New speakers aren’t necessarily better sound quality than old speakers, and that alone is actually enough to be the reason why we should keep our old speakers well. But there’s no denying that the wireless connectivity that modern speakers offer makes it easy to use every day, and it’s what often makes us move on from older speakers.
The good news is that many devices are out there that you can use to turn old speakers into wireless speakers. An example is Belkin SoundForm Connect, which can deliver AirPlay 2 support to any speaker with a 3.5 mm or optical input plug.
So by connecting SoundForm Connect to the speaker via one of the input options, users can directly forward audio from their iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV to the speaker wirelessly. AirPlay 2 uses a Wi-Fi connection rather than Bluetooth, which means latency is much less than using a Bluetooth adapter.
If you still remember Chromecast Audio, the premise offered by this device is not much different. What’s different is the ecosystem support. AirPlay 2 itself is also other from its first generation. Most importantly, AirPlay 2 supports multi-room technology, which means you can also include your old speakers in this multi-room setup with the help of Belkin SoundForm Connect.
Technically, SoundForm Connect supports audio streaming with a maximum resolution of 16-bit/44.1 kHz. At that resolution, you can categorize audio as lossless. It just so happens that Apple recently announced that Apple Music is about to arrive with lossless music content. This should be an additional reason to hook up this device and turn older speakers into AirPlay 2 speakers.
In the United States, Belkin SoundForm Connect is currently on the market for $100(10,800.00 Kenyan Shilling). It is far from a cheap word, especially considering that HomePod Mini is sold at the same price. Even so, this device remains one of the best options to keep older speakers relevant in the era of wireless.