Add AirPlay to Your Classic Stereo with an Old Apple TV

Article Comments
61

Do you have the model number for your AE V1?

While two of my Macs are directly connected to a stereo system, another older one (PowerPC, G4) is connected to an older Advent wireless system that I use in various places including outside. That PowerPC computer which has most of my music collection along with my main Mac also is in a bedroom with an older stereo amplifier but it is too far/unsafe for connecting cables so after reading this thread, I decided to try on older AE unit, model 1264 which is the updated version of the original one. I had to update the Airport Utility on the PowerPC computer as well as the firmware of the AE to 7.8.1 and it works great streaming from iTunes 10.6.3 which still has the CoverFlow feature.

I currently use Mojave (and Catalina) on my main Mac with iTunes 10.7 (because I like CoverFlow) and it also works fine from there as well. Either computer can stream using the Multiple Speakers feature so if that’s something you’re looking for, the 1264 model can do that. Don’t know if it could do that before the firmware update as I just went ahead with that before setting it up.

For those that also want to listen to other things like internet radio stations you may have in iTunes, that works fine as well. Also, someone mentioned earlier about dropouts but that may have been using an Apple TV. I stream various files, some mp3 and others AIFF with no dropouts. The AE is a great solution if you have an older amplifier/receiver that does not have a digital connection or if it does, the AE can connect with the proper cable as well. My older iPhone 7 Plus also sees the AE and can stream to it as well although I don’t plan on using that but it’s great that it can do it.

62

As if the folks at Belkin were reading this thread.

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63

Aha nice. They’re the perfect people to monetize this :sweat_smile:. But at $120, I think this article will remain popular :wink:

64

Note that shairport-sync can be installed on macOS.

Or on a Mac running Linux.

On macOS, an alternative is airserver, which I paid for years ago.

https://www.airserver.com/Mac

1 Like
65

Hi there! I used my apple TV2 to stream to my stereo for years. My 1993 onkyo receiver even has an optical port so the sound quality was great.

But years later, new computer and Catalina OS I have been completely bedeviled

I hooked up my old apple tv 2 updated it and got logged in to my accounts at apple and established home sharing with the new computer. AppleTV sees the computer and can play whats on it. However, when I go to airplay, to stream to it. It does not come up. I verified my newer apple tv and it is there.

I need the older apple tv because it has the optical out

66

It may not be your problem by two of my devices had the same name. When that happened, only the newer one would show up. Once I changed the names to be different, everything was OK>

67

I renamed it when I set it up cause I have seen that before. I have been told that it is because it uses airplay 1 and new systems use two. However, why would it see my computer if that was the case? Thanks for the reply

68

I’m going to throw out another thread here…

Sometime after I wrote this, maybe 6 months back, Spotify stopped streaming to my AppleTV 2nd gen. that I used in this article. Spotify still lets me select the “Piano Room” destination and shows the little “signal indicator” suggesting that Spotify “thinks” it’s working. But no sound comes out the AppleTV speakers. And selecting the AirPlay destination from the Control Center has the same broken behavior as selecting from within Spotify.

But selecting one of the many other AirPlay destinations in my home still works, like the other (newer model) Apple TVs, or my Denon receiver.

Furthermore, streaming to the old AirPlay “Piano Room” destination from my iPad or my MacBook using Spotify still works fine. Likewise, streaming to “Piano Room” from a non-Spotify app, like Music, from my iPhone works fine.

I recently upgraded from an iPhone 11 to an iPhone 13 Pro, and the problem persists so you can’t blame the hardware. (And the iPhone 11 used to work fine).

So!

Putting all these variables together, there appears to be some interaction between iOS, Spotify, and the Apple TV 2nd gen, that has broken streaming. Given that this setup used to work fine, and that I doubt the ATV has updated, I have to conclude that Spotify or iOS changed something to break this.

It’s extremely annoying, because this combo is my main use case. I sit in my Piano Room and stream songs from Spotify while I try to play along with them. Now I have to go fetch my iPad. Since I do keep a MacBook in there, I can even use Spotify on my iPhone to REMOTE CONTROL the MacBook running Spotify to stream to the Piano Room, which works. Clunky though.

Quite annoying when random things like this get broken, especially on an unsupported product that is unlikely to get any attention from Apple.

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I still use this setup, by the way, every day :smiley: :sunglasses:

70

The cynic in me says what’s in it for Apple in continuing to support some of their old hardware and a streaming service that they don’t make money from!

71

Hmm. For starters, I think AirTunes and even AirPlay may have predated Apple selling streaming media. But those technologies were always about convenience for users, such as those who ripped their whole CD collection, not about upselling us on media.

Having said that, I’m prepared to accept that at some point, there may be an AirPlay protocol change on the iPad or iPhone I’m sourcing me media from that’s going to not be compatible with my aging AppleTV, and then I’m going to have to rebuild this on something more modern. But there should always be a way to get an audio output from an ATV and a way to convert it to analog for playback on loudspeakers…