An AirPlay 2 receiver lets any iPhone, iPad or Mac on the network send audio straight to your amplifier, and lets you group it with other AirPlay 2 devices for synchronised music through the house. No dongle, no optical adapter, no extra box on the shelf.

Before anything else, one correction, because it is the thing people arrive here believing and it is wrong on almost every product page on the internet: Siri does not live inside these receivers. Search results promise “an AV receiver with Siri”, and there is no such thing. Siri runs on your iPhone, your HomePod or your Apple TV, and those devices send the audio to the receiver. Asking the receiver a question is not something that happens.

AirPlay 2 is not HomeKit

An AirPlay 2 receiver appears in the Home app as a speaker you can play to, and in Control Centre as an AirPlay target. You can assign it to a room, group it with other AirPlay 2 devices, and make it the audio output of a scene or an automation.

What you do not get is an accessory tile. There is no power switch and no volume slider of the sort a HomeKit plug or light gives you, and you cannot write an automation that changes the receiver’s input. Volume and input stay with the remote, the front panel and the manufacturer’s own app — HEOS on Denon and Marantz, BluOS on Bluesound, MusicCast on Yamaha.

That is a real limitation and it is also not much of one in practice, because the thing people want from a receiver in Apple Home is for music to arrive in the right room. It does.

Which kind of receiver do you need?

Three quite different products share this page, and picking the wrong family costs more than picking the wrong model within it.

An AV receiver drives five or more speakers and switches your HDMI sources. Buy one if you want surround sound from a television.
A stereo receiver or streaming amplifier drives two speakers. Buy one if you want music, and if a five-speaker layout is not going to happen in your living room.
A streamer has no amplifier at all and feeds an amplifier you already own. Buy one if there is a hi-fi in the house that you like.

Home cinema: AV receivers

The one most people should buy: Denon AVR-S770H

The Denon AVR-S770H is 7.2 channels rather than the 5.2 of the range below it, and that is the whole reason to choose it. Seven channels means you can start with a 5.1 layout and add a pair of Atmos height speakers later without replacing the receiver — which is what actually happens to most people who buy a 5.2 receiver.

Check price on Amazon UK

The AVR-S660H (Amazon UK) is the cheaper way in, and the AVR-S970H (Amazon UK) sits above the S770H in the same range.

A step up in build: Denon AVR-X1800H

The Denon AVR-X1800H is where Denon’s X series begins. It is also a 7.2-channel Atmos and DTS:X receiver, so the channel count is not the reason to move up — the amplifier section and the calibration are.

Check price on Amazon UK

Room correction that earns its money: Onkyo TX-RZ30

The Onkyo TX-RZ30 comes from Onkyo’s enthusiast RZ range and includes Dirac Live room correction, which is a meaningful step above the calibration bundled with entry-level receivers. In a real room with hard floors, curtains and furniture in the wrong places, room correction changes what you hear more than most component upgrades do.

Check price on Amazon UK

The Onkyo TX-NR6100 is the mainstream Onkyo alternative. Check price on Amazon UK

If the receiver has to be slim: Marantz CINEMA 70s

The Marantz CINEMA 70s is the slim-case AV receiver, and slim is not a cosmetic point — a standard receiver is around 17 cm tall and does not fit the shelf in a great many British living rooms. Measure before you fall in love with anything else on this page.

Check price on Amazon UK

The older Marantz NR1510 is the same slim idea at 5.2 channels. Check price on Amazon UK

Two speakers: stereo receivers

This is the section most people looking at AV receivers should read first. If you are not going to put five speakers and a subwoofer in the room — and most people are not — a stereo receiver gives you better sound per pound and a box half the size.

Television and music from one box: Denon DRA-900H

The Denon DRA-900H is a stereo receiver that keeps the HDMI sockets and the ARC connection of an AV receiver. Two speakers and a subwoofer, fed by the television and by everything else, from one unit. For a living room where the TV system and the music system are the same system, this is the most sensible thing on the page.

Check price on Amazon UK

The DRA-800H is the previous generation of the same idea. Check price on Amazon UK

The slim one: Marantz STEREO 70s

The Marantz STEREO 70s is the same combination — stereo amplifier, HDMI sockets, network streaming — in Marantz’s slim case, so it fits under a television where a standard-depth receiver will not.

Check price on Amazon UK

For a turntable as well: Yamaha R-N600A

The Yamaha R-N600A is a network stereo receiver with a phono input, so a turntable connects without a separate preamp. Amplifier, streamer, DAC and FM radio in one case. Yamaha has been making this shape of product for decades and it shows.

Check price on Amazon UK

The Marantz PM7000N is the more expensive integrated amplifier with streaming built in. Check price on Amazon UK

The value option: Argon Audio SA2

The Argon Audio SA2 is a compact streaming amplifier from the Danish brand Argon Audio — amplifier, DAC and streamer in one small box, add speakers. Argon competes on value rather than prestige and sells through a small number of retailers.

Check price on Amazon UK

Everything in one small box: Denon CEOL RCD-N12

The Denon CEOL RCD-N12 adds a CD player and radio to the amplifier and streamer, in a box small enough for a kitchen, a study or a bedroom. That format has become rare, and it is exactly right where separates will not fit and a wireless speaker will not do.

Check price on Amazon UK

Keep the hi-fi you own: streamers and streaming amplifiers

The standard recommendation: Bluesound NODE

The Bluesound NODE has been the default answer to “add streaming to my existing amplifier” for years, and the reason is BluOS — the platform Bluesound shares with NAD and Cyrus. It handles large local music libraries properly, which is where most streaming apps fall apart.

Check price on Amazon UK

The NODE ICON is the flagship, with a substantially better DAC and analogue output stage. Check price on Amazon UK

Streamer and amplifier together: Bluesound POWERNODE EDGE

The Bluesound POWERNODE EDGE is the NODE with an amplifier built in, so it drives passive speakers directly and there is no separate amp at all.

Check price on Amazon UK

If the rest of the house is Sonos: Sonos Amp

The Sonos Amp drives a pair of passive speakers and puts them into the Sonos system alongside every other Sonos speaker in the house. Buy it because you already own Sonos, or because you want in-ceiling speakers on the same system as the ones on the shelf — not on its merits as an amplifier alone.

Check price on Amazon UK

What to check before you buy

Channel count, honestly. A 7.2 receiver is only worth the premium over 5.2 if the seventh speaker will ever be installed. Be truthful with yourself about the room, the sockets and the cable runs, because the receiver outlives the optimism.

Height, then width, then depth. Full-size AV receivers are tall, and the slim models exist because that is the single most common reason a purchase gets returned. Measure the shelf first.

Ethernet. AirPlay 2 is only as good as the network beneath it, and a dropout in the middle of an album is the complaint people actually make. Receivers sit in the same place forever, next to a television that usually already has a cable. Use it.

Which app the manufacturer expects you to use. HEOS, BluOS and MusicCast do the multi-room grouping, the streaming service accounts and the settings. AirPlay 2 sits alongside that, not instead of it. If you intend to live in one app, look at the app before you look at the receiver.

A home hub, for the automation half. Playing to a receiver from your phone needs nothing. Putting it in a scene or an automation that runs when you are not holding the phone needs a HomePod or an Apple TV at home, like every other Apple Home automation.

Whether you want a receiver at all. If the goal is only music in one room, an AirPlay 2 speaker is less money and less furniture.

Also worth reading

AirPlay 2: the unsung hero of Apple’s wireless ecosystem
AirPlay-enabled speakers — the same protocol, without the amplifier.

The full list of AirPlay 2 receivers, amplifiers and streamers in the directory is below, filterable by brand.