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How-To: Get yourself an affordable multi-room AirPlay setup

airplay

One of the downsides of being early adopters of new technology is that we tend to buy the best system available at the time, only for a better one to come along later. I’m sure we’ve all been there.

That was the case for me with wireless audio. I wanted, many years ago, to be able to stream music to two other rooms in the house. I invested in a couple of Logitech Streambox Booms, which did the job. My Mac acted as a music server, and I could stream both my music library and Internet radio to the Logitech boxes.

But it was a clunky setup, a scrollwheel used to select artist, album and track in much the same way as the original scrollwheel iPod – though viewing only one line at a time. AirPlay, when it came along in 2010, was a markedly better solution, but also came with a far higher price-tag.

However, the upside of Apple neglecting AirPlay is that there are a lot of heavily-discounted discontinued products around. It was only when writing that opinion piece that I noticed just how low prices on these had fallen. That means that you can now put together a multi-room AirPlay setup for way less than it would have cost when the system was launched … 

There are two ways you can go. If you already have speaker setups in each room, you can connect a box to each of these to put them onto your Wi-Fi network. That box can be an Airport Express, Apple TV or a Wi-Fi audio receiver. The latter is by far the cheapest method, but has one drawback that I’ll come to.

If you have a room without existing speakers, you can take advantage of the discontinued product bargains you can find on Amazon. In my case, I did a mix of the two.

bando2

Adding a box to an existing speaker setup is slightly fiddly, but you only have to do it once. Once you have it configured, it simply shows up as an AirPlay device in both iTunes on the Mac and Music on iOS devices.

The box I use is the Veetop HiFi AirMusic Box, which has an RRP of $90 but is available on Amazon for just $40. The only drawback of this is that you can’t simultaneously AirPlay to more than one Veetop box; if you want to stream to multiple existing speaker systems at the same time, you’ll have to fork out for an Airport Express or Apple TV. That’s still a bargain compared to a Sonos setup, though …

For my part, I just needed one box, for the B&O system in the living room, so I used the Veetop. To set it up, first plug into power – it comes with a USB lead but not a plug adapter, so you’ll need to buy one of those for a few bucks if you don’t already have a dozen of the things laying around. It connects to your speakers using a standard 3.5mm cable. You’ll need a 3.5mm jack at the Veetop end, plus whatever your audio system needs at the other end. In my case, this was a custom cable for the B&O Ouverture in the living-room.

Once you have everything hooked up, use a Mac or iOS device to connect to the Veetop via Wi-Fi. It will show up like any other wireless router with a name beginning with Veetop. Once connected to it, enter http://192.168.222.254 in your browser bar and press enter. You’ll then see the Veetop interface.

veetop-1

Click Music Service first and name the speakers. This is the name that will show up in your list of AirPlay devices. In my case, I called the B&O system ‘Living-room’ (spaces aren’t allowed). Click Done, wait for the device to reboot and then refresh the page. Then click Back.

Next, click Internet Connection, choose your main router from the wireless networks it finds, then enter your router’s password. Again, click Done and refresh the page after it reboots (I did say the setup was clunky …).

veetop-2

Finally, Back then click Basic Settings. Because the device is a Wi-Fi bridge, anyone can connect to it and use your Internet connection. You’ll thus want to switch on the same security you have on your main router. For simplicity, I gave the router the same name as the speakers, and the same security credentials as my main router.

veetop-3

You’re thinking you know the drill by now: click Done and wait for it to reboot, right? Nope! Because changing the SSID and setting a password will throw you off the router. So connect to the router by its new name (which will require the password you just set), then return to http://192.168.222.254. All is now set.

While you are still connected to the Veetop, use AirPlay from the same device you’re using and select these speakers. Play something for a few seconds to ensure it’s working. That done, you can reconnect to your main router and the speakers will still show up in AirPlay.

