Make any speaker show up in Control Center, right next to your HomePod. Plug a small ESP32 audio device into your speakers or amplifier, install the free, open-source AirPlay 2 firmware from your browser, and play from any app on your iPhone, iPad or Mac. No server, no hub, no extra app, no account.
- Works on its own: no Home Assistant, no server, nothing else to keep running — just your Wi-Fi and an Apple device
- Every app, natively: Apple Music, Spotify, podcasts, YouTube, Safari — anything with the AirPlay button
- AirPlay 2 multi-room: tick several speakers and they play in sync
- Pro-level sound tuning: on Louder devices, a full parametric equaliser and crossover builder right in your browser
- Bluetooth too: the classic ESP32 versions also work as a Bluetooth speaker for any phone, Android included
- Room to grow: wired Ethernet, a small OLED or colour screen where the board has them, and an experimental Sendspin (Home Assistant) option
- Affordable: from about $20 per room, reusing the speakers you already have
AirPlay or Home Assistant?
Every Sonocotta device can run several firmwares. The hardware is the same, so you can change your mind later just by installing a different one.
Choose AirPlay if…
- everyone at home uses an iPhone, iPad or Mac
- you want the simplest setup: nothing to install or look after
- you want to fine-tune your speakers with a full parametric equaliser
Can’t decide? This firmware can also join Home Assistant as an experimental option, so you can have both. See how.
Choose Home Assistant if…
- you already run Home Assistant, or plan to
- your household mixes iPhone and Android, or you want Spotify Connect
- you want announcements, automations or a voice assistant
How it works
1. Your iPhone, iPad or Mac
Tap the AirPlay icon in any app or in Control Center and pick a room — or several.
2. AirPlay 2 over Wi-Fi
Audio goes straight from your device to the speaker, time-synced across rooms. No cloud and no server in between.
3. A device per room
A Sonocotta board running the open-source AirPlay firmware plays it through your speakers or amplifier.
Pick your device
Only one question really matters: what will the device plug into? Then choose between a bare board (lowest price, fits a standard Raspberry Pi case or goes inside your speaker) and an Esparagus device (finished aluminium case, ready for the shelf).
ESP32-S3 or classic ESP32? Both cost the same. The S3 is the recommended pick: it has more headroom and is the one that drives a colour screen. Pick the classic ESP32 if you also want Bluetooth: whenever AirPlay is idle, any phone can pair with it like an ordinary Bluetooth speaker. The S3 chip has no Bluetooth audio.
Full-size passive speakers
Bookshelf or floor-standing speakers with bare speaker-wire terminals — including that old hi-fi pair. This is where the AirPlay firmware shines: Louder devices get the full sound-tuning toolkit, so you can shape the sound to your speakers and your room.
- Board: Louder-ESP32-S3 — 2×32 W (Plus: 2×45 W)
- Heavy duty: Louder-ESP32-Pro — 2×45 W with colour screen and Ethernet built in (AirPlay build coming soon)
- Esparagus: Louder Esparagus — 2×45 W with a screen, in an aluminium case
Smaller speakers: kitchen, desk, bathroom
Compact passive speakers where a few watts is plenty. The Loud series keeps it simple — no tuning to fiddle with, and it runs from any USB-C phone charger.
- Board: Loud-ESP32-S3 — 2×5 W, the simplest and cheapest way in
- Esparagus: Loud Esparagus — 2×5 W in an aluminium case, with Bluetooth
Inside the speaker itself
No box on the shelf at all: the board replaces the terminal plate on the back of the speaker, and the speaker becomes an AirPlay speaker. Only a screwdriver is needed.
- Board: Louder-ESP32-Mini — one per speaker (mono), with the same full sound tuning as the Louder series (AirPlay build coming soon)
- 42 mm for small speakers, powered by a phone charger; 55 mm for larger ones, powered by a USB-PD charger (45 W recommended, up to 65 W supported)
An amplifier, receiver, or powered speakers
You already have something that makes the sound — a stereo amp, an AV receiver, active monitors, a soundbar with an AUX input. You just need a clean line-level signal.
- Board: HiFi-ESP32-S3 — line out (RCA or 3.5 mm)
- Esparagus: HiFi Esparagus — line out, in an aluminium case
Speakers today, an amplifier tomorrow — or both
The Amped series bridges the two cases above. Its built-in amplifier drives passive speakers directly, while a line output can feed an external amp, an active subwoofer, or headphones instead. Pick it if your setup is likely to change, or you are not sure yet.
- Board: Amped-ESP32-S3 — 2×40 W speaker outputs plus a 3.5 mm line out (plugging into the jack mutes the speakers)
- Esparagus: Amped Esparagus — 2×40 W with a line out and a volume knob, in an aluminium case
Side by side
| Device | Plugs into | Output | Sound tuning (DSP) | Bluetooth | Screen | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Louder-ESP32-S3 | full-size passive speakers | 2×32 W (Plus: 2×45 W) | ✅ full | classic ESP32 version | optional OLED | $24 |
| Louder Esparagus S3 | full-size passive speakers | 2×45 W | ✅ full | classic ESP32 version | ✅ | $79 |
| Louder-ESP32-Pro (soon) | full-size passive speakers | 2×45 W | ✅ full | — | optional color TFT | $45 |
| Louder-ESP32-Mini (soon) | inside one speaker | 1×3.5 W / 1×45 W | ✅ full | — | — | $15 |
| Loud-ESP32-S3 | small passive speakers | 2×5 W | — | classic ESP32 version | optional OLED | $20 |
| Loud Esparagus | small passive speakers | 2×5 W | — | ✅ | — | $45 |
| HiFi-ESP32-S3 | amp / powered speakers | line out | — | classic ESP32 version | optional OLED | $20 |
| HiFi Esparagus | amp / powered speakers | line out | — | classic ESP32 version | — | $45 |
| Amped-ESP32-S3 | speakers and/or amp | 2×40 W + line out | — | classic ESP32 version | optional OLED | $25 |
| Amped Esparagus | speakers and/or amp | 2×40 W + line out | — | classic ESP32 version | optional color TFT | $79 |
What else you need
- Your speakers or amplifier, and speaker wire or an audio cable
- A power supply — the same rules as in the Home Assistant guide: a USB-C phone charger for the small boards, USB-PD or a barrel-jack adapter for the powerful ones
- For the first install only: a desktop computer with Chrome, Edge or Opera, and a USB-C data cable
- An iPhone, iPad or Mac on the same Wi-Fi
Sound tuning on Louder devices
Every Louder device has a Texas Instruments amplifier chip with a signal processor (DSP) built in. The AirPlay firmware opens it up completely, on a page served by the device itself: the kind of tuning you normally only get with studio monitors and expensive active speakers, with no software to install.
