TLDR: Add AirPlay to Existing Speakers with an Apple AirPort Express A1392
The Background
Our neighbours would be forgiven for thinking that I am torturing a cat every time I have a shower. Like many I like to listen to music and audio books in the shower. When we had our bathroom done a few years back, we installed a Bluetooth speaker, and have an Amazon Echo connected to it so we can control it hands free. Over time, I have become frustrated with Amazon Alexa and its limits on the speed of listening to audio books which caps out at 1.5 times.
The Problem
Over the last few years, I have learnt to listen and enjoy content at much faster speeds, with some podcasts playing at 3 times normal speed. Listening to a 8 hour book in chunks of 10 minutes every morning was taking a long time at 1.5 times. I started by trying to use my iPhone with the Bluetooth speaker directly, but Bluetooth isn’t that friendly and I couldn’t easily control it with the Shortcuts app. I would find the Echo had connected and need to disconnect it before I could connect my phone.
The Solution – Add AirPlay to Existing Speakers
My search for a better solution found a few adapters that support AirPlay, but with a cost of around £100, it wasn’t a very appealing option. I also considered putting a Homepod Mini in the bathroom, but there are issues with getting power to one and that the fabric would be unlikely to survive the steamy environment.
I came across a couple of Youtube videos where people were using old Apple AirPort Express Wireless Access Points as AirPlay receivers. There is a specific model, It needs to be the Apple AirPort Express A1392 as described by Dylan Macintosh in his YouTube video.
After watching this and a few other videos, I decided to try it out. It was easy to find these old AirPort Express A1392 units on Ebay, and had one in my hands a few days later. I also purchased a 3.5 mm to RCA cable to connect to my ceiling speaker. I started by resetting the device to factory settings, this Youtube video explains how:
I installed the Airport Utility on my MacBook Pro and connected to the Airport Express to my network with Ethernet. I used the Airport utility to configure the Airport Express – the following video provides details:
Once setup, I was able to AirPlay from my phone to the connected speaker. Now it was all set up outside of the loft, I sent my better half into the loft to connect it up to the ceiling speaker. Knowing it is a pain to get up there, we put the AirPort express on a smart plug, to allow us to power cycle it if needed, without needing to get into the loft. The device worked first time and has been working flawlessly since.
Tell me what you think in the comments below or on X @timdixon82
