Belkin Designing 'Soundform Connect' Adapter to Add AirPlay 2 to Speakers
Belkin appears to be working on a new "Belkin Soundform Connect" adapter that will connect to a standard speaker to add AirPlay 2 capabilities.
The adapter was found in FCC filings by Janko Roettgers (via 9to5Mac), and it looks like it will be powered by a USB-C cable and will feature a 3.5mm mini jack port for audio output and Optical Digital Audio.
The functionality may be similar to the AirPort Express, which is no longer available. The AirPort Express enabled AirPlay functionality on a standard speaker through the 3.5mm jack.
When a speaker is connected to Belkin's adapter, an iPhone, iPad, Mac, or other Apple device will be able to see it as an AirPlay 2 speaker.
AirPlay 2 is a multi-room audio feature that lets you stream music to more than one AirPlay 2 enabled speaker. AirPlay 2 is available on the HomePod, HomePod mini, Apple TV, Sonos speakers, and other third-party speaker options.
The Belkin Soundform Connect will also add HomeKit support, which will allow the speakers to be assigned to a room and to be controlled with Siri voice commands or the Home app.
There's no word on when the Belkin Soundform Connect will be released, but it could be priced at around 100 euros or $120.
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Top Rated Comments
I’d like to replace my aging AirPort Express (also supports AirPlay 2).
The 3rd party AirPlay receivers out there from Dayton Audio, AudioEngine, etc only support AirPlay 1. I posted in several audio forums I visit to see if anyone knew of an AirPlay 2 adapter/receiver, and came up short.
Anyway I appreciate your advice, so thank you.
i.e., line-in from some device, output to airplay.
Right now I've got a heap of airplay enabled outputs, and looking to hook up a record player.
It’s like the HomePod buffers the entire song into it’s 1GB of ram (or into its 16GB of storage)
The AirPort Express doesn’t have that.
EDIT: Looked at some tear downs of the 2nd gen AirPort Express and it appears to have 64MB of ram and no storage, so it obviously can’t really buffer anything sent to it from a Mac/iOS device like HomePod can. Hopefully this Belkin device can behave like the HomePod. If it acts the same as the AirPort Express, I’ll be returning it.