Voila, that’s one of your rooms online. Incidentally, if the speakers ever disappear from AirPlay, just power-cycle the Veetop – I’ve had to do that occasionally.

logitech-ue-air-speakers

For the bedroom and bathroom, I replaced my Logitech Squeezeboxes with a couple of Logitech UE Air Speakers. It’s not an audiophile device, but it’s decent quality. They were $400 when launched, but you can now buy them direct from Logitech’s Amazon store for a little under $200. For a smaller room, there’s plenty of volume, and no distortion when you max out the sound.

There are two ways to sync these to your Wi-Fi network. The first, if you happen to have an old 30-pin iPhone knocking around, is to push open the hidden dock, connect the iPhone and say yes when asked if you want to install the app. The app then walks you through the rest.

I didn’t, so I used the second method: connecting to the Air Speakers’ own Wi-Fi hotspot. To do this, power on the speakers, then press and hold the Wi-Fi button on the back of the unit for ‘more than five seconds’ (I waited about 7 seconds). After about 35 seconds (seemed a little longer to me), the power light starts blinking green at a faster rate. That’s your signal that the Wi-Fi hotspot is now broadcasting.

Connect to the Wi-Fi network Air Speaker Setup. In your web-browser, go to http://192.168.1.12. You’ll then see the configuration screen. As with the Veetop, give the speakers a name. Again, this is the name that will show up in your list of AirPlay devices. I’d recommend sticking to my own system of using the name of each room for ease of use.

As before, select your main router and enter the password for it. Once you’ve done this, you’ll get a confirmation screen and the speakers will reboot, connect to your router and be online as an AirPlay device. This is confirmed by the power light turning solid green.

image

And that’s it – your AirSpeakers are now online. As an aside, the FŪZDock Apple Watch stand I reviewed last week looks almost part of the device when the cable is run underneath it – that’s what you see in the top photo.

Repeat the above steps for as many devices as you have to configure, and you’re done. Your AirPlay list will now show all your devices, both in iTunes:

itunes-1

And iOS devices:

iphone

Note that iOS devices can only play to one set of AirPlay speakers at a time, while iTunes lets you play to as many as you like if you first click the ‘Multiple’ tab:

itunes-2

In my case, I got three rooms online for a total outlay of a little over $400 – or about the cost of a single AirPlay speaker system when they first launched. That’s a Veetop box and two Logitech Air Speaker sets. If you want to try your luck with other AirPlay speakers, you can find other discontinued models from around $50-60. Bear in mind, though, that there are mixed reviews out there.

If you have your own multi-room AirPlay system, do let us know your setup in the comments.

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Comments

  1. lincolnsills - 9 years ago

    Sonos is worth the very little cost increase compared to any of these options. If you want quality audio with a well thought UI Sonos has no competition. Period
    Add a LaunchPort Wall Station (a magnetic iPad wall or stand mount) to complete your setup.

    • Ben Lovejoy - 9 years ago

      I try hard to like Sonos, but the audio quality – while very good – doesn’t seem to match the price. And I really hate the Sonos app.

      • PhilBoogie - 9 years ago

        Also their latest iOS version? I just set up a system for an acquaintance and it was all so easy, a slick setup and good app. It doesn’t have Apple Music support but Apple, yes Apple, said they are getting Sonos support by the end of the year.

        I agree on the audio quality with the PLAY1 but I haven’t listened to the PLAY3 not the PLAY5.

        Good article Ben, but now I’m left wondering what the plusnet is for…

      • Ben Lovejoy - 9 years ago

        My Mac is my music source (2TB of SSDs means it’s all stored on board), so it’s the Mac app rather than the iOS one I’m referring to. Plusnet is my backup broadband – as I can’t work without wifi, I have two independent broadband setups.

      • PhilBoogie - 9 years ago

        1) Being the gentle man you are I get the explanation on my frivolous question. Thanking you kindly.

        2) 2TB SSD for music? Wow! I would think HDD would be fast enough, doesn’t matter if the music is compressed (<321kb/s) or not (1411kb/s).

      • Ben Lovejoy - 9 years ago

        Ah, I mean total MBP storage is 2TB – music is a small part of that.

