ACEMAX M5 AudioCast WiFi Wireles Audio Adapter Airplay DLNA Spotify iHeartRadio Supporting Stream Audio to Speaker Systems Over 2.4G Wi-Fi Network Multi Room Supported

I originally purchased two AudioCast devices and quickly purchased two more. The devices work very well and have completely replaced the four ChromeCast devices that I had been using for many years. My use case is “multi-room streaming via Spotify connect”. I cannot really comment on using either Chromecast or AudioCast for other services as I do all my streaming from Spotify.First, let me say that I am an IT specialist with strong networking skills. I agree with other comments that this is not super easy for “non technical” people to setup. You need an understanding of how your device connects and maintains connections to WiFi networks. The app seemed to get confused, and I had to stop/start WiFi on the device several times and bounce the app.To be clear… the issue occurred during setup and not during playback. The device must first be connected to your WiFi network before it can be used. To accomplish that you install the AudioCast app on your mobile device and then plug in the AudioCast puck. Your mobile device will then see a new WiFi SSID (WiFi network) awaiting connections. You connect your mobile device to the new WFi SSID, which means it is connected to the AudioCast device. At that very moment, your mobile device is not connected to the internet. That is because the AudioCast device has not yet been connected to your WiFi network and therefore has no internet signal. At this moment, my Samsung phone would recognize that it was connected to a WiFi device that did not have any internet connectivity. The mobile device would then disconnect from the AudioCast and reconnect to my WiFi network, which prevented me from completely the setup. Ultimately I had to turn off the Auto Connect feature on my phone so that it would stay connected to the AudioCast device during the setup process. That allowed me to set the WiFi SSID/Password in the AudioCast configuration and the rename the AudioCast to a custom name that matched the location in my home. I had to do this for all four AudioCast devices.Once I got the device connected to my network, streaming via Spotify Connect has worked flawlessly. I see the custom names in both the AudioCast app and in Spotify. Furthermore, devices that do not have the AudioCast app do see the devices in Spotify Connect and can stream. Meaning my wife and friends can all stream from Spotify without installing the AudioCast app.The multiroom feature works great. I am able to “pair” AudioCast devices and the streaming is in synch. My screen shots show pairing of Office with Main. That shows in the AudioCast app. Back in Spotify Connect you see just Main. When I stream to Main in Spotify I will hear music in both Main and Office. If I want to change the pairings, I can simply drag/drop the devices in the AudioCast app.I do not have the situation of the AudioCast creating a “hidden” or “secondary” WiFi network. However, I do see in the AudioCast app has the ability to create a Personal Hotspot. I believe this feature will degrade the performance of music streaming and therefore I leave it disabled.The audio quality is equal or better than the Chromecast.The performance is superior to the Chromecast. Connecting to the service happens faster than the Chromecast ever connected. My Chromecast devices would constantly drop the connection. I have used the AudioCast for several weeks now and have not experienced any drops.One difference between Chromecast and AudioCast is the ability to create predefined groups. With Chromecast you could use Google Home to add your ChromeCast to named groups and the groups would show as a device in Spotify Connect. The AudioCast does not allow you to make groups with multiple devices. The AudioCast allows pairing of devices under one device, but does not allow for the creation of different groups with different names. While I personally like the ability to create groups… that Chromecast feature is trivial and was not a decision point in keeping the AudioCast over Chromecast.The one fear I do have is perseverance. Like… how long will AudioCast be in business. Will they continue to add services and improve the app. Will support get better and will the company stay in business. I suppose time will tell.

The device audio sounds fine when it wants to work or connect.I believe that the 2.4 GHz band limits the full potential of this device.If it were on the 5GHz band for better bandwidth and full audiofidelity (lossless, uncompressed audio preferred), this device would bebetter. I can understand wanting to use 2.4 GHz for potential longer range butthat seems to sacrifice the audio connectivity and audio quality.I find that this device keeps disconnecting from my network even thoughthe wireless strength is over 80% even at 100% signal strength, it seems tohave sync problems and tends to be unreliable compared to a Linksys RE6500with audio port that works on both dual bands (including 5GHz ) and evenwith ethernet wired option. I find I have to keep babysitting this deviceto sync it up with other wi-fi speakers in my network and home and usingAirfoil to link and distribute audio from source to various networked speakersystems.Update:I change my poor rating of this device to 3 stars.I discovered after some denying for some time that the AiMeshfeature with Asus routers could be or have been causing problemswith keeping this device connected.I believe with AiMesh, some wireless traffic may affect the2.4 GHz band to keep the mesh routers connected wirelesslyand could interrupt this device connection into the same network.I decided to use the wired or ethernet mesh backhaul instead ofwireless and there is a major improvement with this device'sconnection to the routers as the AiMesh routers are all now connectedusing ethernet cables leaving the wireless bands to just connectclients (like this device) and not be bogged down also keeping the backboneof the network connected via wireless between the main mesh router andthe satellite node routers.Since connected wireless routers using AiMesh using wired /ethernet links,this device works fine as the wireless bands can be busy linking wireless clientslike this and not maintaining the backbone of the linkage of the network.I am lowering my rating of this device because it just keeps disconnecting asthe problem is it is only wireless. I am now using a wired device Linksys RE6500range extender with an audio port output and it keeps connected better becauseit can connect using 5GHz band or the ethernet LAN solid wired connection (whichI use for my purposes). Wireless is just too flaky and because of wireless' nature, devicesthat solely depend on wireless can be flaky and unstable.I have lost my patience with the AudioCast for consistently reliable music streamingwithin my home network and will be phasing it out only to be used remotely.

It seems to work fine. It is small, very light, and seems to start up quickly. I had thought to convert an Apple AirPort Express to USB power for use in my car, but this is cheaper and easier. My iPhone XR sees it as an AirPlay device. I'm having some issues with Siri in the car and need to experiment more with the WiFi networking possibilities to see what will work best. What I'm hoping for is to be able to just get in the car with my phone and select the AirPlay destination and play audio through the car's AUX input while retaining Siri voice control of the phone. Siri needs the Internet and my issues center on figuring how to get the phone a solid internet connection while still seeing the Audiocast device as an AirPlay receiver. I have an ATT/Harman Spark WiFi network in the car, but that doesn't seem to work very well with Siri via the phone. Supposedly there's a way to connect to a WiFi network with an iPhone while still using cellular for Internet, but I haven't tried it with the AudioCast. The AudioCast browser interface is very basic and I've had to revert to factory settings a few times, which fortunately you can accomplish with a button on the unit.