Airplay/New Zeppelin

[admin_exported]

Hi, I've got a question

I am considering adding one of the new zeppelins in my living room area which is connected to the dinning/kitchen (has a current edition zeppelin). What I am hoping to achieve is that by adding an airport express to the original zeppy I could use an iPhone to airplay to both devices simultaneously, filling the whole space with sound.

What I am wondering is whether this is even possible? Or am I missing something obvious?

Will the two devices be out of sync due to wireless constraints? After all they will essentially be in the same space and as a result any discrepancey would just ruin the whole thing.

Since the airport express will be closer to the network (the new one would be in a poor coverage area) could I use it as a repeater minimizing the problem?

Or should I create a new network just for the express/Zep-air?

Sorry if any of that is unclear 😛 but appreciate any help!

 

[Andy Clough]

I think I'm right in saying that you can only stream to one device at a time from an iPhone, it can't stream to two or more devices via AirPlay simultaneously. To do that, you need to be running iTunes 10 from a Mac or PC, then that will allow you to stream to multiple devices, so you could play music to both the Zeppelin Air and the exist Zepp connected to an AirPort Express.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

What you suggest "should" be fine - I am using 3 expresses to extend my wireless network, as well as as for music streaming, and they work great.

However, I did have some issues when I first tried it with an older D-Link wireless router. (The expresses could join the network but not extend it, so you needed to be within range of the router) In the end I replaced this with a Time Capsule and have never looked back, but if you router is more modern than my old 802.11g one, you might be fine as is.

Hope that helps?

P.S. Re iPhone for streaming. I do use mine for this, but just be aware you may get drop outs if you are surfing on your phone or receive a call... More often I use my iphone as a remote for itunes running on my laptop, which can cope with the multitasking much better!

 

[Anonymous]

Yep, Andy, you are correct. Just tried it, and it's definitely only one at a time from the iPhone!

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the help!

Should be fine as far as the wireless network goes once it is extended, it's a sitecom 300n gaming router II or something odd, but it has to go through two concrete walls :S

Not being able to stream to both from the phone is fine, always have my mac air or PC kicking around anyways.

However what I forgot to mention was that I mostly use Spotify Premium for 98% of listening. I take it spotify cannot be pushed via airplay on the PC/MAC? Could I use airfoil to do this? If I did use airfoil does it allow me to send music to the Zeppelin or would I need another express (It would be a shame to overide the new zep DAC)?

Cheers

 

[deanhartley]

Airplay does indeed only allow an OS device to stream to only one renderer at any one time. I am sure this feature could be enabled in the OS and may be in future (who knows with Apple) The issue would be sync of multiple zones when trying to establish a 'party mode' This is because Airplay works via a standard 802.11 protocol.

On the other hand Sonos is a very much more stable and practical system. Each zone player talks to the other and provides sync to allow proper multi zone operation, together with perfect party/link mode. As a result the players also extend the range. 🙂

It's a real shame consumers will soon think Apple invented this type of streaming system, when in fact it's just a protected DLNA, which you can find in systems such as squeezebox. Sonos is way more advanced than Airplay and I for one will never replace my 4 zone Sonos system with any Airplay devices, particularly since all my music is backed to NAS in FLAC (which Airplay is incompatible with)

I like the Zep as a stand alone product, but a Sonos S5/s and a bridge for £360 and use the free iphone App is a better proposition for in most respects. If you use Spotify premium, then it's also there on your IPhone, PC etc.

Bit late now I guess.

 

[Anonymous]

I have no doubt that Sonos would deliver superior wireless performace, but it isnït exactly cheap... Not to mention that after hearing the S5 zone player I was quite underwhelmed. Iïm guessing this would mean that to connect speakers or zeppelins to the sonos system I would need a zone bridge and two zone players. Which comes in at more than 700 euros, seems a bit steep when the tech is built in to the new zeppelin and an airport express can replicate it to a certain degree.

Again, I comepletely agree that Sonos offers the better quality solution, but it seems awfully expensive to hook up a few docks...