      • lincolnsills - 9 years ago

        They are not expensive… This reminds me of the many Android discussions I get into. At the end of the fabricated dislikes it comes down to simply just being cheap.
        Also, I find it difficult if not impossible – having read your reviews on iTunes and other applications – that you “HATE” the Sonos app.
        Sonos connects to your Mac so your 2TB SSD library can still be used for audio playback.
        Have you had much exposure to Sonos? What speakers have you tried? My home theater/HiFi setup consist of Monitor Audio speakers and an Integra receiver. I know good speakers…Sonos are GREAT speakers. I can understand wanting something less expensive, but to say their quality isn’t there is crap.
        The mounting orientation on the Play3 and Play5 speakers change the way the audio is transmitted to ensure the sound hits your ears at the same time. This is very smart and show incredible attention to detail.

      • Ben Lovejoy - 9 years ago

        Audio preferences are always personal in the end. I find Sonos audio quality good but not great, so to my mind you’re paying a hefty premium for the wireless functionality. Three friends have Sonos setups, so I’ve had reasonable exposure to it. Sure, I can play the same music, but not directly from iTunes (unless something has changed since I last used it).

    • ledaero - 8 years ago

      The Sonos has a lot of competition. I use multiple Raspberry Pi computers with Hifiberry DAC+ or AMP+ Modules and an app called Moode.

      Lovely interface, fantastic quality, more options than Sonos at a fraction of the price. I can control each unit separately or together in multi-room mode, use AirPlay or stream from a central file share or play high-quality internet radio. In my setup I have 32GB flash drives in each unit with lossless FLAC source material. And being based on open-source and off-the-shelf components, upgrades are a doddle.

      Control is via HTML5-based web pages, so any PC, phone or tablet can be your controller.

      At around £100 per room, it beats the £399 Connect:Amp into a cocked hat.

      If you just want to liven up existing hifi equipment, it’s around £75, for superb quality. Easily better than the closed Sonos environment

  2. applegetridofsimandjack - 9 years ago

    Airplay is probably the worst feature Apple has ever launched. I have a Zeppelin Air sittin’ next to my wifi router, it fails to connect to the router every day meaning that I have to re-setup Airplay EVERY DAY! There is also a delay of like 3 seconds I mean it’s like the postman is being sent from the music source to the router to the Zeppelin Air! Even Fedex is faster than airplay! And no my Zeppelin is not the problem because I’m having the same issue with all airplay devices.

    • Ben Lovejoy - 9 years ago

      Interesting – I’ve had a much better experience, but certainly a long way from perfect.

    • gkbrown - 9 years ago

      I have AirPlay in 5 rooms in my house and have never had a problem with it (except when Apple dropped mDNSResponder in favor of discoveryd, but they have since resolved that).

    • Ole Johannsen - 9 years ago

      Do I need to tell you, that your WLAN is the problem?

    • ledaero - 8 years ago

      You need to understand what AirPlay is for – it isn’t an audiophile protocol, it’s for people to seamlessly stream music from their phone or PC.

      I use it in addition to other sources and for ‘group play’ it’s great at parties, where the ambient noise is usually so much, you only get a vague notion of the music.

      Your problem with you Zeppelin isn’t an AirPlay problem.

  3. telecastle - 9 years ago

    Ben, you meant “Logitech Squeezebox Boom” not “Logitech Streambox Boom”, right?

  4. whitestripe31 - 9 years ago

    eBay! I got both iHome and Phillips speaker units for under £70 in great condition. Would be closer to £400-£500 if bought at launch. Apple TV covers another room for a great multi-room system with very little I can complain about.

  5. This is my set up:

    Living room: existing home stereo + an old Airport Express, TV: existing TV + Apple TV
    Bathroom: splash proof Tivoli Songbook + an old Airport Express
    Bedroom: Tivoli Albergo+ radio clock + a newer Airport Express

    I really like the sound quality and the design of the Tivoli devices. Most of the time, everything works pretty well. I use an old iPad 2 as the streaming device with Apple Music and Tune In for radio. (And sometimes a Mac if I want multiroom).

