A Good AirPlay Speaker

If I were going to buy an AirPlay speaker today, I'd get Audyssey's Audio Dock Air. Compared to other speakers that use Apple's proprietary streaming protocol, the Audio Dock Air is reasonably affordable (no small feat for AirPlay speakers), has a great form factor, and can produce big, room-filling, sound.

That said, AirPlay speakers are still very much a nascent category. So while we've seen a bunch of new offerings from companies like JBL, Logitech, iHome, and Altec Lansing this year, the fact is you're still going to pay an unnecessary premium for AirPlay compatibility—not to mention limit yourself to playing music through iOS devices. That's why we can still easily recommend something like the $300 Sonos Play:3 or a Bluetooth speaker if you truly want the most wireless bang for your buck. You'll not only get more flexibility with these speakers, you'll also get audio quality that at the very least rivals Apple's CD-quality AirPlay.

Here's why.

If your goal is to build out a multi-room audio setup, Sonos even has distinct advantages beyond price. Both the Play:5 and Play:3 use Sonosnet, a proprietary wireless network that's more reliable and robust than standard WiFi, which AirPlay uses. Airplay, on the other hand, must duke it out for bandwidth with other WiFi users in your home so when usage is high, reliability is affected and dropouts can occur (see Tim Gideon's critique of Audio Dock Air below). Sonos can also stream multiple sources to multiple rooms at the same time. ITunes also lets you create multiple listening zones, but you're limited to listening to the same thing in every zone. To play different music in different rooms like a Sonos systems allows, you'd need multiple iDevices or multiple instances of iTunes running.

Also, while AirPlay devices have the benefit of simply existing on your home network—eliminating the need to constant re-pairing—something like the bluetooth-based wireless speaker, the Big Jambox, can remember up to eight devices, which also does away with that annoyance. It will also be cheaper at $300 and work with more than just Apple devices.

Heck, you can now even invest in a $99 AirPort Express and use it with a Sonos or an existing speaker system. That would be another (better) option at this point. After all, if it's got a 3.5mm input (and is relatively close to a power outlet), it can be a AirPlay speaker.

But fine, we know that there are plenty of people out there who already have thriving Apple ecosystems at home and who just want a dedicated AirPlay speaker. And for them, the Audio Dock Air is definitely a solid choice. Lex Friedman of Macworld gives it 4 out of 5 mice and says this monolithic speaker generates some impressive sound, is easy to set up, and complements any genre of music. "I was satisfied with the Audio Dock’s ability to fill even big rooms with sound," Friedman says. "Even at full volume, which falls just shy of ear-splitting levels, music playback was crisp and distortion-free."

Laptop Magazine agrees. "The Lower East Dock Air took everything we threw at it and more," says Sherri L. Smith. "Highs, lows, and everything in between sounded rich and balanced."

Sam Biddle at Gizmodo recently compared four AirPlay speakers (the Libratone Live, the Audyssey Audio Dock Air, the Logitech UE Air Speaker and the Bang & Olufsen Beolit 12) and says the Audyssey made short work of the more expensive competition, earning a score of 4.5/5. "The Audio Dock Air is just fantastic: a little heavy on bass, but able to fill a room with incredibly rich sound, across genres," he says. "It's only about the width of couple dictionaries, but the sound is not confined to any given bookshelf, dresser, or countertop. Even with poor apartment acoustics, a room swells with bright highs, satisfying lows, and terrifically sharp fidelity."

There are some downsides, of course. While he ultimately gave the Audio Dock Air a respectable 3.5/5 score, PC Mag's Tim Gideon had considerable connection difficulties on his home Wi-Fi network. He also warns that these are not speakers for people looking for accurate or flat sound. "AirPlay's sound quality is actually pretty impressive, with strong bass performance," he says. "The Audio Air Dock only adds to the bass experience; Even at low-to-moderate volumes, one might say it sounds 'thunderous.'" If you're hoping to take that thunderous sound away from an outlet, you're out of luck. Unfortunately, despite being a very portable 5 lbs, the Air Dock is not battery powered.

And yes, other AirPlay systems out there sound better. If you're one percenter and don't mind dropping $600, the Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air is a good choice. Critics almost universally love it. Frankly, I think it's still an insane given that you can directly hook an Airport Express up to something like Audioengine's A5 and not just better sound, but a much wider soundstage. Total cost? $400. (Sound and Vision's Geoffrey Morrision has a great piece on building a AirPlay/Wi-Fi compatible audio system, if you're interested.) The $500 Altec Lansing InAir 5000 and the $400 Sony RDP-XA700IP are both slightly more affordable than the B&W and have also been well received. But again, you can spend your money more effectively.

As for the cheaper AirPlay speakers, yes they do exist. But even opting for something like the new JBL OnBeat Air you'll be paying more than you should, reviewers say. Even with its $200 price tag, PC Mag's Gideon says the OnBeat Air is vastly underpowered and can distort on deep bass tracks.

There's no doubt that AirPlay speakers will get better and cheaper over time. And we'll continue to take into consideration any new speakers that come out. But as Biddle says, for now, the Audyssey Audio Dock Air "is a near-perfect split between a fair price, splendid sound, and friendly form."