Upgrading Yamaha Active Speakers to Airplay 2

Audio Gear Talk
1

Hi all,
Cavate I am not an expert on audio technology at all.

I have a pair of Yamaha NX-N500 active speakers. They however don’t have airplay 2 compatibility and it looks as though Yamaha are not going to upgrade this through firmware upgrades anymore.

So my question is:
I want to upgrade my Yamaha NX-N500 speakers so that they are airplay 2 compatible so that I can group other speakers through roon (was previously possible until roon upgraded to airplay 2 which now doesn’t allow for grouping with older speakers like my Yamahas).

The speakers also connect to a turntable through a preamp. I still want to have this setup.

What products would people recommend that I can buy so that the I can upgrade the speakers to Airplay 2 compatibility and still have the turntable playing through these same speakers (via a preamp). Streaming the turntable to other wireless speakers would also be great if at all possible.

Budget is limited to say AU$300 but could stretch it depending on what is recommended.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks all.

2

I would not use Airplay with Roon. Can you use Roon RAAT over ethernet or WIFI? Or, can you add a RPi4 over ethernet or WIFI?

3

Thanks @Jim_F,
It would be over WIFI. But I have no idea what a RAAT is or a RPi4 or how to implement them? How do they incorporate into the existing system?

4

@boggyflynn, your NX-N500 speakers already support AirPlay (v1) which is supported by Roon, but if you want or need AirPlay 2 support then the Wiim Mini for ~US$89 may be a good option. You can output from the Wiim Mini to the your Yamahas via a Toslink optical connection:

An alternate would be to find an Apple AirPort Express supporting 802.11n/g that can be upgraded to support AirPlay 2 (I have a number of these around my home).

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5

I would agree with the Wiim Mini. It’s a good choice to add AirPlay support. If you want more choices for a little more money take a look at the Wiim Pro. It’s supports AirPlay, ChromeCast, and is ROON ready.

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