Play sound from iPhone thru Macbook to external output

Question

I want to play music from different apps on my iphone and output them thru macbook to external usb audio system.

My stack is: iPhone XS, Macbook Pro 2015, iOS 13, OSX 10.14.

---

Requirements:

• Free / open sourced / paid but cheap (no more than 20$)
• Can work via air (not only cable)
• Low latency (less than 500ms)

---

What i have tried?

Cable + QTP

For this solution to work, i need to connect iphone via lightning, goto audio midi setup, turn on iphone as input, open quicktime player, start new audio record without actual recording.

Pros

• Well, it works, that's awesome
• No external software – everything you need is already inside os
• Sound stream works from any iphone app (probably, but i tested many of them and hit is 100%)

Cons

• Cable only – wifi/bluetooth does not working
• Stupid bug (feature?) that fixes all iphone tapbar and sets time at 09:41 am forever
• Control volume in quicktime app
• Very big audio latency because of quicktime player (500ms+)

Audio Hijack app

Pros

• It works, maybe (didn't tested)
• No latency or very small comparing to quicktime (as reviews say)
• A lots of possibilities (see features on their website)

Cons

• External app that is with closed source and even does not exists in appstore
• Too much features with very expensive price only for that one feature i need (60$)

---

So, anybody knows any other solutions?

Answer 1

Get an inexpensive bluetooth HD receiver and cut out all the middle men and making macos delay the audio is my suggestion. Rogue Amoeba is the only company I know that meets your quality requirements.

• Esinkin Bluetooth Receiver Wireless, NFC-Enabled Audio Adapter 4.0 for HD Home Stereo Music Streaming Sound System for 3.5mm (AUX and RCA) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TK8ZKQT/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_xzFIEbX8B4NBV
• AirFly Pro is awesome - https://www.twelvesouth.com/products/airfly?variant=30720749109305

There are dozens of great options for less than $25 Cost so all your devices, Mac and iOS can play to your audio system.

If you must go bluetooth to Mac, try AirFoil - you’re right you don’t need loopback or the full suite and processing.

• https://www.rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/mac/

There are other Wi-Fi / Airplay options for macOS , but AirFoil is what I recommend.

Answer 2

The Kodi media player has this functionality.
Download and install Kodi Once open go to settings > services > Airplay and enable this feature. From there you can play any audio files over your local network to your computer.

Great thing about Kodi is that it is cross platform and I have been able to get this working on MacOS and Ubuntu Linux, havent tried on windows yet.

And it is free! https://kodi.tv/