 

[professorhat]

Duol:However what I forgot to mention was that I mostly use Spotify Premium for 98% of listening. I take it spotify cannot be pushed via airplay on the PC/MAC? Could I use airfoil to do this? If I did use airfoil does it allow me to send music to the Zeppelin or would I need another express (It would be a shame to overide the new zep DAC)?

I would think that the Zep should show up as another AirPlay device so Airfoil should be able to stream direct to it, but it would be best to get confirmation on that first - I'd imagine someone at B&W could help you with this if you don't get a response here.

 

[The_Lhc]

Duol:I have no doubt that Sonos would deliver superior wireless performace, but it isnït exactly cheap... Not to mention that after hearing the S5 zone player I was quite underwhelmed.

Really? What were you listening to? I've never heard anyone give the S5 a bad comment.

 

[Andy Clough]

Duol:
Thanks for the help!

Not being able to stream to both from the phone is fine, always have my mac air or PC kicking around anyways.

However what I forgot to mention was that I mostly use Spotify Premium for 98% of listening. I take it spotify cannot be pushed via airplay on the PC/MAC? Could I use airfoil to do this? If I did use airfoil does it allow me to send music to the Zeppelin or would I need another express (It would be a shame to overide the new zep DAC)?

Cheers

Good question. I think you should be fine using Airfoil to stream Spotify Premium to the Zeppelin Air, as it should recognise the Zepp as another client like Apple TV or AirPort Express, but I'll double check with B&W.

 

[Andy Clough]

OK, contacted B&W and they're promising an answer shortly.

 

[Anonymous]

Andy Clough:OK, contacted B&W and they're promising an answer shortly.

Great! Thank you so much! Just had a look at the airfoil website and they said they would support airplay speakers when they came out so it looks like it should work, but would be nice with B&W confirmation.

the_lhc:Duol:

I have no doubt that Sonos
would deliver superior wireless performace, but it isnït exactly
cheap... Not to mention that after hearing the S5 zone player I was
quite underwhelmed.

Really? What were you listening to? I've never heard anyone give the S5 a
bad comment.

I was at a friends house and he has a full Sonos setup so I asked to listen a little to his S5, think it was playing from an iPod 256K tracks. Some classical, pop and classic rock. Didn't exactly get a lengthy audition but my conclusion was that the only place where it was as good (maybe better) was in the high frequencies. Since most of my listening is in a "party" environment I felt that the zeppelin was more suited to my needs with its low frequency grunt (albeit lacking precision at times). Not to mention that although I have never done a side by side test the zep felt like it was just that little bit more room filling without having to go super loud. I am also the worlds biggest sucker for good looks 😛 (Maybe underwhelmed was the wrong term, just not convinced)

This coupled with the fact that the Zeppelin Air has all new drive units seperate amplification and hopefuly an inbuilt DAC to match the Sonos/Acram leads me to believe that it could be a real winner (we will see).

I also like having the iPod dock on the front, for those times when soneome brings their own tunes or you just cant be bothered it makes things nice and simple.

 

[The_Lhc]

Duol:I also like having the iPod dock on the front, for those times when soneome brings their own tunes or you just cant be bothered it makes things nice and simple.

Sonos have their own wireless iPod dock now, the WD100, £99 (I think) can sit anywhere in the house and stream to any ZP, also acts as an additional wireless bridge to beef the mesh network up (although it doesn't have any wired ethernet ports).

 

[Anonymous]

the_lhc:Duol:I also like having the iPod dock on the front, for those times when soneome brings their own tunes or you just cant be bothered it makes things nice and simple.

Sonos have their own wireless iPod dock now, the WD100, £99 (I think) can sit anywhere in the house and stream to any ZP, also acts as an additional wireless bridge to beef the mesh network up (although it doesn't have any wired ethernet ports).

You're quite right. If I didn't already have the one zep and love it's looks/meaty sound so much I would consider a sonos setup. However at the moment I can't quite justify their pricing scheme, just doesn't make any sense to me...

ZP120 500 euros, fair enough its got an amplifier built in, a one box solution.

