Is there anything better then a Airport Express?

[NiagaraPete]

I have 2 newer Airport Express. I've bought an Allo Boss2, and a couple other streamers that ultimately didn't work better and probably didn't spec better than AirPlay 2. Also and a big plus the Airport Express has no clicking when the bit rate changes.

So what streamer works best? I have Apple Music and Amazon Music.

 

[Chazz6]

I use a Denon Link HS2, which receives wi-fi. It goes up to 24 bit/192 kHz. I feed its Toslink output to a JDS Lab Atom DAC.
But I am on Windows, not Apple, and when it comes to highest quality streams, I get a FLAC file and serve it to the wi-fi network.

 

[muslhead]

twin blonde cheerleaders?

 

[elliott]

If you're in the Apple ecosystem, I'm not sure there's much better, especially at the 35 dollars they go for on ebay. I remember reading a Ken Rockwell review (take that with a grain of salt), but passing uncompressed ALAC over the air and feeding that into a DAC from the SPDIF output, whole house synced sound with Airplay 2, I doubt any other streaming is going to sound better to your ears, or be more convenient.

 

[NiagaraPete]

If you're in the Apple ecosystem, I'm not sure there's much better, especially at the 35 dollars they go for on ebay. I remember reading a Ken Rockwell review (take that with a grain of salt), but passing uncompressed ALAC over the air and feeding that into a DAC from the SPDIF output, whole house synced sound with Airplay 2, I doubt any other streaming is going to sound better to your ears, or be more convenient.

That's my quandary.

 

[elliott]

Seems like you've made it to the promise land to me. I'm in the same position and I just hate the day when my APEs die on me.

 

[sarumbear]

If you're in the Apple ecosystem, I'm not sure there's much better, especially at the 35 dollars they go for on ebay. I remember reading a Ken Rockwell review (take that with a grain of salt), but passing uncompressed ALAC over the air and feeding that into a DAC from the SPDIF output, whole house synced sound with Airplay 2, I doubt any other streaming is going to sound better to your ears, or be more convenient.

You are not constrained to an Apple device. Windows can send music to any AirPlay compatible device. See this article for options you have. I use TuneBlade and it works perfectly with Spotify. Naturally you can use iTunes for Windows for downloaded or ripped tracks directly.

 

[NiagaraPete]

You are not constrained to an Apple device. Windows can send music to any AirPlay compatible device. See this article for options you have. I use TuneBlade and it works perfectly with Spotify. Naturally you can use iTunes for Windows for downloaded or ripped tracks directly.

I don't use Widows at all, Linux pc and Apple for phone and tablet. Shairport and GMrender. The problem with Shairport is its limited to the bit rate and frequency you set. It doesn't auto select. GMrender works great over network. Apple needs get get busy and update Airplay to full lossless.

 

[sarumbear]

I don't use Widows at all, Linux pc and Apple for phone and tablet. Shairport and GMrender. The problem with Shairport is its limited to the bit rate and frequency you set. It doesn't auto select. GMrender works great over network. Apple needs get get busy and update Airplay to full lossless.

I was simply correcting your post that says “if you are in the Apple ecosystem”, which gave the false information that only Apple ecosystem works with AirPlay.

 

[Katji]

They are busy with that - very busy, going by what I've seen in Macrumors RSS feed in the last couple weeks. (I don't read the articles, just whatever gets into the RSS text.)

 

[elliott]

I was simply correcting your post that says “if you are in the Apple ecosystem”, which gave the false information that only Apple ecosystem works with AirPlay.

That’s was me that said it. Yeah I’m sure AirPlay works with windows. i meant If you’re in the apple ecosystem airport express are great, that statement doesn’t also mean if you’re in the windows ecosystem it wont be great, but I can see how that could be confusing. My bad.

Back to the thread, I have one of those 100 dollar room correction boxes and it’s also a streamer using one of those open standards for whole house audio. I gave it a try and missed all the apple integrations like telling Siri to take the music coming into my headphones and play it in the kitchen when I’m coming home for dinner. It might serve your needs though and then that would open up a whole world tiny black boxes to choose from.

 

[Freighter]

I have the exact same question! Possibly the Belkin Soundform Connect. However I can't find any measurements or reviews on it, so it might be better, it might not be. Belkin isn't the most reliable company when it comes to quality products (sometimes they're great, sometimes they're not).

AirPlay 2 Audio Adapter with Optical + 3.5mm | Belkin US

Our Audio Adapter with AirPlay 2 is a plug-and-play way to wirelessly stream from your iOS device to any speaker with an optical or 3.5mm input. Shop now.

www.belkin.com

Possibly an Apple TV if your amp has HDMI?

 

[NiagaraPete]

I have the exact same question! Possibly the Belkin Soundform Connect. However I can't find any measurements or reviews on it, so it might be better, it might not be. Belkin isn't the most reliable company when it comes to quality products (sometimes they're great, sometimes they're not).

AirPlay 2 Audio Adapter with Optical + 3.5mm | Belkin US

Our Audio Adapter with AirPlay 2 is a plug-and-play way to wirelessly stream from your iOS device to any speaker with an optical or 3.5mm input. Shop now.

www.belkin.com

Possibly an Apple TV if your amp has HDMI?

Apple TV has an optical audio out

 

[Zensō]

Apple TV has an optical audio out

Only the older model though. For some inexplicable reason they removed the optical audio out on the new model, which now requires an HDMI audio extractor. I’m an Apple guy, but some of these decisions are perplexing to say the least.

 

[NiagaraPete]

Only the older model though. For some inexplicable reason they removed the optical audio out on the new model, which now requires an HDMI audio extractor. I’m an Apple guy, but some of these decisions are perplexing to say the least.

Man, that sucks.

 

[elliott]

It really does. I’ve replaced the hdmi extractor for an airport express because I doubt any of those hdmi extractors even have public spec sheets.