    I also use an Airport Express as WIFI access point (DHCP is handled by the router I got from the ISP, I ordered one without WIFI functionality). What I’ve learned from friends is that some WIFI routers are better (more stable) with Airplay than others.

    Sonos is not an option for me, it doesn’t have access to my iTunes Match / iTunes in the cloud library.

  6. I’ve been really happy buying refurbished airPort expresses (~$65) and plugging them into regular-ole 3.5mm wired speakers. I’m no audiophile but I do find it kinda cool to take old wooden framed speakers and connect them to the internet.

  7. Darryl Kaalund - 9 years ago

    I’ve been listening to Nocs NS2 Air Monitors airplay speakers. They’ve given me no issues and sound amazing. An app is available that makes set-up a breeze.

  8. How to get your iOS device to send to all your AirPlay audio devices: Buy AirFoil and AirFoil Speakers from http://www.rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/. Install them both on your computer that stays on all the time. AirFoil Speakers allows you to send your iOS device audio to your Mac/PC Speakers. AirFoil allows you to hijack audio from any source on your Mac/PC and send them to an AirPlay device. You set up AirFoil to hijack the audio from AirFoil Speakers, and then you point your iOS device to use the AirFoil Speakers as the AirPlay device. So your music goes from iOS to AirFoil Speakers, through AirFoil to all your selected AirPlay devices. I set up AirFoil to come up at login, and you can set preferences to automatically attach to specific AirPlay speaker outputs.

    NOT GOOD for syncing video sound output from iOS device to your big in-room speakers.

  9. Odd timing here. I just upgraded up my local network to add a pair of bedroom speakers this weekend. Ultimately, I decided to get a new Airport Extreme because of the interference of my neighbors WiFi routers. I sometimes see close to 30 WiFi connections from the Mac’s WiFi drop-down in the menu bar. My old WiFi network would just skip and stutter when playing music. Using an Airport Extreme in a location that gives line of sight for my living room and now bedroom Airport Express access points makes a huge difference. Total cost was $400 for the Extreme and two Express access points. The speakers were a lot more because I wanted something fairly decent. I bought a pair of Vanatoo powered speakers. They sound pretty good for smallish bookshelf speakers. In my living room I’m using my existing component stereo system.

    I now have reliable Airplay from my bedroom or living room and with iTunes on my office computer using the Multiple tab described above I have a pretty decent multi-room system.

  10. Eirik Rygge Paulsen - 9 years ago

    My setup: At the heart of music distribution and source selection is a iMac 27″ this is placed in my temporary office “The bedroom” and is only connected by a regular network cable. I use airfoil (from rogue amoeba) and an app on my iPhone called remoteless. This was originally to remote control Spotify on the computer but have later gained support for controlling all volume bars of different airplay units through airfoil. The pro’s of Using iMac as the heart is that I can use any program as a source, Spotify, iTunes, network radio channels, or any music player that runs on a Mac or pc (that’s right, you can even use a win PC and/or an android phone to control your music as both programs and apps are multi platform)

    Now for my sources I have many different solutions. Mostly I buy used (second hand) airport expresse’s for about $22 a peace and use the 3.5mm jack. But for more serious sound systems i connect with either HDMI (Apple TV) or tos-link (optical cable) (many people don’t know that airport express also have optical out in the 3,5mm jack port.) I have now in total four airport express, three Apple TVs and airplay on my preamp. All sources are connected by network cable (lan) through multiple switches.

    In my living room it’s both an Apple TV 3 connected to my Yamaha CX-A 5000 and it has it’s own AirPlay, it is connected to three amplifiers: Emotiva XPA-2 for front speakers (Xtz 99.36), Emotiva XPA-5 is running center (xtz 99.25), surround (Xtz 99.25) and surround back(Xtz 99.36), and Emotiva UPA-2 for presence (high front)(Xtz 99.25)

    In my kitchen I hooked up my old surround receiver to another Apple TV 3 just to get a decent stereo there. It’s hidden away and the only way to control it is to use the app on my phone or Imac in my bedroom

    For each the toilet and the laundry room i use the old kind of AirPort Express hooked up to some cheap PC speakers 2.1 set up with subwoofer. The bathroom is also connected to the same router (Y cable) as the laundry room with its own 2.1 speaker set up.

