how many airplay speakers can you drive simultaneously

I'm wondering that too. is there a limit? I recently added another airplay speaker and then I can crackling and dropping out (more than the occasional) Is that because my network cannot handle it? Or can iTunes only have up to a certain number? I probably won't be using them all together all the time. They are in different rooms, and often I'm streaming from iPhone or iPad which you can only choose one at a time. But sometimes I do like to use the Mac and stream around the house. What I have right now is two speakers and two appletvs connected to speakers plus the computer.

We developed an app which can send music to multiple iOS devices at the same time (it's called the "Airplay Multiroom Player by WHAALE").

While developing/testing it we found that on 802.11n networks usually 6 to 8 speakers are working properly. Beyond this you'll get too many dropouts. But you can establish a connection to as many airplay devices as you want.

So theoretically the only limitation should be the network connection - and this will improve with new routers, it think.

I'm copying my response to another airplay question here:

I had the same question which ultimately led me here. A solution I found, and one I think you and everyone else would appreciate, is an app called Portal . This app allows me to play ALL system sounds to as many airplay speakers as I'd like. This is especially helpful for folks like me that do not use iTunes. It's a tad bit "expensive" for an app at $16...but it works like a charm and allows me to take full advantage of my two airplay speakers.

I was told by apple support that the extreme can handle up to 50 devices simultaneously but I bet with speakers playing music possibly only 20. I will be purchasing the extreme soon standby for results. I have 4 Pioneer A3s and a apple tv connected to polk 9000IHT and also airport express connected to Polk 12" to make an airply sub 🙂

Not sure how many speakers but you can use the Multiple Speakers option from the AirPlay menu.

http://www.apple.com/sg/airplay/

According to Apple Support, it looks like the official answer to the question is 3 to 6 speakers depending on the environment.

iTunes: About playing music with AirPlay

my airport express will run 3 successfully most the time thinking of upgrading to extreme for the desire to connect 6 at a time playing