes]

It's discontinued, and the prices on eBay are all over the place. It's surprising that Apple added airplay 2 support, honestly.

The apple TV would work, but it's not hitting the sub $50 price I'd like

I got mine at the Apple refurb store for $40 - TV2 or is it 3? - has the optical out

I don't get the 'problem' with resampling(?)

 

[bhigh]

The Gen3 AppleTV doesn't support AirPlay 2, only AirPlay.

Resampling can cause some distortion, but honestly I can't hear it. Most of my music is from streaming sources, and I'm not doing a lot of critical listening.

 

[Wes]

some claim that Resampling can cause some distortion, but I haven't seen any evidence

do you need AirPlay 2?

 

[SloPoke]

some claim that Resampling can cause some distortion, but I haven't seen any evidence

do you need AirPlay 2?

Big difference between Airplay 1 and 2 is the facility to bundle multiple devices into multi-room sound. With Airplay, you can pick which device you want the music to play from Vs. You don't have to pick just the one room with Airplay 2 devices.

 

[bhigh]

I managed to score an AirPort Express 2 for < $50, now I need to see about getting it integrated with the receiver. I'm pretty sure I have a TRS-style SPDIF to normal cable around here ...