    The last Apple TV is connected to my bedroom TV and 5.1 compact surround system from LG.

    Another AirPort Express is placed in the garage and connected to a rechargeable mobile speaker, when I don’t use it outside or on the beach it’s always connected to power so it’s charging and the router for music on the fly.

    The last router is placed in the attic connected to two really old amplifiers that I bought in a flea market. From them there are speaker cables running in all directions to an outside speaker set up with speakers on all sides of the house underneath the (cornice?) not shure that’s the right name, but anyway these speakers are placed underneath the tip of the roof that hangs outside the walls.

    I paid less than $1500 for the complete system! Provided that you already have a computer or Mac, and a ios or android unit. This is not included the stereo in my living room but everything else. network cable, switch, PC speakers, outdoor speakers, speaker cables, amplifiers, receiver, apps, programs for pc and even the compact surround system in my bedroom.

    The neat thing about the system is that you will get really good Wi-Fi signal all over the house and outside of the house (if you use multiple airports) and you are free to choose any kind of stereo, mobile speaker, AirPlay unit or component system you like. Sonos have only a small series of products to choose from.

    !!!!!NOTE!!!!! if you are thinking about buying this kind of system remember that Apple Airport extreme does not have audio out

    I have to excuse myself for poor language or use of words as English is not my native language, but I think most people understand what i write :)

    • ledaero - 8 years ago

      I tried a similar setup, but found the DAC on the airport devices to be poor.

  11. Chad (@chadian) - 9 years ago

    This is what I use, rapsberry pi + USB Audio DAC + BYO speakers (I picked up some pioneer speakers)
    This is the open source software the powers it all: https://github.com/mikebrady/shairport-sync
    It does the multi-room kept-in-sync thing, too.

    Been really happy with the setup, just requires a bit more work to get setup.

  12. I’ve used the Nocs NS2v1 speakers in a few rooms in my house over the last couple of years and they sound great. I’ve had no problems with them.

    I also just acquired a pair of vintage Rogers LS3/5a bookshelf speakers and have Airplay enabled these by hooking them up to small a T-class Topping amp which in turn is connected to a Neet Airstream. It works well and is a very low profile setup on the shelves.

  13. doug (@pyle) - 7 years ago

    Um, this is multi room but not simultaneous, so a bit useless. I already have airplay speakers in different rooms.

  14. Henrik Krolykke Schmidt - 6 years ago

    2 years after this article was published I still find that AirPlay is the best alternative to Sonos. I have made a true multiroom stereo setup with several (8+) AirPlay receivers capable of playing synchronized audio through my whole house from any iOS device connected to my wireless network. My devices include several Apple TV’s (2,3 and 4. generation), AirPort Express and also devices with built in AirPlay support like a Denon surround receiver. The primary key in my setup is the Synology NAS that I have too. It has a feature called Audio Station, and their iOS app called DS audio then let me play my own CD collection that I have ripped in FLAC format and stored on the NAS and my favorite internet radio stations as well. Another key to make this work without problems is a well working network, wireless or prefferably cabled. If you make it wireless you should make sure that your house is well covered with as little channel overlap from yourself and your neighbors as possible. The “only” thing I really miss in this setup is the capability to connect to Spotify and play from there. A feature I would have loved would be a function to make the NAS work as a AirPlay receiver so that I from any iOS device could play any thing and stream it (in sync of course) to multiple rooms. With Apple’s release of iOS 11 AirPlay 2 is near, it should come this December, it will be exiting to see what that will bring to the scene. It is also said that Sonos some time through 2018 will feature AirPlay 2 which means that you should be able to see your zones as AirPlay 2 destinations. That could mean that 2018 will be the year that I surrender and convert to Sonos, but it will cost me an arm and a leg, especially if I don’t give buy on my demand for stereo in every room.

Author

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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