Airplay 2 Compatible AV Receiver with “Wake” or instant on?

Hardware
1

I have an Airport Express plugged into my AVR receiver to add AirPlay capabilities to the receiver, for sending audio to 4 pairs of speakers/ceiling speakers (with a speaker switch in between to handle the multiple speakers). The receiver is a very old one and it works fine, except for the fact that I have to turn it on every time I want to AirPlay to it. Does anyone have an AirPlay 2 compatible AV recover they like, that is nearly instantaneous to “wake up” when you send audio to it via AirPlay 2? I find that I rarely send music to my ceiling speakers because of the friction of having to turn the receiver on, and just send it to the HomePod instead.

I’ve been looking at the Sonos Amp and the Denon AVR-X2500H, but can’t find any details about how “instant on” they are.

2

I have a Marantz SR6013 that operates the way you want (instant isn’t completely instant - it takes a second or two for the amp to power up and switch to the appropriate configuration).

Given that the Denon also includes wifi I’d expect it to operate in a similar way

3

Thank you, Nick. That’s what I was hoping to hear.

4

Just tested with my Sonos Amp, and Airplay 2 took 3-4 seconds to connect. About the same time as a Bluetooth connection, I’d say.

The delay is about the same when it receives an audio signal via HDMI ARC. Works every time, no manual intervention required.

5

Awesome. Thank you, Tormod.

6

The Sonos Amp is currently on sale (started on Black Friday) for $150 off the normal price. That price made it competitive with the Denon I was considering (I bumped my sights up to the 3500), and it won’t be used for home theater, so I bought it. I like the smaller footprint than my other Denon, and so far, so good. I have it hooked into a impedance speaker selector, and like being able to say, “Hey Siri, play [song or playlist] everywhere” to my HomePod, and have it play over all speakers a few seconds later. I can also tell Siri to play just over the ceiling speakers, or just over the HomePod. AirPlay 2 is pretty sweet.

Here is the sale on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07LD8NN37/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_kXd5DbZHYWC0R

At least as of Friday, Sonos had the same deal on their own site.

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