AirPlay vs Sonos: choose the best audio streaming for your studio

Sonos offers a number of products, all of which can be connect over wi-fi

With many of us now storing all our music on our smart phones or MP3 players - or subscribing to streaming music services such as Rdio, Spotify, and Napster - speaker docks have become the default piece of audio equipment we buy to play our music.
For a long time these docks required that your smartphone or MP3 player sit in the dock, and that was a pain. It meant that you couldn’t use your device whilst music was playing, and it also meant that if you used just one MP3 player or smartphone to store all your music on, no one else could listen to it if you weren’t around. Bummer.

Enter AirPlay

However, in 2010 Apple took the bull by the horns and introduce its wireless media streaming protocol - AirPlay - to all of its products. Dock manufacturers followed suit, and a new range of AirPlay-enabled speakers started to hit the market, which meant that any Apple device could stream audio to a supported unit.
But this isn’t the only way to stream audio via AirPlay. Thanks the ability to connect an AirPlay-enabled source to an Airport Express, you can also transform any speakers into a streaming receiver, just so long as they have a 3.5mm analog or optical input (which requires a special cable such as this).

Yes, the AirPort Express really IS this white

AirPlay to Airport Express

This is definitely the clunkiest solution for streaming music, and requires various things before you can get started. You will need:

1. Speakers with 3.5mm analog or optical input
2. An AirPort Express (available via Apple and resellers for around £80)
3. At least one Apple device that can play audio, and supports AirPlay (more info here)

The first thing you’ll need to do is connect your AirPort Express to your Wi-Fi network, which can either be an incredibly simple task, or a complete pain in the ass depending on your network setup.
In principle, all you need do is use the AirPort Utility on a Mac, or select ‘Set up an AirPort Base Station’ and follow the instructions on your iPhone (iPod etc.) from within the Wi-Fi settings. You’ll be prompted to name the AirPort Express. (We tested on two networks. One was a cinch, but on the second we experienced some difficulty, and had to connect the AirPort Express to our Mac via ethernet to complete setup).

Icon see you

Once you’ve set up your AirPort Express, you can then connect an audio cable to your speakers, and test your audio streaming. Now, on all AirPlay-supported devices you will see a new icon; selecting this icon will give you the option to choose between your master device, and whatever you named your AirPort Express. Once you’ve connected over AirPlay, your audio will now stream directly to your speakers.

Now the AirPlay icon will appear next to your audio controls

You will be able to change volume, and even connect multiple AirPort Express receivers to send the audio around your house or studio. But there’s a downside. You can only ever stream one source from one device, and if that device goes out of range you will lose your audio. This was a big minus point for us, but that’s the nature of a master/slave setup, and it is a major drawback when compared to the Sonos system that we’ll look at next.
However, if you already have all this kit kicking around your house or office, it’s a great solution. And, if you’re on a budget and have an Apple setup already (and use iTunes to store and play your music), then an AirPort Express is definitely the best way to get most of the benefits of streaming audio.

(NOTE: We did get some Wi-Fi interference in testing, but this can usually be sorted by changing the channel of your AirPort Express.)

Sonos offers a number of products, all of which can be connect over wi-fi

(NOTE: You can actually connect an AirPort Express to a Sonos device, giving your Sonos AirPlay support. We tried it, and it worked fine. But we’d be amazed if many people are actually mixing the two products in this way.)