Bang & Olufsen Adds AirPlay 2 Support to Additional BeoPlay and BeoSound Speakers

I've long suspected Airplay 2 was just a software shakedown of my pocketbook and not any sort of change in hardware spec. Shameful of the other MFR's and Apple.

As I wrote in another post here a few days ago this is not a solid firmware release for the BeoPlay A9... I’ve tried it for a few days now and the firmware is very unstable in its current revision. Music drops. Volume ”get stuck” and won’t change.

My opinion is that the new firmware revision is worse now when using iTunes on Mac. Mac didn’t need AirPlay 2 to work with more than one speaker (only iOS needs that) and the BeoPlay A9 has problems connecting to AirPlay 2 using iTunes on Mac. This revision feels like a step backwards for Mac users until a more stable version is released.

However, it seems to work fairly well with iOS.

Let’s hope for a more stable version real soon.

Great news because anything B&O has will sound much better than anything Apple. Sonos is decent but the small B&O speakers are fantastic

I can't speak for A9, but I have M5, rather had. M5 is a great looking speaker with big bass, but that's pretty much the only good things I can say.

M5 is strictly mono. Unlike HomePod, you cannot buy two and get stereo sound. And while the bass is impressive, it's very unnatural. It has a bunch of settings to improve things a bit, but you need to use crummy app. Even then, I really didn't find it to be "sound better than anything Apple."

I sold M5 shortly after getting HomePod. Now rocking two in awesome stereo sound.

Needing a basic and unobtrusive mono AirPlay speaker for my kitchen -- and not caring at all about Alexa or Siri -- I stumbled across this great little Yamaha and can heartily recommend it:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HY4W9I0/.

It's currently well under $100 and sounds quite decent. It will apparently pair up for stereo sound if you buy two of them. By all accounts the HomePod sounds amazing, but not enough to warrant the price tag, for my usage situation. (Also, I have great bookshelf speakers in another room for when I want to prioritize music quality.)
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As I wrote in another post here a few days ago this is not a solid firmware release for the BeoPlay A9... I’ve tried it for a few days now and the firmware is very unstable in its current revision. Music drops. Volume ”get stuck” and won’t change.

My opinion is that the new firmware revision is worse now when using iTunes on Mac. Mac didn’t need AirPlay 2 to work with more than one speaker (only iOS needs that) and the BeoPlay A9 has problems connecting to AirPlay 2 using iTunes on Mac. This revision feels like a step backwards for Mac users until a more stable version is released.

However, it seems to work fairly well with iOS.

Let’s hope for a more stable version real soon.

I think AirPlay 2 is a mixed bag. I was pretty psyched when the AirPort Express got updated to AirPlay 2 but immediately after updating my firmware I saw a huge loss in responsiveness. Lost connections, difficulty connecting... for the first time I found myself having to reboot the AirPort Express to get it back on the network. It was a drag.

And the only real benefit (multi-room audio) is, as you point out, something iTunes has been able to do for years now with AirPlay 1. Streaming to multiple rooms from an iOS device is an edge case at best for me, and not nearly worth all the flakiness of AirPlay 2 -- at least on that device.

Needing a basic and unobtrusive mono AirPlay speaker for my kitchen -- and not caring at all about Alexa or Siri -- I stumbled across this great little Yamaha and can heartily recommend it:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HY4W9I0/.

It's currently well under $100 and sounds quite decent. It will apparently pair up for stereo sound if you buy two of them. By all accounts the HomePod sounds amazing, but not enough to warrant the price tag, for my usage situation. (Also, I have great bookshelf speakers in another room for when I want to prioritize music quality.)
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I think AirPlay 2 is a mixed bag. I was pretty psyched when the AirPort Express got updated to AirPlay 2 but immediately after updating my firmware I saw a huge loss in responsiveness. Lost connections, difficulty connecting... for the first time I found myself having to reboot the AirPort Express to get it back on the network. It was a drag.

And the only real benefit (multi-room audio) is, as you point out, something iTunes has been able to do for years now with AirPlay 1. Streaming to multiple rooms from an iOS device is an edge case at best for me, and not nearly worth all the flakiness of AirPlay 2 -- at least on that device.

I have two AE running on my network and I don't experience any issues. Having them running wired ethernet is the only way to go, at least for me. I turn off the network on them, their sole purpose is to relay Airplay.

I've found ever since Airplay 2 was released that the interface of speaker selection in iTunes has been buggy, the way it reorganizes / alphabetizes each speaker if its selected is a real drag. Selecting one speaker turns off all the rest or the audio will just fall off.

Like you said, controlling from iOS is a mess. Its been iTunes for me since day one. So much easier.