AirPlay speakers...where's the 802.11n??

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AirPlay speakers...where's the 802.11n??

So I'm in the market to get some whole home audio going in my house. I've researched all of the various methods to do so (wired + receiver, airport express + speaker + amp, airplay speakers, bluetooth, etc) and I think I'm going to settle on getting AirPlay speakers. I just don't want to mess with wiring everything up and doing the AirPort Express thing....plus AirPlay speakers are actually cheaper than doing anything else. Granted you don't get the flexibility, but it's still a better budget decision.

In looking for some good AirPlay speakers, the only budget options ($150 or so) are Phillips and iHome. I've found both on eBay for around $80 a pop depeding on the version. Anyway....what's the deal with the AirPlay speakers only having 802.11b/g? I was getting ready to pull the trigger, but now I'm thinking I won't because of 802.11n becoming the standard and b/g will be going out the window soon. My wifi router supports the legacy frequencies, but I don't want to buy speakers and then in 2 years they are obsolete. I know I know, go with the airport express route. Well I'm open to suggestions at this point, but I'm just curious as to why the speaker manufacturer's are bundling b/g into their NEW products?

iMac (21.5-inch Mid 2011), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Jan 15, 2013 4:33 AM

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Answer 1

ejoty

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Jan 16, 2013 10:21 AM in response to hulkster081

I had a similar concern: an airplay speaker only support 11g, not 11n. I did some study and made my move and hopefully it helps by sharing what I did.

Study:

The major chip inside airplay speakers comes from one single vendor: SMSC (lately got bought by Microchip). It offers 11b/g and not 11n. No firm schedule on 11n, it takes time to make a speaker from a chip

Most 11n routers support 11b/g too. So playing music to 11g airplay speakers shall not be a problem; but it will affect your internet speed as some old routers will downgrade to 11g (which is 54Mbps, not too bad).

The new 11ac routers with multi-bands (2x2 or 3x3) can be a solution to this with ability to have separate channel for 11g airplay and other channel for 11ac internet browsing.

My Purchase:

I did not buy any airplay speaker as it is over $100 my budget. Instead, I bought Yamaha PDX-60 dongle speaker which uses propietery RF technology which happened on sale at Amazon at that time. I did a check at Amazon store as I write and they are gone already. (relief: as I do not want to be sounded like sales :-)

Hope it helps//

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