Okay, I have NO IDEA how this is working, but I can AirPlay STEREO AUDIO from my Garuda KDE desktop to my STEREO PAIR of HomePod minis! 🤯

I already have my HomePod minis in a stereo pair on either side of my bedroom TV that I use with an AppleTV.

Pipewire-pulse sees each HomePod as an individual sink to send audio to, but oddly enough when I send audio, it only plays ONE channel on either HomePod - either left OR right.

So I created a combined output with pactl (thank you, Claude) and now I get STEREO sound from my pair!

I don’t get any lags or stuttering and I can control the HomePod volume from the Home app.