As an Android user, at home I use a Chromecast audio hooked up to my old non-bluetooth speakers to approximate a bluetooth setup, and then control the thing w a Google home mini. Love it, and the whole thing cost me $60 to orchestrate - love that too

I was all excited to similarly hook up my mom, until I realized that as a committed ios and iTunes user, neither the Google home mini nor the Chromecast audio will work for her

So

Like me, she has an old non-bluetooth speaker, and like I did for myself, I want to hook her up on the cheap

One option is to just buy a bluetooth receiver to connect to her speaker and call it a day, but it seems like the good ones aren't as cheap as I had hoped (they certainly are no $30 Chromecast audio)

I also read something about using an Apple TV (which she has) as an airplay receiver, but what I don't understand is is can that be achieved independent of a tv? Can I use her existing Apple TV (2nd gen I think, maybe 1st... How can I tell?) on its own with the speaker to enable it to receive airplay, and leave anything else like a tv out of it? If so, how?

Or, any other suggestions?

I know the easiest idea is to just cop a Bluetooth speaker for her and call it a day, but the game of it for me is to see if I can do it by reusing as much of what she already has as possible (old speaker, old Apple TV)

i'm still curious abt this whole apple tv as airplay receiver approach if that's a thing (would love to put her neglected apple tv to use, plus wifi streaming > bluetooth streaming)

but otherwise assuming this receiver works well enough it's probably case closed for this project

ah, apple tv 2, but it's intended for use with a TV / in a home theater.

I think there are too many prompts where you need to see the screen to do it any other way


www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at