Belkin SoundForm Connect AirPlay 2 Adapter & Airplay 2 Receiver - Wireless Streaming for Apple Devices to Bluetooth Speakers - Optical & 3.5mm Speaker Inputs for iPhone 17, 16, MacBook Pro, & More

Great wireless audio - But terrible product description at top. This is for running audio from iPhone or any Apple device through wireless home network to your amplifier and speakers. It replaces old and discontinued Apple airport device perfectly. It is not for Bluetooth. If you don’t know what you are looking for that top product description will not help. I have used Apple airport for years to feed wireless audio from iPhones and computers into my high end stereo amp. This does the same. Perfectly integrated into Apple iPhone software. Note that you need an iPhone running OS18 and higher for setup and Apple devices with recent versions of OSX. Immediately available as audio output on all home Iphones and my Mac computers after simple setup. I ran this against my old Apple Airport to evaluate sound. It is just as good, and the Airport has very good audio resolution — That I tested years ago in detail. Absolutely no problem with device, but I do have a strong wireless signal throughout our house. Presently I am using the analog output. It is good. I may hook up optical output to my DAC and then to amp— but as of now I am fine with audio. I am driving a very good amplifier and high end stereo speakers with this system. Nothing through wireless will satisfy the audiophile snob — which I once was. But it is far superior to a Bluetooth connection. We tried that. Forget it. Use wireless if you can. Seamless connections for all the family. Hope they don’t discontinue this product. I bought it now as insurance against death of my 17 year old Airport, which is still working just fine. But for now, this has replaced it. Good luck. It works !

Why I’m Loving It: Easy Streaming: The Belkin SoundForm Connect makes streaming music from my Apple devices a breeze. It connects seamlessly to my Bluetooth speakers, so I can enjoy my playlists without any hassle. Versatile Inputs: With optical and 3.5mm inputs, it works with pretty much any speaker setup. Whether I'm using my iPhone or MacBook Pro, it delivers great sound quality. AirPlay 2 Magic: The AirPlay 2 feature lets me control music in multiple rooms, which is super cool for parties or just chilling at home. It's like having a smart sound system without the crazy price tag. Compact and Sleek: The adapter is small and unobtrusive, fitting nicely into my entertainment setup. Plus, it looks modern and stylish—no ugly tech clutter here! Overall Thoughts: The Belkin SoundForm Connect AirPlay 2 Adapter is a game-changer for anyone with Apple devices. It makes streaming music to Bluetooth speakers super easy and offers versatile connectivity options. The AirPlay 2 functionality is a huge plus, allowing for multi-room audio control. If you're an Apple fan looking to upgrade your sound experience, this adapter is definitely worth it!

I thought that Belkin was a trustworthy brand...my mistake! Setup was a nightmare. After repeating the setup process over and over, it simply would not work (and I'm a technically minded person, too, so it was not beyond my comfort zone). Then, out of the blue, it suddenly starts working. What? Am not sure how that happened, but okay, although the device should work the very first time when following the setup routine. Next, the sound quality from the optical output was great, but the sound quality through the analog output was horrid. It literally sounded like an old AM radio -- completely unacceptable in this day and age. Come on Belkin, stop lining your pockets and spring for a quality DAC/implementation! The reception of the AirPlay "data stream" (for lack of a better term) was also terrible. It would work just fine (for a while), but then the audio would cut out and back in over and over and over. What the hey? My boss would fire me if I only worked when I felt like it! This device needs to ALWAYS work whether or not it likes it...totally unreliable. Finally, Belkin's customer support is abysmal, to put it mildly (don't get me started). Clearly, this entire experience was not what I paid for -- it sums up to a ZERO VALUE proposition. In all seriousness, Belkin should pay me handsomely for emotional pain and suffering given the wasted hours, aggravation, and frustration that their failed product imposed upon my life. This is a radically subpar device with a faulty setup routine, abhorrent DAC/implementation (for the analog output), completely unreliable reception, and abominable customer service. Cannot recommend that anyone purchase this device for any reason whatsoever. Compared to this device, plain old generic Bluetooth (despite being a lossy format) is totally superior. Stay away from the Belkin SoundForm Connect at all costs. Thank goodness for Amazon's return policy!

