HACKER Q&A
📣 AlexMuir

What is your home music streaming setup?


For years I've had little Chinese amplifiers (T-amps) coupled to Airport Expresses scattered around the house playing over Airplay - the amplifiers are connected to good quality speakers. It worked great - I could stream from anywhere in the house/office to anywhere else.

Gradually the system has become less and less stable - I don't know if it's because routers have become more modern but now I can't connect much of the time.

Apple has basically abandoned Airports and there are various bugs which mean I can only set them up when plugged into a LAN. Basically I need a better solution! Also there's no multiroom support on iOS devices, only on iTunes for some reason.

Options:

- Sonos: I don't like their requirement for a user account, and it's very pricey. I have the IKEA Symfonisk speaker and it works great, but I want to be able to connect to external speakers.

- Bluetooth: It's become much better over the time that the Airplay has degraded, but I have to be within range of the receiver and multiroom audio is out.


  👤 troydavis Accepted Answer ✓
I’m using Roon, which is widely supported (and supports AirPlay and Sonos outputs, plus dozens of RoonReady outputs): https://kb.roonlabs.com/FAQ:_What_audio_outputs_or_devices_a... , https://kb.roonlabs.com/Roon_partner_programs

Usually the DAC handles streaming, but some powered monitors and streaming-only devices also do.