Denon and Marantz roll out AirPlay 2 support for select AV receivers

Audio specialists Denon and Marantz began rolling out promised support for Apple's AirPlay 2 on Thursday, providing owners with firmware updates that bring certain AV receivers in compliance with the wireless streaming protocol.

Though not announced on either company's official website, users of Denon's X3500H receiver are reporting availability via online forums. Marantz is also pushing out AirPlay 2 compatible firmware for its AV7704 home theater pre-amp, according to 9to5Mac.

Denon and Marantz are closely aligned, having merged in 2002 to form what would become D+M Group. The corporation, which itself acquired a number of smaller audio brands, was purchased by Sound United in 2017, bringing it under the same roof as Polk Audio and Boston Acoustics.

In May, Denon and Marantz announced plans to bring AirPlay 2 to 29 components, building on Apple's rolling list of compatible products. Neither audio company provided details on a launch timeline, though today's releases serve as evidence that work on AirPlay 2 software is well underway.

Released as part of iOS 11.4, AirPlay 2 improves on Apple's audio streaming platform with support for multi-room audio, allowing users to synchronize music across multiple speakers. First available on Apple's own HomePod, AirPlay 2 made its way to the Sonos Beam, Sonos One, Sonos Play:5 and Sonos Playbase in June.

Alongside Denon, Marantz and Sonos, audio hardware manufacturers Bang & Olufsen, Libratone and Naim have promised to add AirPlay 2 support to both new and existing products.

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12 Comments

Fatman

said about 5 years ago

Hopefully Yamaha will follow with support for full Airply 2 with their Aventege line.

chasm

said about 5 years ago

Great news for audio lovers

libertyforall

said about 5 years ago

Any word on Yamaha receivers yet?!

MacPro

said about 5 years ago

Yes, I have Yamaha too, no way to update it I assume.

Related but OT a wee bit (mods can move to the thread on that product if there is one please), I just ordered the new high-end Pioneer CarPlay head that is wireless, anyone used one get ... any comments?

midwestapplefan

said about 5 years ago

Here's the issue for real audiophiles:

Airplay is a badly compromised system for hifi audio. First, it is limited to 16bit 44kHz. Even Chromecast Audio goes up 24bit 96kHz. If you're happy with CD quality audio then Airplay is....OK, but audio has come a long way in the past 10 years so let me ask you are you happy with your 1080p TV or do you want 4K? Why then would you compromise on audio?

Second issue is Airplay wants to control the clocking of the musical stream. Taking control of the clocking away from the end devise is a compromise. This gets complicated so Google the term, "RAAT and clock ownership" to read some discussions about why Airplay's scheme for managing clocking is not ideal.

When you start to go over $1,000 for audio components, you're near the price range where quality should really matter. A much better way to go about this is to buy devises that are roon ready. NAD is doing this as well as ELAC, Bluesound, Creek, Naim, Krell, PS Audio, and many more. What a roon ready device does is integrate with the roon player (kicks iTunes in the butt) and allows for all audio formats including FLAC up to 32bit 384kHz, DSD up to 512, and Master Quality Authentication MQA files), It allows for the endpoint to own its own clock, allows for multi room audio. It is a far better system if you really care about music.

It seems Denon and Merantz could easily updated their devices to be roon ready if they go through the process. At that point their receivers could be considered by more serious audiophiles.