It cracks me up when I think of all the trouble I went to years ago to wire my whole house (and garden) to my stereo system all controlled by the amplifier in my office. What a lot of trouble and expense. I never dreamed of wireless speakers then, but most of the speakers are still there after having lain dormant for years. Well, here is a change to bring them back to life with little expense and trouble.
The new Griffin 20 audio amplifier for AirPort Express will do just that. Yes, you can use your existing non-powered speakers for untethered digital playback. You can stop listening to your iTunes library with headphones. The Twenty digital audio amplifier uses Apple’s Airply wireless audio/video protocol for connecting with Airport Express and your old speakers.
Just connect your original Airport Express wireless base station or any other audio source to Twenty with the TOSLINK included, which is an audio/video cable. Then connect your speaker wires to Twenty for an easy audio setup that will stream Apple lossless sound to your speakers.
Now you can play your tunes from iPhone, iPod Touch, Ipad or any device that support AirPlay7 or from your computer’s iTunes library. You can use the Remote app to navigate among your tunes anywhere in your house or office. Or, if you wish, you can steam input from any of your AirPlay enabled apps such as Pandora, Rdio, Spotify, Last,fm, etc. If you purchase videos from iTunes, you can watch them on your computer or IOS device and left the audio play through your speakers.
While 20 is primarily set up to dock with the original Airport Express, it is also compatible with any digital audio source, and that includes the new Airport Express.
Here are some specs for you:
· Power connection and mount for Airport Express
· 2.1 channel sound system
· Output: 20 watts per channel
· Optical audio input with included optical cable
· Supports powered subwoofer with automatic active crossover @ 80Hz
· Digital audio output to the user's existing loudspeakers
Amplifier:
· Class D Stereo Amplifier: TI PurePath™
· Input: S/PDIF optical, TOSLINK connector (included)
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· Sensitivity: 0.34 dBFS for 20 watts (volume control set to max)
Speaker Output:
· Power: 20 watts per channel into 8 ohms @ 0.08% THD, both channels driven
· Frequency Response: 20 Hz to 20 kHz, +0, -0.34 dB
· Signal-to-Noise ratio: 95 dB
· Crosstalk: -71 dB
Subwoofer Output:
· Left + Right sub-bass audio
· Autoswitching when powered subwoofer is detected
· Power: Line-level output (2 V rms at 0 dBFS input)
· High-Pass Filter: 80 Hz 2nd order Linkwitz-Riley applied to L+R channels
· Low-Pass Filter: 80 Hz 2nd order Linkwitz-Riley applied to subwoofer output
AC Power:
· 100 to 240 VAC @ 50/60 Hz
· Supplies both amplifier and power connection for original Airport Express
You can have all this functionality for just $99. Grab one here.