Bluetooth versus airplay speakers

Hi,
I have an hifi that supports airplay and it is absolutely brilliant. Now I'm looking for something smaller for my bedroom. Basically all I need are speakers because my ipad deals with the rest.
But I can't find airplay speakers. All that seem to exist are bluetooth speakers or proprietary stuff where I have to download something to my iPad (which I don't want).
Are bluetooth speakers as easy to use? Is there any disadvantage compared to airplay?
Thanks.

For Airplay I use my Airport Express with Airtunes. I have pluged into the 1/8 speker jack on the Airport Express that runs to my music amp (stereo) and my speaker wires run outside to some outdoor speakers. Works great.

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on the model, and then CTO additional upgrades.
The Air does not have a Retina display, but has lesser
specs, so that may make a difference. They still offer a
low-end MB/Pro w/ optical drive, w/o Retina; specs vary;
it may work in your instance. You'd have 14 days to take
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Good luck!

Bluetooth or AirPlay? Have MacBook Pro/iPhone4/iPad

I would like to:
1) Play content from my iPhone 4 through external stereo speakers
2) Play content from my iPad through same
3) Play content on my MacBook Pro
As of now I have no external speakers. I watch movies/videos on all three, play albums in lossless mostly from my MacBook Pro, and listen to Internet radio on any of those 3 devices.
I've read about Bluetooth speakers and AirPlay speakers. Assume for now that I won't need to play content from any non-Apple approoved devices.
Can anyone say which one, Bluetooth or AirPlay would be the best way to go just using all these Apple products?
Randy

You don't necessarily need an Airport Express for Airplay. There are speaker systems which support Airplay. AppleTV supports wifi based airplay and can play music from Apple Macs, iPad and iPhone though mirroring a notebook/desktop monitor will not be available until Mountain Lion. I have from time to time mirrored my iPad to my TV using my AppleTV. The AppleTV has wifi built in as do the AirPlay-enabled speakers.
The only time I needed an Airport Express was when I wanted to play music from my iPad, iPhone or Macs on my hi-fi stereo system. The Airport Express can operate as an AirPlay device and has a combined headphone and optical audio output port. I used the optical output then a converter to digital coaxial (TOSLink) which was I needed for the back of my amplifier. And, voila, my stereo was AirPlay enabled.
Now, back to your original question. AirPlay or Bluetooth. There are a lot of discussions out there on this topic. Some argue that the fidelity of the music is better on Airplay (wifi) but I wouldn't know. What I do know is that AirPlay requires that the source and target be on the same wifi network. That works for me when I am home. But when I travel I have a small Bluetooth based speaker (Jambox - though I have heard the new Philips speakers are quite good as well). They are small and I don't need to us a network. This would also apply if you wanted to take speakers with you to the park or wherever.
The one other thing I run into is AirPlay signal drop. This very rarely happens when going through the Airport Express to my hi fi system or when going to an Apply TV (which is also HDMI-wired into the amp for my surround sound system). But when I try to us my Bowers Wilkens speakers it is common for the signal to be dropped. Very frustrating. It even has me looking for a different set of BT-based speakers to replace the B&W.

AirPlay speakers...where's the 802.11n??

So I'm in the market to get some whole home audio going in my house. I've researched all of the various methods to do so (wired + receiver, airport express + speaker + amp, airplay speakers, bluetooth, etc) and I think I'm going to settle on getting AirPlay speakers. I just don't want to mess with wiring everything up and doing the AirPort Express thing....plus AirPlay speakers are actually cheaper than doing anything else. Granted you don't get the flexibility, but it's still a better budget decision.
In looking for some good AirPlay speakers, the only budget options ($150 or so) are Phillips and iHome. I've found both on eBay for around $80 a pop depeding on the version. Anyway....what's the deal with the AirPlay speakers only having 802.11b/g? I was getting ready to pull the trigger, but now I'm thinking I won't because of 802.11n becoming the standard and b/g will be going out the window soon. My wifi router supports the legacy frequencies, but I don't want to buy speakers and then in 2 years they are obsolete. I know I know, go with the airport express route. Well I'm open to suggestions at this point, but I'm just curious as to why the speaker manufacturer's are bundling b/g into their NEW products?

