Belkin SoundForm Connect AirPlay 2 Adapter & Airplay 2 Receiver - Wireless Streaming for Apple Devices to Bluetooth Speakers - Optical & 3.5mm Speaker Inputs for iPhone 17, 16, MacBook Pro, & More

Great wireless audio - But terrible product description at top. This is for running audio from iPhone or any Apple device through wireless home network to your amplifier and speakers. It replaces old and discontinued Apple airport device perfectly. It is not for Bluetooth. If you don’t know what you are looking for that top product description will not help. I have used Apple airport for years to feed wireless audio from iPhones and computers into my high end stereo amp. This does the same. Perfectly integrated into Apple iPhone software. Note that you need an iPhone running OS18 and higher for setup and Apple devices with recent versions of OSX. Immediately available as audio output on all home Iphones and my Mac computers after simple setup. I ran this against my old Apple Airport to evaluate sound. It is just as good, and the Airport has very good audio resolution — That I tested years ago in detail. Absolutely no problem with device, but I do have a strong wireless signal throughout our house. Presently I am using the analog output. It is good. I may hook up optical output to my DAC and then to amp— but as of now I am fine with audio. I am driving a very good amplifier and high end stereo speakers with this system. Nothing through wireless will satisfy the audiophile snob — which I once was. But it is far superior to a Bluetooth connection. We tried that. Forget it. Use wireless if you can. Seamless connections for all the family. Hope they don’t discontinue this product. I bought it now as insurance against death of my 17 year old Airport, which is still working just fine. But for now, this has replaced it. Good luck. It works !

Why I’m Loving It: Easy Streaming: The Belkin SoundForm Connect makes streaming music from my Apple devices a breeze. It connects seamlessly to my Bluetooth speakers, so I can enjoy my playlists without any hassle. Versatile Inputs: With optical and 3.5mm inputs, it works with pretty much any speaker setup. Whether I'm using my iPhone or MacBook Pro, it delivers great sound quality. AirPlay 2 Magic: The AirPlay 2 feature lets me control music in multiple rooms, which is super cool for parties or just chilling at home. It's like having a smart sound system without the crazy price tag. Compact and Sleek: The adapter is small and unobtrusive, fitting nicely into my entertainment setup. Plus, it looks modern and stylish—no ugly tech clutter here! Overall Thoughts: The Belkin SoundForm Connect AirPlay 2 Adapter is a game-changer for anyone with Apple devices. It makes streaming music to Bluetooth speakers super easy and offers versatile connectivity options. The AirPlay 2 functionality is a huge plus, allowing for multi-room audio control. If you're an Apple fan looking to upgrade your sound experience, this adapter is definitely worth it!

Edit 2: WARNING! After changing some network settings on my router, I lost connection with this device and cannot restore the connection at all. I've done a factory reset several times. The RFID signal isn't detected, and manually adding to HomeKit by adding the code fails every time too. Downgraded to 1 stars. Edit: WARNING! With the release of iOS 16 these are no longer supported by HomeKit. They still work as airplay receivers, but cannot be controlled by the home app. Easy to set up in homekit, and a reliable network connection. The only competitive device on Amazon is the WiiM, and this is much more reliable when it comes to staying connected. The WiiM has a much better app with more functionality. And significantly, the WiiM can handle Hi-Fi audio up to 24 bit, 192 kHz. If Belkin would upgrade the software for HiFi, this would be hands down superior to the competition. The WiFi and SPDIF port should be able to handle it already, so it’s just a matter of a software upgrade.

This little, simple device works as intended to integrate any non-smart audio system into the rest of your wireless Airplay speaker network when paired with a strong wifi signal. The setup is a little cumbersome, but it can be added to HomeKit directly without the need for a 3rd party "Belkin" app and that's it. Choose the "room" you want it connected to and the name and you're good to start streaming music from your iPhone/iPad, Mac, or Apple TV devices. Overall, it works the way it should, but sometimes there are glitches or audio disconnects depending on what app is outputting the audio. There are some instances where the receiver will not play audio unless the source is paused and then played again, or where the device is selected from the Airplay menu and it will simply refuse to connect. Frustrating when that happens but I believe that is more of an iOS software issue and it has gotten more reliable through time with updates. The audio from the receiver is a little on the quieter side, so you might have to really turn up your audio system or use an amplifier to get full sound out of it. It syncs well with the rest of my smart home audio setup (HomePods), and there is basically no delay most of the time. Airplay is the proprietary music streaming protocol implemented by Apple into most of its modern devices, which means that the rights must be purchased by 3rd party companies to be able to create adapters that utilize and decode the signal. It's crazy that such a simple device could cost so much, but that's just a penalizing perk of using the Apple product ecosystem.

