AirPlay Speakers

Technology and Internet
#1

I’ve got a bunch of Pioneer AirPlay speakers that are only about 3 years old. When they work they are brilliant… but lately they have been getting more and more unreliable. Failing to turn on when selected, failing to play even when they are selected… Power cycling usually fixes these things, but even that’s been hit and miss in the last few days.

Even though I’m pretty confident my WiFi has plenty of coverage (everything else work just fine) and I’m moved everything I’m able to ethernet to clear the airwaves as much as possible.

Reading back today the reviews on the Pioneer speakers are varied, plenty of people with issues which means it could simply be an issue with the product… but I wonder if there is a deeper problem with AirPlay??

So I’m looking for feedback from others using AirPlay speakers. Do they work OK for you? Are they reliable?

Secondly, I’m looking for recommendations for replacement speakers for me on the wild assumption that these ones continue to be irritating. We do use them everyday so it would be nice if they actually worked.

#2

I bought a Yamaha YSP 1600 BSW soundbar recently.

It’s really good. Very good on AirPlay (which was very important to me) as well as being a Spotify connect client (which I actually use way more these days as I use Spotify over iTunes 99% of the time). It also does internet radio which is awesome - i.e. I can set 774 as a stream in the unit, and then it just plays direct off the net, no device-to-speaker traffic.

They have a range of speakers in the same range (not just the soundbar).

P.S. Also, it’s got ethernet and wifi.

#3

For reference, both of the ones I’m having issues with are Pioneer A1’s:
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Home/Wireless-Speakers/A1+XW-SMA1-K

After moving it and resetting everything (again) it worked for a little while and crapped out again which inspired me to have a look at the few places around the local shops to see what was around. In my online searching I found most places came up with nothing when you searched for AirPlay (even though I knew they had models which supported it). Even the Apple store has few AirPlay speakers with most bluetooth :frowning:

Nothing in JB, Myer or TheGoodGuys did AirPlay at all when looking at the smaller stand alone speakers. The only things that had it at all were the higher end receivers, some sound bars (like you’ve said). Since this one is destined for the top of the fridge in the kitchen/dining room space I was hoping for another small unit rather than a full on receiver + speakers.

I was tempted to consider a bluetooth speaker instead, I’ve got one of the Logitech UE Boom speakers which works very well and has pretty good sound too. Great to play music from an iPhone… less so when you want to remote control music from a headless Mac Mini in another room.

One of the things I kept having pop up in my searches was this Sony mini system. Totally overkill for what I want, but it’s compact enough and while more than I wanted to spend it’s pretty decent for what it does.

sony.jpeg2028×792 184 KB

I ended up getting it for $359 from the local Good Guys which I couldn’t pass up.

The WiFi setup uses a three year old iOS app which I half expected to crash on 9.3.1, but it’s simple and did the one thing that was needed to get it connected to my WiFi network. A few hours in and it’s not missed a beat and sounds much better than the old Pioneer speaker too :smiley:

#4

I still have an Pioneer A1 but found that connecting via Ethernet was the best option, even then it has issues starting up. Do you have the Quick Start feature turned on?

I have been playing around with the Chromecast Audio plugged into my Audioengine B2 unit, I will move it over to the Pioneer A1 and see how it goes.

https://www.google.com.au/chromecast/speakers/

#5

If you want reliable AirPlay speakers, get yourself an AirPort Express & hook a pair of speakers up to that…its rock solid & It never drops out!

#6

The sony unit looks nice.

I’m looking at one of these for the bedroom…

#7

They have always seemed to have pretty poor WiFi performance with the low signal light flashing all the time even when they were pretty bloody close to the AP. Even then, they always worked as they were supposed to.
I do have quick start turned on and have checked it to make sure it’s active when it failed to work (which was more and more common). Like you said I realised that ethernet was the better option so have had the main one we use plugged into an AirPort Express via ethernet to provide the wireless connection. This seemed to be more reliable and kept everything going for a couple of months. While it didn’t seem to want to turn on by itself, hitting the power button saw thing working again.

Over the last week it’s required a full disconnect / power cycle to get it going again and over the weekend it started randomly restarting itself. Since I’ve got two of the A1’s I figured I’d just swap this out for the other one to keep it all going… but it seems the other unit has the same issues (worse infact). I’ve reset the settings, used ethernet and WiFi (including different AP’s), tried a different powerpoint, different location… I even tried reloading the latest firmware (which is actually a point older than the version I’m using. (Did Pioneer pull the newer firmware???). I actually thought I was onto a winner with the firmware only to have the speaker drop out and reboot itself (again) after a few songs.

On a side note, I also have the Pioneer A3 (which is the same speaker with a built in battery for portability). It’s used far more rarely that A1’s, but other than one random lockup about 12 months ago (which required leaving the thing unplugged for a couple of days to wait out the standby time of battery to essentially force it to reboot (sadly there is no way to power cycle that one since it’s all sealed and has a battery) it’s always worked well, wifi strength aside.

I do find it a little strange that both seem to have died at the same time in the same way. We only just moved into this house in November and both speakers were plugged in on either side of a common wall (so likely common power circuit)… maybe a power surge/blip/something has done them both in?? The power has been on and off a bunch of times with different works being done around the house, but nothing I would consider out of the norm. Nothing else in the house is playing up.

