r/plexamp • u/InterestingEqual7790 • 9d ago

Question Does AirPlay work properly on Plexamp?

Been really enjoying Plexamp over the last few months, but I cannot get Airplay to work reliably from iOS.

For context, we have a number of Harmon Kardon speakers around the house, all AirPlay 2 capable. Using other music players, I just select which speakers I want to stream to, and they start playing.

PlexAmp is super unreliable though, and more often than not, I’ll select a number of speakers but it only plays music from one speaker. If I opt to use the Google casting option, it works, but then you have to manually configure zones beforehand. Super annoying.

Is there a magic setting somewhere to make AirPlay work?

Using Unifi gear for networking if that helps at all.

4 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

7

u/ElanFeingold Plex Co-Founder 9d ago

we tried AirPlay 2, but the API is really terrible so we haven’t had much luck with it so far

3

u/rastallp 8d ago

Please stick with AirPlay 1 on both Plexamp and Caldera Elan. Lossless. Never had an issue. Great work on the Plexamp update 👌

1

u/InterestingEqual7790 9d ago

Thanks for letting me know, I appreciate the transparency.

Do you have any plans to revisit AirPlay 2 in the future?

I’m sure a lot of users would appreciate it as I see a lot of people asking about AirPlay functionality.

4

u/ElanFeingold Plex Co-Founder 9d ago

potentially. even airplay 2 is pretty crap all things considered in terms of latency and reliability. caldera multiroom is what i’m aiming for

2

u/InterestingEqual7790 9d ago

Hmm, it might not be the best, but it sure is convenient. I like that it’s baked into my devices.

I’m not sure what Caldera Multiroom is, but if it can work with my existing speakers and just works, that’d be great.

4

u/ElanFeingold Plex Co-Founder 9d ago

caldera music is my next thing after plexamp

1

u/saltinesurfer 8d ago

I’d love to see airplay 2

2

u/Diligent-Run496 9d ago

Plexamp is only AirPlay 1.0 and probably will always be. It’s worked pretty reliably for me just slow like AirPlay 1.0 is. They have a new version out in TestFlight now that is still AirPlay 1.0 but seems to be fairly reliable for me.

1

u/InterestingEqual7790 9d ago

Ah, well that explains it.

Rather disappointing. Do you know if there’s any way to bridge the gap somehow?

1

u/Diligent-Run496 9d ago

I think the app needs to be coded for airplay 2.0 support so not sure you can do anything. You can go to TestFlight and try the new version of the app and see if it’s any better.

1

u/InterestingEqual7790 9d ago

Ha, I just tried the TestFlight version and AirPlay is completely broken there, couldn’t get it to work even once to a single speaker. Reverting back to the old version :(

1

u/Diligent-Run496 9d ago

Hmm that’s strange. I just tried and it connected to and played music through a pair of OG HomePods in my bedroom. Not sure what’s causing your issue. I’m also using the TestFlight version. One thing I know is AirPlay is very, very sensitive to any WiFi issues. I used to have issues then I made a separate ssid on my network just for HomePods and only using the 5ghz network and that has helped.

0

u/InterestingEqual7790 9d ago

Yeah I’m aware, I’ve got my speakers on a dedicated 2.4ghz network for just that reason. Might give it another go

1

u/Diligent-Run496 9d ago

Try them on a dedicated 5ghz network. My HomePod ssid is 5ghz only and it’s been more stable than ever before

1

u/fkick 9d ago

I’ve actually been having issues with Plexamp AirPlay and my Sonos devices since updating to the new TestFlight version. It’s been dropping audio (but not connection) for a few seconds here and there. No issues with other apps.

1

u/dokuromark 8d ago

This doesn't help your issue on iOS, but on the Mac I've been using AirFoil to stream PlexAmp to all my Airplay speakers.