A few weeks ago my Airplay Express stopped working as an AirPlay endpoint connected to my "legacy" stereo (analog signal RCA line inputs). First I took the AE to an Apple Store and they wiped it, but it still won't work with AirPlay any more (hmmm) and wanted $95 for a replacement that they couldn't guarantee would work with AirPlay, either. I then bought the Wiim because it was a clone of the NAD CS1 endpoint network streamer ($360), but it wouldn't connect to the Apple Home app, so back it went. Bought the Belkin SoundForm, installation required connecting via the Home app, but it went fast and smooth, and within a few minutes I was streaming again. Can't yet comment on whether it has drop-outs or other connectivity issues, but it certainly seems like it's the right solution.

For me, seamless, easy, set up. I Have two. Use one for a Samsung sound bar with optical input in combination with a bunch of HomePods. The second one I’ve experimented with attaching to a subwoofer and satellite speakers using the 3.5mm option. Also tried with RCA input from 3.5mm to Onkyo receiver with expensive BMW speakers, and a Sunfire sub. In all cases, it’s just great to be able to control and turn on an entire system, while other speakers are playing other content in other rooms, or even in adjacent home on the same network. But note, there are other products ( WiiM Mini AirPlay2 Wireless Audio Streamer, Multiroom Stereo, Preamplifier, Works with Alexa and……). that have very similar price tag with more features, Spotify connect, Alexa, Chromecast, PC… And better Audi quality such as 24bit, 192KHZ for as little as $10 more with four times the number of reviews so this might even be replaced by one of those and potentially returned because it’s very new, but it works well for what it does as advertised For anyone who may can’t afford it, a sidenote is you could play Spotify or Apple Music through an older vintage iPad or iPhone and control the music on that device from your primary phone or tablet while the secondary device is plugged into an old stereo system or something. The disadvantage of doing that versus using an AirPlay 2 receiver is you basically have Content playing you’re controlling from second device but you can’t add speakers or concurrently play different content in different rooms in the same way. Before having an AirPlay 2 receiver I played Spotify through onkyo receiver using a vintage ipad capped at update limited to iOS 9 and could control Spotify on the iPad through 15 Pro Max across the room for volume and song, playlist selection…….

Setup was smooth for me and the device is working well with the exception of the sound level. I was hoping I wouldn't see what so many other reviews have noted, but I do. I made some measurements on the analog signal levels and I suspect that the problem isn't so much a design flaw as a bad design choice, they're using the lowest of the common audio line levels and it's too low for many amplifiers. Amplifiers (and their users) that have enough gain are fine but those that don't can't get to expected volumes. If you'll be using the digital output there's no issue, the conversion to analog levels is happening somewhere else. If you need the analog output, you can read below and check specs and try to figue out what you'll get. Or, you can buy it and see what happens. Details for the technically inclined. Using a tone generator in Reaper (a Digital Audio Workstation), I made an audio test file with an A440 tone at 0db, the maximum possible level. Playing the files back through the SoundForm Connect I got an output level of -10dBu. That's the lowest of the common audio line levels. For comparison, I checked a cheap Bluetooth adapter and got 0dBu, a level that's 10dB higher and more like what people are used to. I have the SoundForm Connect driving a Dayton APA150 power amp and with the test file (maximum level remember) I'm only getting 9W into my speakers but should be able to get up to around 75W. A higher line level, say 0dBu like the BT adapter, would work out perfectly. I'm not sure what I'll do but at least I understand the issue.

I was using Bluetooth to stream music from my iPhone to my Yamaha HTR-5790 through a Mii B03. The Yamaha was sounding muddy through my 2 new Klipsch R-820-F's, which seemed unusual based on the reviews of the Klipsch's I read whereas most people thought the Klipsch's were very clear and borderline bright. I initially thought that the Yamaha was the source of the muddiness. I read on-line that Apple Music had made lossless (and high-res) music available through their subscription. I decided that I wanted to take advantage of the higher res music. The Belkin gave me a way to stream CD quality (16/44.1), in lieu of the 256kbps that AAC is limited to via Bluetooth. Setting this device up was easier than I anticipated. I followed the instructions and within 10 minutes I was streaming via Air Play (WiFi) to my receiver (through the optical connection). NOTE: I have an Orbi WiFi system. To my surprise the music was much clearer and brighter. I tested multiple genre's and artists and decided that it was the Mii B03 or Bluetooth that was creating the muddiness and NOT the Yamaha receiver. This made my wife very happy because I lost my excuse to replace the Yamaha, which I've had since 2004. The Yamaha is a great receiver, albeit lacking some technology (Bluetooth, WiFi, Atmos, etc.). It's a THX model with a low THD rating and sounds better than ever streaming Air Play CD quality music. Great little device, although a little expensive.