Eve Play – Audio Streaming Interface

The Eve Play is not a speaker. It is a small adapter that adds AirPlay 2 to audio equipment that does not have it, connecting to an amplifier or a pair of powered speakers by analogue or optical cable.

That makes it the cheapest way to bring an existing hi-fi system into Apple Home, and it is the only product in this category built specifically around Apple rather than supporting it alongside four other platforms.

What Apple Home actually does with it

This is an AirPlay 2 speaker rather than a HomeKit accessory.

• It appears in the Home app as a speaker you can play to, and as an AirPlay target in Control Centre.
• You can assign it to a room and group it with HomePods for synchronised multi-room audio.
• Siri can send music to it by room name.
• It can be the audio output in a scene or an automation.

You cannot switch it on or set its volume from the Home app the way you would a light. Those stay with the speaker and its own app.

Because Eve builds for Apple first, this is one of the few streaming adapters that behaves exactly as a HomePod does in the Home app.

Before you buy

Check the connections on your amplifier. Eve Play offers analogue and optical output, so most equipment is covered, but confirm before ordering.

An adapter attached to good existing equipment usually beats a cheap all-in-one at the same total price, because the money already spent on the amplifier and speakers keeps working.

The Escape M1 AIR and the JBL MP350 do similar jobs with wider platform support.

Specifications