I had a similar concern: an airplay speaker only support 11g, not 11n. I did some study and made my move and hopefully it helps by sharing what I did.
Study:
The major chip inside airplay speakers comes from one single vendor: SMSC (lately got bought by Microchip). It offers 11b/g and not 11n. No firm schedule on 11n, it takes time to make a speaker from a chip
Most 11n routers support 11b/g too. So playing music to 11g airplay speakers shall not be a problem; but it will affect your internet speed as some old routers will downgrade to 11g (which is 54Mbps, not too bad).
The new 11ac routers with multi-bands (2x2 or 3x3) can be a solution to this with ability to have separate channel for 11g airplay and other channel for 11ac internet browsing.
My Purchase:
I did not buy any airplay speaker as it is over $100 my budget. Instead, I bought Yamaha PDX-60 dongle speaker which uses propietery RF technology which happened on sale at Amazon at that time. I did a check at Amazon store as I write and they are gone already. (relief: as I do not want to be sounded like sales :-)
Hope it helps//

Using Airplay speakers and Iphone with adhoc network?

As there are more and more Airplay speakers appearing (B&W Zeppelin Air, JBL On Air, Philips Fidelio DS3801W...) i would like to know if there is a way to use those speakers without any additional router in such a way that a direct adhoc network is created so that the Iphone could stream directly to the speakers?
I am already using various bluetooth speakers, but audio quality is quite compromised with them, therefore i would rather prefer Airplay speakers but without the need of additional router hardware, just speaker and Iphone. Is this possible?
Thanks, Olaf

captainhook72 wrote:
It looks like I should be able to do this from my apple tv using the mulit speaker option?
No, it really doesn't.
This is not a current feature of the ATV.

HT5517 How can I adjust sound level when streaming radio from my Apple TV through Airplay speakers?

I have a 2nd Gen Apple TV with an airport express set up as airplay speakers. I can stream the new radio through using the Airplay speakers pretty well. The problem is that once I've got it going, I cannot adjust the sound level without laboriously backing out of the radio menu, going back to the top level menu then drilling down into the Airplay settings to raise or lower the speaker's sound level.
Is there an easier way to do this?

go to system preferences > Sound > Output. then change the output from "built-in" to HDMI.
Maher

Is ther a way to send music to multiple airplay speakers on my ipad without having to use itunes

Hello all, l have a question that relates to air play and my ipad 4.
ls there a way to send music to multiple airplay speakers with my ipad 4 without having to use itunes as the master controller on my other PC. l know it is possible with itunes, but surely the ipad should be able to play to more than one airplay device at a time, we are living in the year 2013.
Is there an alternative and if there is not, could someone please explain or point me in the wright direction why it is so!
Thank you all in advance for your comments

Yes there is and I'll be happy to email you how. [email protected] is my address.

When using apple remote app on ipad or iphone to control apple TV is there a way of selecting different airplay speakers?

When using apple remote on ipdad or iphone to control apple TV is there a way to select different airplay speakers without having to control the menu on screen. Eg I want to listed to my music through apple tv (which is in the living room) and beam it to my airplay speakers in my bedroom, at the moment I would have to go back into the living room to see my tv screen to select the bedroom airplay speakers, then go back upstairs to listen to the music. YOu should be able to select the speakers in app without looking at the TV screen. Hopefully that makes sense!?!

Look at this.
Tango Remote Control for iOS6-7 on the App Store on iTunes

Can i play different songs to different airplay speakers at the same time ?

Can i play different songs to different airplay speakers at the same time ?
I know you can select the different speakers to play the music to, but wondered if you can also push different music to different speakers at the same time ?
If not is there a way around this other than going for something like Sonos ?

I found another solution in this thread http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=695360
Again you need the rogueamoeba guys.

AirPlay Speakers drop off iTunes list - help!

