I have my TV on which doesn’t bother me but I understand why it’s not ideal for all setups. If I select a song on my iPhone and airplay it to my AppleTV, it does a handover.

If you want to stay within the Apple ecosystem without the TV part, you could use an AVR with airplay built-in. Or get an AirPort Express, which can join a wifi network and become an Airplay client, and connect it via optical (mini toslink) to an AVR. And control it all from a phone or Mac.