Roger Fingas
With Tuesday's release of iOS 11.4 and tvOS 11.4, Apple has finally rolled out much anticipated support for AirPlay 2 and named a few dozen third party speaker systems that are expected support the new multi-room audio technology in the near future.
Among the list of are by Bang & Olufsen, Denon, Libratone, Marantz, Naim, and Sonos. While many of them are already on the market, such as those by Sonos, all of them are listed only as "announced" pending updates.
Only the Apple HomePod supports AirPlay 2 as of Tuesday. The long-delayed streaming format's main upgrade is multi-room audio support, letting people pump sound across multiple speakers, or shift it from one room to another.
Third-party products set to gain support include:
- [audio only]
- Denon AVR-X3500H
- Denon AVR-X4500H
- Denon AVR-X6500H
- Libratone Zipp
- Marantz AV7705
- Marantz NA6006
- Marantz SR5013
- Marantz SR6013
- Marantz SR7013
- Sonos One
- Sonos Playbase
There are no dates associated with the listed products, so it isn't clear precisely when support from the vendors will arrive.
Missing are other brands Apple has teased, namely Bluesound, Bose, Bowers & Wilkins, Marshall, and Pioneer.
Apple also used Tuesday to introduce stereo pairing for HomePods, Messages in iCloud, and the relatively minor watchOS 4.3.1 update.
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Charles Martin
Mike Wuerthele
Amber Neely
12 Comments
I think all of the Denon/Marantz products listed don't exist yet. All of those are models that will come out later this year with the annual product cycle updates.
No Bose. That company is so lost right now
The Beosound Core and Beosound Essence will work as suitable replacements for an Airport Express for audio streaming. Only $750 or $1200 respectively. Cool.
However, Apple own speaker HomePod is not.!