ZP90 350 euros, seems quite dear to me, considering you don't get any amplification and what further confuses me is that the S5 is only 50 euros more expensive, yet contains amplification, speakers and as far as I can see the same functionality as a ZP90 (without speaker choice)? Why is the 90 so expensive?

If I said I wanted to sonosify my current zep and add an S5 it would be: ZB (100), S5 (400), ZP90 (350) Dock (maybe) (120)

Bringing me to a total of almost 1k euros. While a new zeppelin plus airport express is just shy of 700. So even if it all goes horribly wrong I would still have 300 spare to get started on adding sonos.

Sorry for the long winded explanation 😛

 

[The_Lhc]

Duol:However at the moment I can't quite justify their pricing scheme, just doesn't make any sense to me...
ZP120 500 euros, fair enough its got an amplifier built in, a one box solution.

ZP90 350 euros, seems quite dear to me, considering you don't get any amplification and what further confuses me is that the S5 is only 50 euros more expensive, yet contains amplification, speakers and as far as I can see the same functionality as a ZP90

Well not quite, the ZP90 offers analogue and digital outputs (it would be pretty useless if it didn't...) the S5 only offers a headphone output.

(without speaker choice)? Why is the 90 so expensive?

That's not the question most people ask but rather if the ZP120 is simply an S5 without the speakers why does the ZP120 cost so much MORE than the S5? That's what doesn't make sense, the ZP120 is over-priced, if you ask me.

If I said I wanted to sonosify my current zep and add an S5 it would be: ZB (100), S5 (400), ZP90 (350) Dock (maybe) (120)

Bringing me to a total of almost 1k euros. While a new zeppelin plus airport express is just shy of 700. So even if it all goes horribly wrong I would still have 300 spare to get started on adding sonos.

Sorry for the long winded explanation 😛

You wouldn't necessarily need the ZB unless your router is nowhere near any location you'd have a zone in (mine's in the living room, so I plug my ZP90 into the router and amp) but no, it's not cheap, however for multi-room purposes it's a far better solution, but that only matters if you actually need that functionality.

 

[Anonymous]

I don't really see the problem here.

If you've got an iPhone, you've also got a computer running iTunes.

Thus, if you want to stream to more than one sound system, you can do it from iTunes on that computer -- and control it with your iPhone. If you just want to stream to one sound system, you can do it directly from your iPhone.

I think it would be useful if people realized the difference between Apples system, and systems like Sonos or Squeezebox. The two latter are based on separate music players, getting their media from a common server. What Apple provide, is quite different: a method for streaming media from multiple sources.

 

[The_Lhc]

Fahnsen:I think it would be useful if people realized the difference between Apples system, and systems like Sonos or Squeezebox. The two latter are based on separate music players, getting their media from a common server. What Apple provide, is quite different: a method for streaming media from multiple sources.

You can stream from multiple sources with Sonos.

 

[Andy Clough]

Duol:
Thanks for the help!

Not being able to stream to both from the phone is fine, always have my mac air or PC kicking around anyways.

However what I forgot to mention was that I mostly use Spotify Premium for 98% of listening. I take it spotify cannot be pushed via airplay on the PC/MAC? Could I use airfoil to do this? If I did use airfoil does it allow me to send music to the Zeppelin or would I need another express (It would be a shame to overide the new zep DAC)?

Cheers

Duol

Just had the official response from B&W: yes, the Zeppelin Air will work with Airfoil, which will simply recognise it as another client device to which you can stream Spotify, so you won't need a second Airport Express.

 

[Anonymous]

Andy Clough:
Duol

Just had the official response from B&W: yes, the Zeppelin Air will work with Airfoil, which will simply recognise it as another client device to which you can stream Spotify, so you won't need a second Airport Express.

That's great, looks like it will all work out pretty okay then, just a matter of waiting a few weeks then.

Thank you all for the help, it is much appreciated! This forum has once again proved to be a wealth of useful information!

 

[Andy Clough]

No problem, let us know how you get on with the Zeppelin Air once you have it.