I am using this to play music in my bathroom while I shower. It is connected to a SMSL M100 DAC and SMSL A100 amp. In this application it works great! My main complain is with the setup process. It took several attempts for my phone to recognize the device. NFC would not find the device no matter what I did. Once I installed the Belkin Soundconnect app the process was a little smoother, but not without its hiccups. It took the app a couple of tires for it to reconcile my device. Then it took the Apple Home app several attempts for it to recognize the device as well. Belkin really needs to work on the setup process. It's quite buggy at this time. One other minor complaint is lack of track controls on the device. It would be nice if it had play/pause and track controls, or maybe even a remote. I don't think this is asking too much at this price point. I know music can be controlled on the sending device; but, as I said, I use this while I shower and my sending device is in another room. I do not knock the device for this, it does not state in the product information that track controls are a feature. It would just be nice to have them. Several reviewers have complained about low audio output volume. While the 3.55mm jack is not the best I did not have this issue in my setup. I wonder if those who do are using a small speaker or a low-power amp? I am actually connecting my via optical to an external DAC. Though the volume output through this connection is not the highest, it is not that bad. I can get more than enough volume from my system. I highly recommend that anyone who purchases this device use the optical audio output. I do recognize that this is an additional cost if your amplifier does not have it built-in, but it is worth it. The sound quality on this unit is very good, especially through the optical audio using an external DAC. I do release this has more to do with the DAC than the Soundform Connect. However, a poor quality Aiprlay receiver could result in sound quality segregation even via optical. I replaced an aging 3rd gen Apple TV with the SoundForm and it sound at least as good as that old Apple TV, if not slightly better. If you are looking for a simple AirPlay 2 receiver you really don't have a lot of options not he market at this time. The SoundForm Connect is one of the only. It is slightly overpriced, even at $80, but it works well. The setup process is a bit buggy and for that reason I did remove a star from its rating. Perhaps if Belkin can fix that it would receive five stars. Either way, don't hesitate to buy this device if it is what you you are looking for in your system.

For me, seamless, easy, set up. I Have two. Use one for a Samsung sound bar with optical input in combination with a bunch of HomePods. The second one I’ve experimented with attaching to a subwoofer and satellite speakers using the 3.5mm option. Also tried with RCA input from 3.5mm to Onkyo receiver with expensive BMW speakers, and a Sunfire sub. In all cases, it’s just great to be able to control and turn on an entire system, while other speakers are playing other content in other rooms, or even in adjacent home on the same network. But note, there are other products ( WiiM Mini AirPlay2 Wireless Audio Streamer, Multiroom Stereo, Preamplifier, Works with Alexa and……). that have very similar price tag with more features, Spotify connect, Alexa, Chromecast, PC… And better Audi quality such as 24bit, 192KHZ for as little as $10 more with four times the number of reviews so this might even be replaced by one of those and potentially returned because it’s very new, but it works well for what it does as advertised For anyone who may can’t afford it, a sidenote is you could play Spotify or Apple Music through an older vintage iPad or iPhone and control the music on that device from your primary phone or tablet while the secondary device is plugged into an old stereo system or something. The disadvantage of doing that versus using an AirPlay 2 receiver is you basically have Content playing you’re controlling from second device but you can’t add speakers or concurrently play different content in different rooms in the same way. Before having an AirPlay 2 receiver I played Spotify through onkyo receiver using a vintage ipad capped at update limited to iOS 9 and could control Spotify on the iPad through 15 Pro Max across the room for volume and song, playlist selection…….

A few weeks ago my Airplay Express stopped working as an AirPlay endpoint connected to my "legacy" stereo (analog signal RCA line inputs). First I took the AE to an Apple Store and they wiped it, but it still won't work with AirPlay any more (hmmm) and wanted $95 for a replacement that they couldn't guarantee would work with AirPlay, either. I then bought the Wiim because it was a clone of the NAD CS1 endpoint network streamer ($360), but it wouldn't connect to the Apple Home app, so back it went. Bought the Belkin SoundForm, installation required connecting via the Home app, but it went fast and smooth, and within a few minutes I was streaming again. Can't yet comment on whether it has drop-outs or other connectivity issues, but it certainly seems like it's the right solution.

Setup was smooth for me and the device is working well with the exception of the sound level. I was hoping I wouldn't see what so many other reviews have noted, but I do. I made some measurements on the analog signal levels and I suspect that the problem isn't so much a design flaw as a bad design choice, they're using the lowest of the common audio line levels and it's too low for many amplifiers. Amplifiers (and their users) that have enough gain are fine but those that don't can't get to expected volumes. If you'll be using the digital output there's no issue, the conversion to analog levels is happening somewhere else. If you need the analog output, you can read below and check specs and try to figue out what you'll get. Or, you can buy it and see what happens. Details for the technically inclined. Using a tone generator in Reaper (a Digital Audio Workstation), I made an audio test file with an A440 tone at 0db, the maximum possible level. Playing the files back through the SoundForm Connect I got an output level of -10dBu. That's the lowest of the common audio line levels. For comparison, I checked a cheap Bluetooth adapter and got 0dBu, a level that's 10dB higher and more like what people are used to. I have the SoundForm Connect driving a Dayton APA150 power amp and with the test file (maximum level remember) I'm only getting 9W into my speakers but should be able to get up to around 75W. A higher line level, say 0dBu like the BT adapter, would work out perfectly. I'm not sure what I'll do but at least I understand the issue.

For those in the Apple ecosystem this is a great product. Easy to setup and works perfectly. Mine has been outside for years and I'm sure it's gotten more weather abuse than it is designed for. While it is not under direct sunlight and rain, it has been exposed to extreme humidity. Never needs restarting. I wish it had Siri support built-in but beggars can't be choosers. Very small form factor helps hide it well.