Airport Express up and running

[tyrion]

I just received my AExp, a gift from my wife, and after some initial setup issues it is working great. I had to call Apple to get it set up, which took about 5 minutes on the phone. I am currently using it with a mini to RCA into my Eddie Current HD300. All I can say is, this is very cool.

 

[Mr.Radar]

How does it sound compared to your other sources?

 

[tyrion]

I have not had an opportunity to compare yet. I am watching the Tour de France. I will try to do some comparisons later tonight or tomorrow night.

 

[MichaelFranks]

did you get the "digital" cable adaptor?

 

[Wodgy]

Do you have a home theatre receiver you could test it with?

 

[tyrion]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelFranks did you get the "digital" cable adaptor?

I didn't know there was a digital cable adapter. As far as I know the mini outlet on the device is for an analog or digital cable.

Wodgy, I have a 5.1 receiver that I will try it out with.

 

[tyrion]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.Radar How does it sound compared to your other sources?

The hd300 has 3 inputs so I was able to connect my modded cd-25 using Bolder IC's to input 1 and the AX to input 2 using a cheap mini to RCA. I used Dave Brubeck's Time out as I had that on my drive in apple lossless. Probably not the best choice since it is hdcd. I spent about 20 minutes comparing the AX to the cd-25 and I can't say that I could find a significant difference between the two. If the cdp was better, it was slight and may be due to the hdcd and better IC's. There are probably others out there that will find differences that I just can't appreciate. One difference I did notice was that in order to have the same volume level on both sources I had to move the volume dial on the amp from around 10:00 for the cdp to around 12:00 for the AX. The volume level on itunes was set at about 4/5's of the way up. That's it for now. I will try some other cd's in the next couple of days. Hopefully, some others will get theirs as well. The big question will be how well will it sound using a digital cable and a dac as has been discussed in another thread.

 

[Wodgy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tyrion Wodgy, I have a 5.1 receiver that I will try it out with.

Thanks! Could you download one of the audio files here as a test?
http://www.5dot1.com/articles/ac-3_5...to_a_cd-r.html
Let us know if you hear music or static.

(I'm pretty excited about the Airport Express. If it passes a clean digital signal, it could be the perfect solution for laptop users.)

 

[tyrion]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wodgy Thanks! Could you download one of the audio files here as a test? http://www.5dot1.com/articles/ac-3_5...to_a_cd-r.html Let us know if you hear music or static. (I'm pretty excited about the Airport Express. If it passes a clean digital signal, it could be the perfect solution for laptop users.)

I should be able to do it tonight. I do not have a surround sound speaker set up. I was not sure if that mattered in terms of the test. I probably should have mentioned that in my previous reply.

 

[tyrion]

I just downloaded the 256k file and heard static.

 

[3lusiv3]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tyrion I just downloaded the 256k file and heard static.

What does that mean?

 

[tyrion]

I have no idea what it means. Wodgy asked if I would download the file and let him know if I heard static or music.

 

[Mr.Radar]

That means that Airport Express isn't bit perfect. The test files were PCM-encoded Dolby Digital or DTS which will playback on a receiver (w/ digital inputs) if the digital output is bit-perfect (the bit's aren't messed with).

 

[tyrion]

I didn't use a digital cable when I did the test. I am going to pick one up today and retry. I will report back when it is done.

 

[Wodgy]

Mr. Radar is right about what the test is meant to do, but I forgot to mention that the test needs to be done with a digital connection (either optical or coax), so no conclusions can be drawn just yet.