The only issue with Airplay II is that it won't turn the TV's on, and as the main living room system is a Avant with speakers it sort of defeats the purpose. Otherwise your idea is one I have considered (I have also considered just running Roon - which is very good and can use the Essences as either chormecast or airplay 2 endpoints)

The core hardware is faster, but the software is basically the same.

Probably no need to factory reset all the devices, but since you mention a phantom product showing in the BeoTool, I would try resetting the list of discovered beolink devices on each device, and maybe start from scratch with the product integration on the two televisions.

I'd try removing power from off all the devices, then power on one at a time starting with the televisions.

Each time you power on a new device, and before powering on the next one, wait for the device to finish booting and then:

1. For the televisions:

- Firstly remove the product integration in settings->product integration menu, then exit the menus.

- Next enter the customer service menu by pressing the home button on the BeoRemote One-BT, choose Settings, and press the Centre button. Choose Service menu, press RED button and within 3 seconds press the Centre button. Choose Customer service menu, press Centre button.

- From the customer service menu, select settings, then network link products. If my memory serves me correctly there's then an option to clear the list.

2. For the Essences, A9, M5 etc:

- In the B&O app, go to products -> settings -> products -> select the newly powered on device -> configure -> settings -> beolink.

- From this menu, go to link to other products and set both to None (and click connect button for each to save that selection)

- Then, from the same menu, click discover devices and click refresh and check there are no phantom products.

Finally, if everything is working to this point, you can re-integrate the two essences with the two televisions.

I'm not sure if this will resolve your issues, but I'd certainly be inclined to try this before opting to set up a new B&O account or replacing products.

Kind regards,

Martin.

Martin, 

Thank you for your reply.  I have had a few B&O techs out to the house but they are often as mystified as I am. 

I am hoping that getting rid of the 'phantom' zone will solve the problem - as the greatest stability seemed to be before it appeared.

Do you know where the 'zone list' is saved? Is it saved on every single device and then tries to replicate itself around to all other devices? Is that what checking and unchecking 'beolink' does - "clear the cache"?

Best

Philip