AV amp with Zone 2 Airplay

[fitzyboy2000]

Hi Guys

I am after a AV receiver that allows you to play music in zone 2 over airplay while sky/DVD etc is being played in zone 1 on the surround sound.

Thank you.

Chris

 

[Juzzie Wuzzie]

My suggestion would be to take a receiver with Zone 2, and feed it (analog) from an Airport Express.

 

[mr malarky]

My suggestion would be to take a receiver with Zone 2, and feed it (analog) from an Airport Express.

Suspect JW's correct, as many receivers will automatically switch the main zone to "airplay" once you try and send the audio feed from your apple device (where-as the airport express, or an AppleTV unit, should just be treated as a standard audio input by the receiver, and so be routeable to Zone 2 without an issue).

 

[fitzyboy2000]

Thanks guys so just a analouge input is the solve? and no amp can do this without a external device (apple tv etc)..

Thanks

 

[mr malarky]

If you use an AppleTV unit (£80 of amazon) then its an HDMI cable that you run into the amp. Your iTunes Player will then detect the AppleTV box as an Airplay player and send the audio to it which will in turn bounce that on to the receiver via HDMI). You can also use the unit for streaming movies in 1080p from iTunes on to your TV via your receiver, plus use apps like YouTube and Netflix etc, so it could be worth having one in your set-up anyway.

MI couldn't say that 'no' receiver will allow you to do this (I doubt anyone could make that statement, unless they've tried every receiver on the market! ), so maybe draw up a short list of the receivers your considering, give your local dealer a call and ask them to do some research for you.

 

[mr malarky]

Having had a quick look on some other forum threads, one workaround with some receivers is to activate zone 2, select airplay for both zones, start sending the audio signal via airplay, and then once its playing through both zones select a different source for zone 1.

So, you can't specifically select airplay for zone 2 while playing something else on zone 1, but you can select airplay for both at once and then, once its playing, switch zone 1 to a different source (if that makes sense?).

 

[fitzyboy2000]

MR Malarky that does make sense, thank you v much for the info and the research much appriciated.........

 

[Juzzie Wuzzie]

Make sure the receiver has two DACs though - as when I tried to do the above a few years ago, you could only feed Zone 2 an analogue source a there is only one DAC in the receiver so it didn't have the ability to dual convert.

In short, confirm you can do what you want with the specific receiver before purchasing it / not being able to return or exchange it.

 

[fitzyboy2000]

Thanks guys....