I forgot I had a couple of expresses I bought when I moved into my house back in 2017. Been meaning to set up a whole home audio setup. Thanks for the info!
@@johnroche12690 Did you use separate Airport Express for each SPEAKERS? I am just watching this after THREE YEARS of your installation. I have just bought an Airport Express waiting for my Klipsch R-12SW Subwoofer to arrive, I also hope to purchase Harman Kardon Speakers. Please, kindly put me through. Thanks
Found your video through your post on Reddit, and I'm really glad I did. Very helpful tutorial, and I learned a lot. (Had no idea you could add new Expresses via the iphone!) Thanks for the help!
Ted Hobgood thanks!!! I’ve learned a bunch since setting it up. I probably should do a follow up video. You can add each airport express to HomeKit, You can control each speaker through siri (“Play AC/DC in kitchen” or “Play AC/DC everywhere), I can control bedroom and office speaker while my wife controls kitchen and dining room. Thats just a few of the things I’ve discovered since setting up 👍🏻
Really nice job with your setup! I am running a combination of Airport Express+wired speakers and Sonos speakers with AirPlay support. The Sonos allows for simpler cable management but your setup allows you to vary the speaker choice. I use an app called Airfoil on my Mac to stream the music to each speaker as I prefer not having my phone be the main source of music. Anyway, great setup and thanks for the video!
So glad I came across this and discovered the Airplay receiver things! Also, do you happen to know if it’s possible to always keep multiple speakers grouped together inside one room by default with this kind of setup? And can you designate a left and right channel like you can with stereo HomePods? I’d like sort of a surround sound effect using two speakers on both sides of my bed that supports binaural audio.
I wanted to do this is my living room eventually (have a left and right) but I haven’t found a way to “group” them. I did find a work around though, there are ways to split an aux cord and separate left and right. So you’d have one airport express and 1 Aux cable cable going to 2 speakers.
Probably very late to this conversation, but if you didn't know, the 3.5mm jack is also a mini-toslink port so you can keep things purely digital and plug it into whatever DAC or receiver you want
After doing this exact same setup, my 2.4ghz band is now under 5 Mbps :( My 5GHz band is fast, but it's spotty and doesn't always reach all the way to the end of the house where there is another Airport Express. I read of other people having wifi problems when extending 4 or more AirPort Expresses to their base station.
Hi, I am watching this now, I have two questions. 1• How can I update my Air Express 2 to the latest update version? 2• It is about the Harman Kardon Onyx Studio 4 please, I am about to buy one, can you let me know if it needs wiring and the MODEL to be looking for to buy? Thanks for this video. I just subscribed to your Channel.
It's a major problem for me that that the AE units and Chromecast Audio have been discontinued. I have this vision of someone genuinely musical at Apple really hearing what these things can do when set up in a system with fine active speakers. I am using much higher end speakers than the HKs and they really deliver. Once the AE units finally die or are incompatible I just don't know what I will do. Perhaps go back to a fully wired system. Other units I've looked at are either very expensive or unreliable. Have you noticed there is small glitch in the sound using the Airplay 2 firmware just before selecting a new track? I reported this to Apple but they have not released further updates. Thanks for the video.
Walter Brewster yeah it’s gonna be a sad day when my AE start to fail but luckily I have a few spare AE’s if that happens. Apple makes good hardware and I expect them to last a while, I’m hoping that this systems last at least 5 years or more and by that time hopefully someone will be have new technology that can replace this system.
Brian Blake yeah that is unfortunate but now they are older, outdated, and discontinued you can find them used for cheap and they still work great as an AirPlay 2 dongle.
Hi John! Great video! Two questions - I have setup an Airport Express (for Airplay2) in my master closet (deep inside the house) which powers my Front Porch Speakers. I noticed that when I try playing music from my phone while I'm sitting in the front porch, the music kinds feels choppy and broken at times. What do you think could be causing that? The second question - my internet wifi is powered by DLink Wifi which child units (mesh wifi) across the house. Does it help to set up a new network using the Airport Extreme and wirelessly connect All my Airport Express Devices to it just for the purposes of Airplay 2 Whole Home Audio? I can place the Airport Extreme someplace between the Front Porch and the Master Closet but better connectivity if that helps.
Hi @John Roche - if these are plugged in by the power cord at all times, do you have to manually turn them on or press the power button each time? If so, it sounds like it'd be a pain especially if one is on top of the cabinets. Looking to do the same setup myself. Great idea!
Chris Wilson No, I left the speakers always on and ready to be streamed to. That is a something you will want to look out for though when choosing a speaker. Any speaker with an auto-off feature will give you problems.
Drohne Schweiz yes I’ve been using it and it’s been working amazing without any problems. I don’t think you can adjust the delay but I don’t think you’d want to, they are all already perfectly in sync with each other. Also since I’ve made the video I’ve realized that Siri works with this setup. I can say ‘hey Siri play Jazz in the kitchen and it works’ or I I want all the speakers I can say ‘hey Siri play jazz everywhere’
Ish M you don’t really even need a stereo receiver with this setup, but if your receiver has an AUX in port then you should be able to push music to it.
Hello can you help me out? I want to use this for my HK homecinema. But do you need to connect the cinema set with internet cable to the AirPort express?
Harry Truan thoughts on this? www.google.com/amp/s/appleinsider.com/articles/18/08/29/how-to-connect-apples-airport-express-to-any-router-to-make-an-airplay-2-streaming-target/amp/
Endless Motives you just need router (WiFi) in your house. It can be any brand, it does NOT have to be from Apple. I plan on replacing my AirPort Extreme router with a new WiFi mesh system soon and all my airport expresses will still work.
John Roche if you used Homepod or Airplay2 supported speakers, each speaker will establish its own connection from the audio source like (Spotify, youtube ...) so the audio is not actually coming from your phone but you still can control each speaker individually or play them all as one speaker
This is a joke right? 7 times AirPort Express is 700 euro, plus all the speakers you had to buy. Sure this was around 1000 euro 🤷♂️. As better to buy a wireless surround system with airplay2 for the same price and not to have extra bricks in the house
I got the airport express for $20 each from a network guy selling them on Craigslist. I got the speakers for $100 each on a refurbished sale. So it did save me a lot of money because at the time the cheapest Airplay 2 speaker was the $300 HomePod. I upgraded this summer to homepods in every room when they went on sale for $200 each at Best Buy.
Airport express has crackling noises starting from firmware version 7.8.0. Try playing a quieter song like piano solo and you’ll hear that. I have two airport expresses but unfortunately I’ll have to stay at 7.6.9 to avoid that issue, and unfortunately 7.6.9 does not support airplay 2.
