There are lots of different types of speakers out there to choose from, but Apple users are best off getting one with AirPlay support. We’ve tested out some of the best ones you can buy. Multi-room speaker systems are more popular than ever – especially as mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad allow us to carry our entire music library from room to room, or connect to music streaming services such as Apple Music or Amazon Prime Music with a tap.
There’s a lot of choice out there, offering a wide variety of features, specs, designs and price tags. But we’re here to guide you through the complexity and help you find the best speaker equipped with AirPlay 2 for optimal performance with your Mac and iOS devices.
HOW TO CHOOSE AN AIRPLAY SPEAKER
There’s a lot to think about when buying an AirPlay speaker so make sure you read this buying advice before splashing the cash.
Music streaming & compatibility
Having your favourite music follow you around your home is great, but conventional multi-room speakers often have significant limitations. Many, for example, will only work with a limited number of streaming services that are built into the apps provided by each manufacturer.
As you might expect, most will work with Spotify, while Tidal and Deezer also get a lot of support. But for some reason, Sonos is one of the few manufacturers of multi-room speakers that also supports Apple Music. In fact, some speakers only provide apps for iOS or Android mobile devices, which means that you can’t even play music from iTunes on a Mac.
The other big problem with speakers in the past was that you generally had to buy them all from one manufacturer when assembling a multi-room set-up because rival speakers were incompatible and wouldn’t work together.
AirPlay versus AirPlay 2
The speaker market changed in 2018 with the release of Apple’s updated AirPlay 2 software. Released to coincide with the HomePod launch, AirPlay 2 has also been licensed to a number of well-known manufacturers, which means there’s a wide range of compatible speakers available. In fact, every model here works with AirPlay 2.
The first version of AirPlay, released back in 2010, was like a souped-up version of Bluetooth, allowing you to stream audio from any app on your Mac or iOS devices to any AirPlay-compatible speaker and freeing you from reliance on the manufacturer’s apps. AirPlay also uses a Wi-Fi connection, which means a higher bandwidth than Bluetooth and better sound quality – not to mention longer range.
The simplicity and versatility of AirPlay is great, but – like Bluetooth – its original version was only designed to work with one speaker at a time. AirPlay 2 takes Apple into the multi-room market, with the ability
