With the recent release of AirPlay 2, I now feel that it is time to start a long time coming project of mine which is to create an outdoor speaker system.
Currently, I have a few Sonos PLAY:1s in my house and would love to be able to play music simultaneously to both my outdoor speakers and my Sonos speakers. Of course, the obvious solution would be to buy a Sonos Connect, however, I feel that these are extortionately expensive for what they are and am seeking an alternative option. I have been excited for the release of AirPlay 2 as I had heard that, a) Sonos might've implemented the new protocol on its existing speakers and b) that the AirPort express would be able to act as an AirPlay 2 receiver which could theoretically be plugged straight into an amp.
This would've been the ideal solution. However, as reality has it, Sonos will only be making AirPlay 2 available on its newer speakers as explained here (If you do have one of their newer speakers, you can group this with the older ones in order to have them work of AirPlay 2 as well). Furthermore, it has become apparent that the AirPort express will not support AirPlay 2.
This has left me in a really awkward situation as I am not sure how to move forward. It is clear that I will have to buy a newer Sonos speaker either way but this only gets me as far as making my current Sonos speakers AirPlay 2 compatible. I have done a lot of research and found solutions that only seem to work for AirPlay 1 such as here.
My question is: Is there a cheap ($200 max, but preferably < $100) "receiver" for the AirPlay 2 protocol which I can simply plug into my amp?
Thank you in advance for any help!
Kind regards, Tom