Using Airport Express/AirTunes.



I'm interested in trying the Airport Express AirTunes with iMac/iTunes and DAC. What is the best connection/cable (mini-jack to RCA or optical and made by who)? Also, I assume the AE has a D/A. Can it be bypassed or will it convert/compress my Apple Lossless music files?

I need a solution to use iMac/iTunes w/ Reimyo DAP-777 w/o having to spend $1K's more on overpriced USB or FireWire converters, or use a lot of additional devices, cables, and wires. I used a iTransport before. Now trying a Squeezebox Touch but it's having constant "Re-buffering" issues w/ both wireless and ethernet. Need a solution to use iMac/iTunes. What about using an iPad? Is there a way to use that as a streaming device?
sakahara
Kijanki - yes, I had problems with interference from a microwave oven when I first put in an older Airport Express but was able to fix it in that case by switching channels from within the Airport Express utility application.

If I remember correctly the default channel on installation is 6 but changing it to 11 solved the problem with my particular setup.
I've also had rebuffering problems with the Touch, and I believe it is a known issue. In my case it was probably in some of the network settings I had (which were mostly default). I spent some time going through all my settings, and my Squeezeserver settings, and eventually figured it out - not a hiccup since after several months. It was highly annoying when it was going on though, rendering the system useless. Regrettably I do not know exactly which setting did the trick, but if you Google the issue you may find some suggestions. I would point out that it not exclusively a wireless network problem, as I initially thought it was (and tried many of the things being suggested here). It may have had something to do with the buffer/streaming settings. All the suggestions about wireless are absolutely spot-on in being possible solutions, but none of them solved the problem for me. The OP indicated that he has the same problem via Ethernet as well, so I'd say you could probably rule the wireless solutions out.

I've used the AE and prefer the Touch in virtually every way, especially sound quality, both as a DAC and streaming digital data to a DAC. The AE always seemed to compress both dynamics and soungstage (at least that's how it occurred to me). Per Kijanki you will not be able to get full resolution from hi-rez files via AE (No problem via wireless on the Touch). It would be worth it to take the time and effort to sort out the problem with the Touch if you have the patience, or can enlist a friend who is fluent in Geek to go through your network and Squeezeserver settings with you. Definitely put a stress on the fact that the problem occurs with Ethernet as well as with wireless.
My experience with the Airport Express and a DAC has been better than Jax2's. Comparing the output from the AE with the same music played from the original CD using a transport and the same DAC there's very little, if any, audible difference to me.

I have never tried a Squeezebox Touch, however, so I can't comment on whether it might be a better solution for you and I don't yet have any high-rez audio files so that's not an issue at the moment.
Sfar, It might be dependent on the DAC used. All of them suppress jitter by means of PLL or asynchronous resampling - some more some less. According to Stereophile review test AE is bit perfect so jitter is the only possible difference. Benchmark DAC1, I use, supposed to be jitter immune but many people reported different results with different transports. Since results were not in par with the price (that has some correlation with jitter) and often very cheap players sounded the best - it makes me believe that there might be something else going on (ground loops etc). On my system I cannot tell the difference between AE and DVD player used as a transport - they sound identical.
Thanks, Kijanki. I've had the same experience of not hearing a difference between the AE compared to several different DVD players used as transports.

I have used the AE with several DAC's, including the first version of the Benchmark, and the DAC's do sound quite different from each other. In each case, though, the transport and the AE sounded essentially identical, as far as my ears could tell.