SUMMARY
This article explains how to easily setup your own high quality Apple Airplay-capable speaker system in less that 15 minutes,
and spending around $100. This system will produce great quality sound that rivals high end models like the Libratone, or
the Zeppelin Air,
which cost many hundreds more.
GETTING STARTED
The process is very easy, and anybody can do it. We are going to select 3 components that you can buy anywhere - I recommend Amazon -
and we are going to connect them together using plain speaker wires, and a 3.5mm audio mini jack.
1. The Speakers
First, we need a pair of good speakers. We could spend as little or as much as we wanted here, but for the purposes
of this project, which entails keeping costs at around $100, I am going to recommend a pair of the trusty Sony SS-B1000 5 1/8-Inch Bookshelf Speakers.
While Sony isn't known for building high end speakers, these bookshelf units are actually excellent for the price, have plenty of power,
and produce great, warm sound. Simply put, they cannot be beat dollar for dollar. Go ahead, check the reviews if you want, Amazon has
over 300 reviews for these, and they average 4.5 stars. For $43 for the pair, you cannot possibly go wrong.
 
Sony SS-B1000 5 1/8-Inch Bookshelf Speakers (Pair)
Price: $43.00
2. The Amplifier
Next, we need an amplifier. After doing tons of research, I settled on the little known Lepai Tripah TA2020 mini amplifier. I wanted something
unintrusive, durable, small and reliable. This is a tiny silver box, about 5" x 5" x 2", that weights less than 1 pound, so you can fit it anywhere.
It's simple and straight forward to use: a volume control,
bass and treble controls, 2 speaker connections in the back (wires), and an input connection, which accepts both a mini-jack (headphone-style connector)
or an RCA (white/red) connector. Also comes with a little power supply to power it up.
Don't be fooled by its size, this thing gets LOUD. It is plenty powerful to fill a large room in your house, I run mine at about 20% of its power.
Note that this is a Class-T amplifier, which means it is going to create distortion free quality sound. You could easily be paying hundreds more for
lesser systems. Reviews are high everywhere, 4.2 stars in Amazon. And the best part is its price.
 
Lepai Tripath TA2020 Class-T Hi-Fi Audio Amplifier
Price: $24.99
3. Wireless Streaming
Alright, the third and last piece to this puzzle is the key to our audio streaming capabilities: we need an Apple Airport Express unit. These are the small,
square Apple wireless airports. Apple has produced 2 different models: the original one (M9470LL/A, model A1084) and the newer one (MB321LL/A, model A1264).
Either one will work for our purposes, the A1084 was first manufactured around 2007, so it's a 802.11g unit, which means it maxes out at 54 Mbps in theory.
The other unit is the newer one, the 802.11n capable unit, which you will find on the Apple store for $99. I do not recommend spending that much money, though.
If you head to eBay, you should be able to get an A1084 for about $35 to $40 max. That will work great, since audio streaming only needs a tiny fraction of
that bandwidth. As a bonus, you can use the airport as a fully capable wireless access point in your house or apartment. It can join you existing network, act
as a repeater, or create a network of its own. It has an ethernet 10/100 port, a USB port for printer sharing, and most importantly, a 3.5mm audio jack!
That precious jack is what we are going to connect to the Lepai amplifier.
 
Apple AirPort Express with Air Tunes M9470LL/A [OLD VERSION on Amazon ~$70]
Apple AirPort Express with Air Tunes M9470LL/A [OLD VERSION on eBay ~$35]
Price: $35
4. The Cables
If you don't already have speaker wire and a male-to-male mini-jack cable, you can pick those up at Radio Shack or anywhere else, including Amazong. Here are a couple
good options:
 
RCA AH1650SN 50 Ft. 16-Gauge Speaker Wire
Price: $8
 
3.5mm Stereo Male To Male Cable 12 ft.
Price: $3
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Grand Total: $116
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CONFIGURATION
Configure the Airpor Express using your computer and following the instructions from the Setup Assistant software from Apple.
It will give you the option to specify that you want to use AirTunes to play music on your stereo from iTunes. You will also be
able to name it - and this name is what iTunes and other software will see and use to connect to the system.
Once you have your airport up and running on your network (solid green light on), connect the 3.5mm mini jack from the Airpot Express to the Lepai amplifier
input lalbeled "MP3" on the back.
Last, use your speaker wire to plug the Sony speakers to the Lepai amplifier speaker outputs, left and right.
As far as the source of your music, you can use iTunes, which will now see your Airport Express as a speaker target. You can also use iPhones and other Apple devices, which will see your speaker, and will be able to stream to it - thought note that only via iTunes you will get the full quality of your music collection. If you stream from your iPhone for example, the sound is further compressed, which does not happen from iTunes. You can also use the Apple Remote app to control your desktop or laptop from your phone or iPad/iPod Touch and play your music, that will work too.
If you don't like iTunes - I don't like it myself, their XML database becomes way too slow if you have a large library of
music - you can use other software-based solutions, such as the excellent Airfoil.
Airfoil will capture sound from any source on your computer, Mac or PC, and let you stream it. For example, I use Spotify and stream my music
to one of the 3 different Airplay-enabled zones in my apartment. Works flawlessly, connects to airplay fast and reliably.
I leave my Lepai running all the time, it consumes very little power, and I can play music whenever I like.
RESULTS
You will be amazed by how flexible this little system is. It's small enough to fit anywhere, you can tuck it away
in your kitchen, den, bedroom or living room. You can surprise your friends from your iPhone or iPad, you can play your
favorite music from Spotify without having to bother turning on your "main" stereo and switching to the correct input, and more.
It is so easy to use that even non-techies can learn how to use it from iTunes to listen to their music.
The quality of sound produced will easily surpass systems costing many hundreds more, and all for around $100, less if you
already have an old Airpot Express around, or an old amplifier.
Hope this was useful and enjoyable. Next: I will take you through how to upgrade the system to an even nicer system in Part II of this series.
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