HomePod HomePod Mini as rear speakers

[Rainman1915]

My tv is hooked up to my Yamaha receiver and I use two separate speakers and a centre channel instead of the tv speakers. My question is can you use 2 HomePod Mini speakers as rear speakers with Apple TV and have all work at the same time or do you have to choose where the sound comes from either the tv speakers or HomePod Minis?

I am not able to use wired speakers as rear speakers so I am looking for an alternative.

 

[StumpyBloke]

No

 

[unapologeticallyplastic]

My tv is hooked up to my Yamaha receiver and I use two separate speakers and a centre channel instead of the tv speakers. My question is can you use 2 HomePod Mini speakers as rear speakers with Apple TV and have all work at the same time or do you have to choose where the sound comes from either the tv speakers or HomePod Minis?

I am not able to use wired speakers as rear speakers so I am looking for an alternative.

If you can somehow add Airplay 2 functionality to the Yamaha receiver (maybe through a second hand AirPort Express), you should be able to select multiple audio output on the Apple TV and get audio out of all speakers (including HomePod mini). Please note that you will not be able to get proper surround sound output from such a setup.

 

[waw74]

if you didn't have an amp already I'd suggest sonos, get one of their sound bars, and a pair of speakers for the surrounds. Ikea has speakers for $99 that work fine for surrounds.

you can also look at something like this, I used one for a while, and it worked OK. It is a tiny bit slow though, so if your amp has a microphone to tune your room, it'll say the speakers are further away than they really are, since the amp will think they delay happened from the speaker to the mic, instead of between the amp and the speaker.
I purchased this one 4 years ago, and haven't used it in a couple, there might be better options now.

Soundcast SurroundCast System

SurroundCast is a kit consisting of a transmitter with speaker level inputs and an amplified receiver module with 60 watts of digital power and speaker level outputs. The system allows you to set up any brand of surround speakers without the need for front to back of room wires. The system has a ...

www.amazon.com

 

[Rainman1915]

Thanks for your suggestions, I will look into them.

 

[TonyC28]

This would be super cool but I have no idea what the technical limitations or possibilities are for it.

 

[AustinIllini]

I'm guessing this functionality might come, but not available atm.

 

[Rainman1915]

I did make this work, its not true surround sound but it does balance the room nice with sound now. I used Airplay with my Homepod Mini's (put them on speaker stands) and used my receiver with a centre channel and front speakers. My sound on the Mini's was out of sync, so I calibrated it and everything sounds good!