I decided to test all my speakers, both Apple and Bose, to see how multiroom ran using SoundTouch and AirPlay 2. The hardware combinations I have are as follows:
2 SoundTouch 30s with Airport Express
1 Cinemate 130 with SoundTouch adaptor(BlueTooth) and Apple TV v3
1 Solo with Apple TV v3
1 Solo 15 with Apple TV v3
1 24 in TV (kitchen) with ATV v4
I tried a variety of combinations including individually targeting the speakers, using Bose Play All and AirPlay 2 on my iPad and on my iMac, with the help of Airport Express routers and Apple TVs. I was able to view all the speakers from both my iMac and iPad in the SoundTouch app, iTunes app(Mac) and iPad music control panel.
There were so many combinations available, after a while my head and ears started to spin.
Impression
After playing with a combination of speakers it seems to me only the iMac and Apple TVs were out of sync in some circumstances. The iPad did not play sound when other speakers were activated. As a result I could not tell if there was a lag between the iPad and the speakers
In all cases the Bose SoundTouch speakers were in sync with each other, that includes in play all and non play all mode using SoundTouch(vtuner) and AUX using Airport Express(Apple Music) controlled by the iPad and the iMac.
The Bose speakers using Apple TV and the Kitchen speaker using Apple TV4 were slightly out of sync with the iMac playing through iTunes. There was a noticable lag between the iMac and with the Airport Express routers when SoundTouch was in Play All playing iTunes. The lag was minimalized when the SoundTouch speakers played independently in iTunes
The ATV v4 kept calling for security codes and key chain access. That was remedied by pressing the “always allow button”.
The older ATVs did not play well with AirPlay 2 on the iPad in multi-room mode. They just shut off, sometimes taking down the other ATV and AE speakers, especially if tried to mix the Airport Express speakers with ATV speakers. Guess this was to be expected as the older ATVs are not AirPlay 2 ready.
I could stream to a single older ATV using the iPad and of course the iMac.
I could also stream to the updated Airport Expresses and ATVv4 together using the iPad.
The iMac still did a better job of streaming Apple Music to the Airport Express routers and ATVs, all versions and combinations.
Conclusion
The Bose SoundTouch app and speakers were rock solid when SoundTouch was used in play all and single room modes.
The Mac OS also implemented the multiroom fairly well. MacOS could stream to the AE routers and all versions of Apple TV simultaneously. There was a noticable lag with the iMac speakers and the SoundTouch Speakers in play all. When the SoundTouch speakers played independentally as selected in iTunes, they were in sync.
The iOS AirPlay 2 app played well with all the updated Airport Express routers and newer Apple TVs. But could only stream to the older ATVs one at a time.
It wasn’t too many years ago when my streaming setup consisted of a single iMac running iTunes, an Airport Express and a simple stereo receiver. Now I am able to stream music all around the house using my iMac or iPad and some really good sounding Bose speakers in a variety of configurations.
Very satisfied!