Airplay is coming

There is no such things as an "airplay server".  Get over it.

Buy the best tool for the job.

For streaming and music use a PC.

For phone and tablets use Apple iOS products.

It is just the way it is.

-Patrick

... yet they will need to pay for it.

I wouldn't have minded if my nDAC was a few bucks cheaper without the chip.

Get past your reliance on iTunes and the world can be yours.

-Patrick

But what the heck is happening about it? It was pre-announced last Autumn, and was one of the reasons (albeit a minor one) why I chose the SU. Now, nothing but silence.

@Goon525: I'm exactly as a bit of angry as you are. I read in different hi-fi-magazines that Naim PROMISES Airplay for Q1 in 2012. Now Q1 is over TODAY. So WHERE THE HECK is Airplay. Other Manufacturers as Denon and Marantz or Pioneer have this integrated since MONTHS. So it can't be that difficult to integrate it. And i would definitely pay 50 € more just to have Airplay because I do everything over my MacBook Air.

Naim: WHERE IS AIRPLAY???

Actually, Elija123, it sounds like I'm not nearly as angry as you are - I'm just mildly irritated! But it's time they delivered, or at least made a statement as to when they will, and what the cause of the delay is.

@Goon525: You are completel right. I hate it when somebody announces something new and then nothing happens. I wrote to Naim about this a month ago and they said: "We hope to include Airplay but I cannot give a timescale". I was quite wondering about this because concerning their own promises there was no need to give a timescale as it should have been integrated this month! 

It was at my hi-fi dealer to listen to the Naim Unitiqute and the Audio Physic Sitara/Sitara 25 and it doesn't make any sense at all for me to even think about buying these components if Airplay isn't integrated because I have become an Apple user since September and this won't certainly not change for the next years. 

To make it short: When somebody promises something I expect him to fulfill his promise, as simple as that!

Regardless of what we think Airplay will be one of the most, if not the most, used method of streaming very soon. Not including it will severely limit the sales of any streaming device.

I would buy an AP enabled Naim streamer straight away and the lack of AP is the only reason I am not able to recommend Naim to a friend who want to add a streamer to his system at the moment.

Exactly! And the less sense it makes why Naim doesn't manage to include it!

That's one of the reasons Airplay is so good, you can stream from any Apple device or any device running iTunes.

Personally I have no need to stream from iPhones and in fact I make a point of keeping all wi-fi devices away from my Hi-Fi but I do want the convenience of streaming from iTunes on my pc and remote controlling that with my iPhone or ipad.

Perhaps I am a unusual in the ways I use Songcast with my KDS. ( or Airplay).

Obviously I can listen to audio grabbed from Spotify 

Also though,...

I watch 'catchup' TV programmes and sometimes i-movies using my MAC Air which has an excellent display resolution.and can then have the audio through my HiFi. Quite a lot of the TV content is available in HD quality as are some i-movies so this is quite a decent visual and audio experience.

This all works via Wireless so no network cables needed.

regards

Geoff

That's precisely what AirPlay is for - sure, you could stream from your iPad or iPhone, but most of us will use it to stream from a computer running iTunes (which tends to be the single source for music on most people's computers).

At the moment the only wireless solution for iTunes is to use an AirPort Express or similar. Life will be much easier with AirPlay built-in.  One less gadget in the mix, and removes the TosLink connection from AE to (in my case) Uniti.

The user-experience with iTunes (if, as I often am, you're working on the computer and want to listen to music at the same time) or Remote on an iPad/iPhone, compared to every other remote control for my Uniti is shocking - iTunes and Remote are vastly superior.

Re: consumerism - Apple, with AirPlay and the AirPort Express, filled a gap that the hifi industry singularly failed to identify for years (the AE came out in 2005! I got mine in 2006&hellip.  It seems incredibly shortsighted, to me, that the 'fantastic streamers' haven't been built with this in mind from the outset.

Simon

And don't forget you can still use airplay to stream from itunes to an airplay enabled device without having to use wi-fi if, like me, you don't like radio transmitters on your hi-fi rack. In fact I'm doing just that as I type :-)

It is a pity Apple not yet opened the AppleTV to developers as it wouldn't be that hard to write an app that could use the HDX database/rips (at least if it sits on a NAS) out through the ATV.

It would be truly great if the HDX would support Airplay as it would eventually open up storing all that WAV-data in the iCloud instead having those boring boxes (NAS + backup-NAS) at home. But maybe the HDX is to old for such an upgrade.