My 4 AirPlay speakers (Bose, JBL, iHome) have worked fine connected by wi-fi to my Netgear WNDR4000 router. I play from iTunes, and also sometimes stream radio directly from my iPhone or iPad.
I have had some issues with poor wi-fi coverage, so yesterday I up graded to a high end Wireless Access Point, the EnGenius EAP-1750h. This is a 802.1ac dual band high power device - the signal strength is amazing. I have turned off wi-fi on my router completely, and am using the access point for wi-fi connections.
The issue I am having is that the AIrPlay devices are falling off iTunes after a variable time (minutes to hours). If I click on them in the iTunes airplay list, they disappear and I cannot connect to them. At the same time, the "connected devices" lists of the access point and the router show that the speakers are still connected. There is NO issue with internet access on any devices. REBOOTING THE ACCESS POINT BRINGS THE DEVICES BACK, until they drop off again.
I am thinking that perhaps there is a bonjour port that keeps track of the devices that is not making it from the WAP to the router or something - and Apple in its wisdom makes it really hard to find out such info. I am an experienced user, and do not have any gross mistakes in my device configuration; I have read the relevant Apple support documents. I am not an IT tech, however, and I am not familiar with some the advanced settings, particularly of the WAP, which is a high-end business-oriented device.
All the AirPlay devices are connected on the 2.4Ghz network. The base PC is hardwired by Ethernet to the router. Turning off the 5Ghz band completely and using only a single 2.4Ghz network does not help. All software and firmware of all devices is up to date.
Does this ring any bell to anyone? I sthere a setting that will fix this? I love the WAP, but I will have to bring it back if I can't get AirPlay to work! I'm sure it is not a hardware defect issue - it is an Apple AirPlay configuration issue - that's why I am posting here. Help appreciated!!

Recreating the speakers didn't work for me. I am not sure what the issue could be at this point. Any help would be apreaciated.

When trying to connect to Airplay speakers I get error message "The network connection timed out" although some sort of connection is made as the speaker is turned on. Same thing with Apple TV. Is the distance from my speaker/ TV the problem?

When trying to connect from iTunes to Airplay speakers I get error message “The network connection timed out” although some sort of connection is made as the speaker is turned on. Same thing with Apple TV. Is the distance between my PC and the speaker or the AppleTV the problem?

Hi whitwick,
If you are having issues with your network connection when attempting to use AirPlay, you may want to use the steps in this article to troubleshoot -
iTunes: Troubleshooting AirPlay and AirPlay Mirroring
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5209
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Brett L

AppleTV to both HDMI and AirPlay speakers simultaneously

I have an AppleTV connected to home theater receiver via HDMI. I want to add wireless airplay speakers so I can send audio to them as we'll as through the stereo simultaneously. Will this work?
Steve

vazandrew wrote:
That is for controlling through iTunes. You can't output to multiple speakers from Apple TV
That was my understanding too.

Which Airplay speakers are reliable?

I have two Bose SoundLink Air speakers. Often AirPlay can connect, sometimes not. And when not, it's the same for iTunes and for iOS: a long wait and then nothing.
I also have a Denon AVR-X4000. Same story. Chance of successful connection is about 4 in 5.
The only thing to get AirPlay going again is to power cycle all devices - which is a pain because it involves removing and replacing the batteries from the SoundLinks. I really would like to just play music without needing to fiddle with the system.
Questions:
Are some AirPlay speakers more reliable than others? If so, which speakers might work better?
Could it be that the problem is not with the devices, but with my configuration? How to fix? (Time Capsule with WPA2 Personal security. Already tried fixed IP addresses)
Once AirPlay fails to connect to a device, is there anything I can do to get things going again that is quicker than a full power cycle of every device?
I'm considering switching to Sonos - can anyone tell me if Sonos plays 100% of the time?
-Ron.

all speakers including other brands that has a Line-In will work with the player for audio....

Cannot select airplay speakers

I am trying to select a different AirPlay speaker in iTunes. When I click on the small icon in the right hand bottom corner of the iTunes window all my different AirPlay speakers do show. When I click on on of htem nothing happens and the "Computer" speaker stays selected. When I click on multiple speakers the window with the speaker selection shows and I can click on all the speakers but the click does not "stick". The Compute speaker stays as the selected speaker.
When I do the same thing from a different Mac it works nicely as expected. It is just my desktop - where I happen to have my whole library stored - where it does not work anymore. It has worked before and I do not know what happened.
Please help to restore this important feature.

I couldn't get mine to work so I went into Itunes Edit/preferences in "general" checked the items I wanted playing back ie films etc then in "sharing" I checked the music box and also clicked share selected libraries instead of entire library and also changed the preferred video version to 720p (it was set on 1080p), then in "store" I clicked download at 720p as mine is the 2G apple tv which operates at 720p (the latest is 1080p). Then it all started to work so I don't know really what I did but it's now fine. Best of luck

Can ATV2 serve as source for Airplay speakers? I'd like to send non-ITunes streaming (e.g. Netflix movies) to Airplay wireless speakers.

Can ATV2 serve as source for Airplay speakers? I'd like to send non-iTunes streaming (e.g. Netflix movies) directly from ATV2 to Airplay wireless speakers.

Welcome to the Apple Community.
No that's not currently possible sorry.

Bluetooth versus airplay speakers

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