- Quick EQ: one click sets up a 15-band graphic equaliser from 20 Hz to 16 kHz — then just set the levels
- Full manual mode: 15 filters per channel, each one any type you like — peaking, low and high shelf, low and high pass, band pass, notch, phase shift, or raw coefficients
- Crossovers, built for you: bi-amp a two-way speaker, or split satellites and a subwoofer; pick the frequency and the slope, and the page writes the filters
- Fit to a measurement: load a measurement from Room EQ Wizard (REW) and let the page find the correction filters for your room
- Stereo, mono, left or right: choose what each amplifier plays
- Listen before you keep it: Apply to hear a change, Commit to save it on the device, Revert to go back. Your tuning survives restarts and firmware updates
On the Plus boards (TAS5825M amplifier) you can go further still and load a complete tuning designed in TI’s PurePath Console 3.
Set it up
About ten minutes per room. No code and no command line.
1. Connect your speakers and power
Wire the speakers to the terminals, or plug the line out into your amplifier. Use the right power supply for your device (see “What else you need” above) — but don’t power it up yet if you are about to install the firmware over USB.
2. Install the firmware from your browser
Plug the device into your computer with a USB-C data cable and open the AirPlay installer in Chrome, Edge or Opera. Find your board in the list and click Install. Pick the card that matches your board exactly — the S3 and classic versions, and the Plus and plain versions, are wired differently.
3. Connect it to your Wi-Fi
When the install finishes, unplug the device, put it in its place and power it up. On your phone, join the Wi-Fi network ESP32-AirPlay-Setup; a setup page opens by itself (if not, browse to 192.168.4.1). Give the speaker a name, like “Kitchen”, pick your home Wi-Fi and enter its password. The device restarts and joins your network.
4. Play
Open Control Center on your iPhone, tap the AirPlay icon and choose your new speaker — or use the AirPlay button in any app. Tick several speakers to play in sync. On classic ESP32 devices you can also pair over Bluetooth, using the same name.
5. Tune the sound (Louder devices)
Find the device’s address in your router’s list of connected devices and open it in a browser. The equaliser page is linked from there — start with Quick EQ, or jump straight into manual mode.
6. Keep it up to date
New versions install over Wi-Fi from the device’s own web page; USB is only needed the first time. The name, Wi-Fi settings and your sound tuning are kept.
Also using Home Assistant?
The simple way: Music Assistant has an AirPlay player provider. Turn it on and it finds the speaker on your network and plays to it like any other AirPlay speaker — nothing to change on the device.
The closer fit: the AirPlay firmware also includes an experimental Sendspin player, switched off by default. Turn on Native SendSpin Client Support under Device Settings on the device’s web page and restart it; Music Assistant then finds it like any other Sendspin speaker, and it can join groups and play announcements.
AirPlay keeps working alongside. Start AirPlay from your phone and it takes over the speaker; stop, and Music Assistant carries on where it left off. For the most polished Home Assistant experience — voice assistant, mature Sendspin support, the full smart-home setup — follow Multi-room audio for Home Assistant instead.
Questions people ask
Do I need an Apple device?
AirPlay is sent from an iPhone, iPad, Mac or Apple TV, and from a few apps on Android and Windows. If some of your household uses Android, pick a classic ESP32 version for Bluetooth, or look at the Spotify, AirPlay and Bluetooth or Home Assistant setups, which cover everyone.
Does it work with Spotify?
Yes — from the Spotify app on an iPhone or Mac, tap the device icon and choose AirPlay. Spotify Connect (controlling the speaker from any device, including the desktop app) is not part of this firmware; the standalone Squeezelite firmware has it built in, and the Home Assistant setup offers it through Music Assistant.
Can I group them with my HomePod or other AirPlay speakers?
Yes. They are regular AirPlay 2 receivers, so you can tick them together with other AirPlay 2 speakers on your phone and everything plays in sync.
My board isn’t in the installer yet.
Support is rolling out board by board, and the remaining Sonocotta boards — Louder-ESP32-Mini, Louder-ESP32-Pro and the Plus models — are expected in the coming weeks. Until then the board runs the Home Assistant firmware, and you can switch any time.
Can I switch to another firmware later?
Yes. The hardware does not change; install the Home Assistant (Sendspin), Squeezelite or Snapcast firmware from the browser whenever you like.
Who makes the firmware?
It is the open-source airplay-esp32 project by rbouteiller and contributors, with Sonocotta boards supported out of the box. Firmware bugs and feature requests go to its GitHub issues; the documentation covers every option in depth.
Where can I buy?
EU stock ships from Tindie and Lectronz; worldwide shipping from Elecrow. Each device page links straight to its listings.
Stuck? Ask
Come say hi on Discord, open an issue on GitHub, or email me — I read every message.