Getting started¶

Building an AirPlay speaker from scratch takes four steps and about half an hour, most of which is waiting for a firmware flash.

flowchart LR
    A["1. Shopping list<br/><small>~$10, two boards</small>"]
    B["2. Assembly<br/><small>no soldering</small>"]
    C["3. Flash<br/><small>from your browser</small>"]
    D["4. First boot<br/><small>join setup WiFi</small>"]
    E(["Playing music"])

    A --> B --> C --> D --> E

    OWN["Already own a<br/>supported board?"] -.->|skip ahead| C

    classDef done stroke:#26a69a,stroke-width:2px
    class E done

1. Shopping list — two boards and a pin header, roughly $10
2. Assembly — the DAC plugs straight onto the ESP32, no soldering
3. Flash the firmware — from your browser, or with PlatformIO / ESP-IDF
4. First boot — join the setup WiFi and point it at your network

If you already own a SqueezeAMP, an Esparagus Audio Brick or another supported board, skip the first two steps and go straight to flashing — those boards have a DAC and amplifier built in.