[blessingx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sclemmons But you won't be suffering with the Airport Express. I am no expert but I have a closet full of audio magazines, and I read them less and less. I think hi end audio is over because of the Airport Express.

Is that a left (iPod), right (Airport Express) combo knockout?

 

[sclemmons]

From today's (free for the asking) Stereophile Newsletter by John Atkinson:

"Of much more significance ... to the high-end audio industry is Apple's Airport Express. Wes Phillips cryptically referred to this inexpensive WiFi hub in his "As We See It" essay in the forthcoming April issue of Stereophile: "When Apple introduced its Airport Express wireless multimedia link," Wes wrote, "it even included a digital port so that an audiophile—such as Stereophile's editor—could network his system, using the AE to feed his Mark Levinson No.30.6 outboard D/A converter. 'Sounds okay,' deadpans JA."

And yes, the AE did sound "okay." I was sufficiently impressed that I wrote a review of the piece for our May issue. I won't give the game away, but I will say that, in combination with iTunes running on a Mac or PC, an Airport Express feeding that high-end D/A processor that you never could decide sounded better than your one-box CD player is the easiest way of piping CD-quality music throughout an audiophile's home.

"CD quality"? Yes, the data appearing on the AE's digital output are identical to the data in the original file. While preparing my review, I compared a WAV music file with a duplicate that I had captured on my PC from the Airport Express's S/PDIF output. I used iTunes on my PowerBook, playing a version of the file encoded with Apple Lossless Compression, to feed data to the AE. Despite the lossless encoding, despite the 128-bit encryption I use in my home network, despite the transmission of the packetized data through the air, and despite the circuit in the AE having to reencode the data as an S/PDIF stream, the files were bit-for-bit identical.

Apple's Airport Express is most definitely not bs. And it costs only as much as three Golden Sound "Intelligent Chips."—John Atkinson"

 

[mshan]

What's the best toslink cable with a mini optical connection on one end to use with the Airport Express?

 

[dmoffitt]

just buy an audioquest mini-to-regular toslink adaptor, $3 - and even THEY argue that that at the end of a multi-hundred dollar toslink cable is no different than one built in (and there aren't many/any "high end" optical cables that are mini, the two aren't synonymous).

 

[quackattack]

Wow, great thread. I never took the APE too seriously. Now I am strongly considering purchasing one. Thanks guys!

 

[cql]

I don't have the poping sound...not a good choice of word, but a clicking sound when i change, stop, or pause songs. Is there a way to fix this?

 

[uzziah]

answer: no ****ing way

 

[blessingx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by uzziah answer: no ****ing way

And your replacement for the spot would be?

 

[byronyu]

is the airport dac superior to the ipod's? if not, i think the statement "I think hi end audio is over because of the Airport Express." is a big over statement.

The ipod's dac is very flat and lifeless... it's very obvious when i pipe it to my sytem vs. my mf a324 dac.. can't stand it.

 

[dmoffitt]

the airport dac is pretty flat too... guys we are talking about a cheap op-amp driven setup.

it's GREAT as a TRANSPORT though (via optical).

 

[Darwin022]

I got one New at thanksgiving for $99, returned it a week later. The sound quality was good but I didn't like the fact that you could ONLY use it through iTunes, the delay, and a few other conflicts (I can't remember right now).

(Oh yeah, and because as a networking device, it lacked features I needed)