Airfoil Satellite

Been using this app for years. My Mac becomes the media player. Cast to my HomePods, appleTvs, iOS devices!, Sonos speakers and wiim device. Whole-home, customizable sound solution. Remote control everything from my iPhone. Just LOVE it!

Tom S in OhioSun, Nov 26, 2023

United States

About 2 to 3 sec latence so not good enoufh

JdksffFri, Aug 18, 2023

United States

This is one of those apps that you ignore because it seems irrelevant to your life, until you realize how well it solves a particular problem. My problem is that I want to play audiobooks in my bathroom while I shower and shave. This may seem trivial but all of the Apple solutions are terrible. In particular playing to a HomePod from either an iPhone or a Mac breaks the connection as soon as the audio is paused for more than about 20 minutes or so. I did not want to have to futz around with trying to connect to the HomePod every day when I start shaving. Airfoil removes this problem by maintaining a persistent connection. So my solution is - Airfoil running on an old mac, playing audiobooks on that mac, sending the audio to the HomePod. - Airfoil satellite running on an old iPhone essentially mounted on the wall (think like a carphone mount). Now I just tap the iPhone to wake it up, the lockscreen shows Airfoil Satellite, I hit play and audio starts. 20 minutes later I hit pause and audio ends. Nice and smooth! Extra bonuses I did not expect: - Books.app (apparently as part of its general incompetence and user contempt) reduces the volume of audiobooks substantially compared to Music.app, so you can't get full volume out of your HomePod. Airfoil restores that full volume. - I didn't know or care about the ability to send audio to multiple speakers, but once I experimented with it, I decided to send the audiobooks to not just the bathroom HomePod, but also the source iMac and to my aTV (which in turn plays it through the soundbar). Now the audio is essentially present through the entire house at an even volume, and I can leave it playing after I finish showering as I then get dressed and wrap up other things. ....... Much of this functionality (playback on homepod, synching across multiple speakers in different rooms) is available in one form or another IF all you care about is listening to music. The problem is if you want to listen to non-music content (eg lectures or audiobooks, acquired and curated by you). That's where Apple's (and other companies') solutions fall apart, and that's where Airfoil shines. It's also possible to send the audio to whatever other speakers you have lying around. I tried this to a Jambox BT speaker and a Chromecast Google Home Mini. It absolutely works, and if those speakers are all you need, life is good. However I found that the audio to both of these tended to be slightly out of sync with the Airplay audio (ie what was being sent to HomePod and Apple TV), so while experimentally this is cool, it wasn't actually useful to me. I expect that it's hard to ensure that different protocols stay in sync, regardless of what you do, though it would be really cool if they could do the same sort of thing as Apple does to sync HomePod audio with your TV/Apple TV, to get a one-time delay calibration across all speakers. But maybe that's not helpful if the latency varies from run to run?

Maynard HandleyFri, Mar 17, 2023

United States

If you work with audio and need to quickly test how something will sound on other devices- this is THE app for you. It functions perfectly, plus I find the interface intuitive. There is latency, but that’s to be expected. I don’t think there’s a way around that, and it doesn’t matter for the app’s intended purpose- quickly testing audio on multiple devices. I absolutely love this app. It’s hard to imagine what I’d do without it.

Muffler AndySat, Feb 18, 2023

United States

No. I tried the trial version and only played maybe 4 or 5 songs and then it overlaid white noise to obscure the sound and asked for me to buy the license and me thinking that a trial version for something worth 35$ is usually a week or at least a couple days. In the short time I was able to test this app the sound dropped once and it was a somewhat fiddley to use. I'll just buy a blue tooth speaker for the same price.

menyrabitsMon, Oct 17, 2022

United States

I’ve been using Airfoil on and off for about 15 years, and it does a great job syncing audio to speakers in different rooms. Better than any other non-wired solution I’ve tried. Listening to the same thing as I walk around the house without needing to wear headphones is really nice! It’s also great for parties. And being able to change which speakers are playing and their volume settings from the satellite app is super convenient. Also, the app is lightweight enough that I’m using some old hardware (iPad Mini 2, iPhone 6s) to run satellite speakers. All that said, it’s not perfect. The speakers occasionally get out of sync just enough to be annoying. The only way I know to fix this is to disconnect & reconnect. And sometimes the sound is distorted in a way which makes it sound like the orchestra didn’t tune before playing! Also, while the old hardware usually works great, the software crashes sometimes out of the blue, or refuses to connect even when it can see the server (neither of these happens on my newer iPhone).

A/exThu, Aug 11, 2022

United States

I haven’t used Airfoil Satellite for a few years since the introduction of AirPlay 2. What a mistake. I have a couple Yamaha receivers. One doesn’t take AirPlay 2. And I have a stereo pair of HomePods in the living room, but only an iPad Pro in the kitchen. So my music was mostly localized. But, in a dream world, I figured I would be able to have the same music follow me around everywhere as I did my chores. Well … dreams do come true. After a recent update, I realized Airfoil could reach every one of these devices with the same feed. And that my entire home and detached office setup could be controlled by my iPhone. Highly recommended!

CameraLawMon, May 16, 2022

United States