- Great AirPlay 2 speakers offer Apple's latest and greatest connectivity standard, to be sure, but they also boast other smart features, look good, and sound great, too.
- That's exactly why we've chosen the Sonos One as our top pick - it has all the features you want in an AirPlay 2 speaker with the added benefit of a smart voice assistant, thanks to Alexa support.
The concept of the multi-room speaker is only getting more popular as companies increasingly adopt new wireless standards to deliver excellent audio experiences that you can enjoy throughout the home. While early multi-room experiences were limited to companies like Sonos, these days the likes of Apple and Google have their own multi-room standards, so you can buy different speakers from different companies for different rooms and still connect to all of them from your phone.
The most recent of these standards is Apple's AirPlay 2, which is an updated version of the original AirPlay. The new standard adds a number of great features, including multi-room support. That means you can stream content to multiple different devices at once, straight from the apps that you're used to using on your phone.
Only a few months after the launch of AirPlay 2, there are a number of compatible speakers, and they're not all created equal. Some are more expensive, yet offer a superior sound-quality, while others are built more to be portable and inexpensive rather than deliver a top-quality sound.
When buying an AirPlay 2-compatible speaker, there are a few things to keep in mind. The first is other standards. Some speakers don't just have AirPlay 2, they also feature other connectivity standards like Bluetooth. That is important for homes with both Android and iPhone users.
Next up, you'll want to keep in mind digital assistants. While speakers that aren't Apple's HomePod unfortunately don't offer Siri support, some might have Alexa or Google Assistant built in instead.
Here are the best AirPlay 2 speakers you can buy:
- Best AirPlay 2 speaker overall: Sonos One
- Best AirPlay 2 speaker for bass: B&O Beoplay M5
- Best portable AirPlay 2 speaker: Libratone Zipp 2
- Best AirPlay 2 smart speaker: Apple HomePod
- Best AirPlay 2 sound bar: Sonos Beam
Updated on 08/27/2019 by Christian de Looper: Added the Zipp 2 and updated prices and formatting.
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