How to stream to multiple AirPlay(tm) devices without iTunes(tm) and without Airport Express(tm)

In my previous posts I wrote about the Zeppelin Air, and in fact, I’m using it as on of my several music speakers to fill my rooms with fine music :-). I’ve always dreamed of a “music” house. AirPlay seems to be the right solution at this time, because Sonos and Logitech (Squeezebox) are strictly restricted to the hardware produced by themselves (i.e. you must buy a Sonos speaker when you’ve got a Sonos system), whereas Apple is licensing its AirPlay technology to other “premium producers” such as Bower&Wilkins. Recently some amplifiers with AirPlay support have been presented.

Unfortunately, Apple tries to enforce us to stream our music only from within iTunes. But what if you’d like to stream your favorite music that is playing in a web browser, because you’re using spotify, simfy, Napster, just to name a few? No way.

What if you like to receive AirPlay streams on other devices? Apple would now answer “Well, for this purpose you can by the AirPort Express(tm)” which acts as AirPlay receiver and offers both analog and digital stereo output. Actually, you’d be better off buying AppleTV3 with even more features for just 20€ more, but that’s not necessary if you only intend to stream music (for video streaming it can be a smart solution, though).

But we can do better and save 80€ :). Airfoil (available for both Mac and Windows) allows you to select an arbitrary input source and serves it as AirPlay audio stream.

Believe me, this little software is worth every cent, though it’s not for free – check the website.

The screenshot shows Airfoil on my Mac. I’m currently listening to music being played in the Chrome browser. The different receivers can be selected just by clicking on them, you can also see the Zeppelin. All other AirPlay would be mentioned here, too.

The “Computer”  is the Mac running Airfoil. “SilverApple” is my old white MacBook running the free AirSpeakers software, allowing to act as receiver for Airfoil. This Mac is connected to my hi-fi system with 4 speakers, treating the living room with sound :-).

But this is just the beginning:

If you have a device running iOS such as an iPhone or iPod, you can use “Airfoil Speakers Touch”. Welcome to the future! Now you can even attach your iPhone/iPod/… to the hi-fi system without Airport Express or other hardware. Now – that’s cool, isn’t it?

By the way, I’m now using Airfoil for over 1 year and so I can say it’s really reliable. No interruptions, no crashes, as I’ve already said: Just worth every Cent 🙂

 

Feel free to leave a comment if you like this post or if you have any questions.

More on this topic:
Read Peter Ledbrook’s very interesting article about his experience on switching WiFi channels when he had trouble with AirPlay

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