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.<p>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.<p>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.<p>Options:<p>- 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.<p>- 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.
I’m using Roon, which is widely supported (and supports AirPlay and Sonos outputs, plus dozens of RoonReady outputs): <a href="https://kb.roonlabs.com/FAQ:_What_audio_outputs_or_devices_are_supported_by_Roon%3F" rel="nofollow">https://kb.roonlabs.com/FAQ:_What_audio_outputs_or_devices_a...</a> , <a href="https://kb.roonlabs.com/Roon_partner_programs" rel="nofollow">https://kb.roonlabs.com/Roon_partner_programs</a><p>Usually the DAC handles streaming, but some powered monitors and streaming-only devices also do.