Apple Airplay 2 support in an Emotiva Amp and/or dongle?

[Mark]

My house is wired with Emotiva mini A 100's connected via Apple Airport Expresses ($69) so my wife can easily stream music to the living room, bedroom or outdoors by just clicking the zone while playing her apple music. This is a simple and inexpensive way to get quality sound anywhere in the house. I am not going to buy a Sonos Amp or any other manufacturer in place of my mini 100's, they are tremendous amps for the value!

This isn't a thread to start a conversation about all the other options for streaming music via the Sonos app, Deezer or any of the music services because my wife isn't going to use any other app than Apple Music! 

Apple discontinued the Airport Express this year but it did get Airplay 2 yesterday! (9to5mac.com/2018/08/28/airport-express-airplay-2-homekit/) The AE option is off the table for future expansion or if one of my AE's gets fried in a lightning storm. AirPlay 2 allows an iPhone user to play the same song in multiple zones simultaneously or different songs in different zones simultaneously. Airplay 1 restricted you to one song in one zone no exceptions.

Airplay 2 is built in a number of new products on the market that enable this same functionality. I would love to see Emotiva put this functionality in a mini 100, one of the new class D 2 channel amps (I would hope a 2 channel is on the horizon) or even the A-800. I have no clue if Apple has to give a manufacturer permission to integrate this type of technology in a product or anyone can add it. Even a USB dongle like the BTM-1 or BTR-1 with Airplay 2 would be an awesome addition to the lineup!

Any thoughts?

[Loop 7]

I've lost interest in Airplay because the device is a pass-through. I used to think this was brilliant until concepts like Chromecast surfaced which communicate directly with a server or local source.

[davidl81]

I like Airplay and I have been really impressed with Airplay 2. It's all about what you are using it for. When we have people over to the house or some type of dinner party it is great. I can have the same music tracks playing in my theater room, living room, patio, and any other room that I have an apple TV installed. I am not using it for critical 2 channel listing, I am using it for background music etc. It is much better than Airplay 1 was. That being said I can't see Emotiva adding it to any amps as they would have to put in a wifi card etc for it to get a signal. I just don't see that being something that enough people would pay for in the amp.

[Cogito]

I would love a DAC with Airplay support. That way I can get rid of my Airport Express and the extra cable clutter it creates.

[AudioHTIT]

I voted yes, but mostly because between my wife and I we have more Apple products than most small towns. 🤓

I’m really happy to hear the AirPort Express got AirPlay 2! The way the threads were going on the Apple site I didn’t expect it to happen. I keep one around somewhat like the OP for a quick and easy way to get an audio stream from an iPhone or iPad into my Zone amp. But Apple TV also does that through Zone 2 out, so now I keep the AE around more as a tool for setting up something on the fly, maybe a party or a friends home. Now that it has AirPlay 2 I can see even more uses for it. 👍

So I can see being interested in an Emotiva AirPlay 2 device, though given how they just released the BTR-1 as a separate box (not a dongle), they’d probably do the same for AP2. At that point it could replace the AE, but wouldn’t buy you fewer cords. Maybe a plug-in module for the RMC-1 (which would have limited appeal)

I wish Apple would have let you make a pair of AE’s into a Transmitter / Receiver. Hang the transmitter off your Zone output, it digitizes if necessary and sends an AirPlay stream around your house, remote AE’s can pick up the stream and send it to local powered speakers. With AP2 everyone could join in.

[Mark]

Aug 30, 2018 14:48:45 GMT -5 davidl81 said:

I like Airplay and I have been really impressed with Airplay 2. It's all about what you are using it for. When we have people over to the house or some type of dinner party it is great. I can have the same music tracks playing in my theater room, living room, patio, and any other room that I have an apple TV installed. I am not using it for critical 2 channel listing, I am using it for background music etc. It is much better than Airplay 1 was. That being said I can't see Emotiva adding it to any amps as they would have to put in a wifi card etc for it to get a signal. I just don't see that being something that enough people would pay for in the amp.

People are paying $599 for a Sonos 2 channel amp with AirPlay 2. If the wifi card made the cost of a mini 100 $299 I am getting a far superior amp for half the price. I gotta think it might make Emotiva Amps more appealing to the mainstream person building that multi-room ambiance music set-up. The A-800 was designed for that function at $499, if you bumped the price to $599 with AirPlay 2 you got twice the channels as the Sonos for the same $$

[jlafrenz]

I'm indifferent about it. I know it is very popular and easy to use, but the licensing cost for a company like Emotiva probably isn't worth it based upon how easy it would be for the end user to add it through other means.