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][1] (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][2].

My question is: Is there a cheap "receiver" for the AirPlay 2 protocol which I can simply plug into my amp? 

Thank you in advance for any help!

Kind regards,
Tom


  [1]: https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/6/17434294/airplay-2-sonos-speakers-in-july
  [2]: https://github.com/mikebrady/shairport-sync