Since I’ve got a spare AirPort Express I contemplated doing just that. If I had a spare set of powered speakers I probably would have tried that as an interim step but sort of like the more integrated, controlled system rather than the “dumb” AUX-in sort of solution.
(That said, I haven’t read the manual at all yet, but the Sony does appear to need to be switched on before it appears on the network, will have to see if there is a way around that. Once it’s on though, everything can be controlled remotely and it will power off by itself if it’s not been used for a while).

That looks pretty good and is basically what I was looking for. Simple, capable, small. I’ll keep that in mind if I end up replacing the other one that’s not working.

#8

Yes, the AirPort Express isn’t exactly ideal in that regard.
I guess a good start is to have a pretty solid network set up (wifi & wired). Maybe your wifi network may be contributing to the drop outs.
As a suggestion, you may want to try make use of your spare AE to extend your wifi network & improve your wifi coverage.
I personally have two 5th gen AirPort Extremes, one at each end of the house & have next to no issues (if any) with wifi.

#9

Waaaay ahead of you there :stuck_out_tongue: My network is over engineered with hard installed ethernet to the TV, game systems and all things in the entertainment centre as well as the computers. The only things left on wireless these days are the iOS devices, the laptops and these speakers.

Occasionally I think about moving to a Ubiquity AP mounted in the middle of the roof space as a “better” solution, but really it’s just more overkill ;).

I’ve got a Time Capsule at the front of the house and an Airport Extreme at the back providing coverage across the whole house. There is a AirPort express sitting in the middle somewhere acting as a print server until I get around to getting a new network printer one day.

For reference, sitting next to the speaker with my laptop and iPhone, both devices are seeing 5 bars of WiFi and have zero issues vs the Pioneers units which have always been a little picky, but as I said above, I was already using another AirPort Express to hook up the Pioneer via it’s ethernet port which removes another potential bit of problem.

Long story short:

#10

So we’ve come to the conclusion that (your) Pioneer AirPlay speakers are no good!
You would think a firmware update would fix your issues. Aren’t Pioneer still releasing updates? I’ve seen on other forums where Pioneer haven’t kept up with support on their products once they release a new product, which is a shame if that’s the case.
I personally was looking at Sonos speakers, have you considered them?

#11

To be fair, firmware updates for most products (excluding computers/phones/tablets) tend to be pretty few and far between. In this case there hasn’t been an update since at best 2013 which I applied the day I got the speakers home :stuck_out_tongue:

When it comes to Sonos, they use their own networking setup completely. As I understand it they add another layer to the mix and it’s not AirPlay compatible. Even on their own website they talk about using AUX IN from an AirPort to use airplay… not exactly high tech.

For most normal people, playing music from your phone via bluetooth is as high tech as they need to get (which is reflected in the range of products generally available). Volume, station/track control all in the palm of your hand. Something even non techy people can see benefit in and love to use!

AirPlay requires your device to be setup on your network, which isn’t always easy and is beyond the capability of many users. It’s iOS/Mac specific and when playing from iOS you can only play to one speaker at a time anyway! Long story short, bluetooth speakers suit most people and are easier to use since it’s just like pairing your phone with your car!

Off on my tangent now…

Historically multiroom / multi speaker audio was a step into a more commercial setup with sound mixing boards to plug various analog sources together and direct them to the places they were needed. While some things existed in the home theatre space they were usually pretty expensive. It’s always been possible to run some speaker wire into other rooms then put in some old fashioned manual switches to turn on/off speakers but anything that allows for greater control is pretty new.

If you’re playing music from a Mac AirPlay is brilliant. Now you can play music to many speakers, you’re not dependant on a device staying in the room (although you can still play from an iOS device if you want to). Add in the iOS Remote App and I can control my headless Mac Mini HTPC’s iTunes library, steaming to multiple speakers including full volume control in one place.

If you’re using something else to provide some audio then AirFoil is a nice addition too, although now you’re getting into multiple applications.

For example:
Pandora to play music
Airfoil to get it to your multiple speakers
Remoteless to control Airfoil

If you want to remote control Pandora remotely that another app again (I don’t recall what I used to use for that one!)

Then maybe Loopback depending on what else you want to route.

…and of course, this is only relevant if you want to play to multiple different speakers from a central player.

For reference, my setup looks like this:

Mac Mini as a HTPC which is plugged into my receiver and TV running Kodi for video playback.
It also runs iTunes (inc Apple Music) for music playback via AirPlay to speakers around the house.

There is an old iPad 3 on the fridge as a kitchen timer, iTunes remote, recipe browser, photo frame etc etc.
AirPlay Speakers in the kitchen, playroom, bedroom and one of the kids rooms.

#12

oh… and you can control it on your Apple Watch form the remote app too :smiley:

1 Like
#13

Was this the one you are talking about? It’s on special atm, Check out this forum post:

I was tempted to get 1 myself!

#14

It’s been a while but I didn’t think it was that expensive

From memory I was looking at this:
http://www.ubiquitishop.com.au/359_0_unifi_ac_lite.product

And considering this too:
http://www.ubiquitishop.com.au/372_3_uap_ac_long_range_oem_.product

#15

Ok, the one that I posted was the enterprise version…hence the price difference