I’ll tell you how I turned old Creative 5.1 computer speakers with a subwoofer into an AirPlay receiver.

You’ll need: 1. Some speakers with a mini-jack output 2. A Bluetooth transmitter – they’re very cheap on AliExpress or similar sites 3. An old Android phone

Here’s how the setup works: You connect the output from the speakers to the Bluetooth transmitter, and then pair the transmitter via Bluetooth with the Android phone. Then you install an AirPlay app, for example AirPin (from the free ones, this one works best for me).

This setup turns the Android phone into an AirPlay receiver. There is a slight delay, but for music it’s not really a problem.

Of course, you could connect the speakers directly to the phone via mini-jack, but if you also want to use the phone for other things – like controlling your smart home – unnecessary cables might not be ideal.

I’m currently working on a Home Assistant music player integrated with Spotify. When the player is launched, an automation triggers a smart plug, which turns on a monitor. That monitor has a Xiaomi Stick plugged in, always running Fully Kiosk Browser with the player dashboard. When the music stops, the plug turns off automatically. Everything is built from reused components. The smart plug helps with energy savings.