[ricthaman]

Well, I got the AE yesterday. Today it's still connected via analog out to my HK3490 but soon an optical cable will arive and I can test the AE true ability.

Analog output doesn't sound bad for the everyday listener on their mini/micor set but my canton's reveal it's flaws o so clearly. Thin sound, no definition etc. Probably due to the non-audiophile DAC inside the AE.
I'm really curious what the Cirrus Logic DAC in my HK3490 can do for my audio signal...

I'll report asap about the SQ of the digital connection!!

Rgds

 

[F4270]

As for me I still looking for an DAC/AMP with optical input. I'd like to connect AE by Monster/MAC cables. Now I use my headphones connected directly to AE.

 

[ricthaman]

Well,

as promised my report on the optical connection from the Airport Express (n-version).

My setup is:
Macbook -> Airport Express -> HQ Optical cable -> Harman/Kardon HK3490 -> Monster Cable XP Clear -> Canton Chrono 507DC -> My Ears

The Optical connection cable came in just an hour ago. I quickly unwrapped it to get it between the Harman and the AE because the Airport's analog out began to irritate the hell out of mee due to it's major flaws. My Canton's were NOT happy with the sound the analog out produced.

Now I connected the Digital Optical cable, set my amp and started the remote app on my iphone. I selected a Tune and OMG did that sound sweet! All my tunes sounded so good again, just like they did when they came directly from the CD. My canton's began to smile again

I must say that I'm very impressed. I have no cable mess, no big components everywheren, just my amp, speakers and iphone and all my music is at my fingertips when sitting in my lazy chair. And most importantly, at full quality. NO compromise!!

I can't talk about the sound signature of the optical out on the AE using Airtunes because it just sounds like it did on the CD. Normal, no compromises!!

Great little machine the Airport Express. And for only 70 Euro's it's a steal!!

Rgds

 

[krmathis]

Another happy AirPort Express user. Sweet!

 

[Frankie Lee]

I'm confused. Where's the optical out on the express? Mine only has ethernet, USB and a mini-jack. I looked at the new ones online, they seem to be the same.

 

[sonicserve]

The mini-jack has both analog and digital output. In order to use digital output, you need an optical to mini plug cable.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frankie Lee /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm confused. Where's the optical out on the express? Mine only has ethernet, USB and a mini-jack. I looked at the new ones online, they seem to be the same.

 

[aamefford]

I think this question is germane to the subject: Anyone know if the USB on an Airport Express can be used for digital out? I'm thinking I could hook my pico up to it?

 

[sonicserve]

No. The USB port is for Hard Drive or Printer connection. It does not have audio output through USB.

Quote:

Originally Posted by aamefford /img/forum/go_quote.gif I think this question is germane to the subject: Anyone know if the USB on an Airport Express can be used for digital out? I'm thinking I could hook my pico up to it?

 

[krmathis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frankie Lee /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm confused. Where's the optical out on the express? Mine only has ethernet, USB and a mini-jack. I looked at the new ones online, they seem to be the same.

The 3.5mm jack is a combined analog and optical S/PDIF out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sonicserve /img/forum/go_quote.gif No. The USB port is for Hard Drive or Printer connection. It does not have audio output through USB.

Printer only afaik. The AirPort Extreme on the other hand allow Hard Drives by USB.

 

[Saintkeat]

QUESTION,
I'm picking one up tomorrow.

I'm wondering if this would work.

geting airport extreme, connecting my hard drive to it.---> streaming music to airport express connected to speakers, using macbook pro as the remote

 

[littletree76]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saintkeat /img/forum/go_quote.gif QUESTION, I'm picking one up tomorrow. I'm wondering if this would work. geting airport extreme, connecting my hard drive to it.---> streaming music to airport express connected to speakers, using macbook pro as the remote

I am using Airport Extreme as my main router for Internet access as well as music streaming by connecting directly to Airport Express through a piece of CAT5e (for gigabit bandwidth) Ethernet cable (no wireless setup required thus radio transmission on Airport Express has been turned off completely). Digital audio output of Airport Express (the only digital/analog mini jack) is connected to Audio-GD FUN DAC/pre-amp (cheaper and smaller DAC/pre-amp alternative is Audio-GD Sparrow) through optical cable. Output of FUN DAC is fed to class-T power amplifier to drive Mordaunt-Short Mezzo1 left/right speakers and Aviano7 subwoofer (not worth using cheap computer speakers).

Don't worry about AirTune handling only 44kHz/16 bit sampling, you won't be able to tell the difference even with above setup as it sound as good as if without the wireless streaming.

Take note that the AirTune bundled with iTune is rather restrictive as it bypasses effect of plugins (Hear/iWow/Astound Expander) for audio enhancement. I have been using Airfoil from Rogue Amoeba (still rely on AirTune wireless protocol except different implementation) to replace AirTune with satisfactory result for past eight years (with different versions of Mac OS X and different models of iMac). To go one step further for audio enhancement, I have inserted BBE Sound's 482i Sonic Maximizer between the DAC and the power amplifier and removed all audio plugins from latest 27" iMac (because software supports of these plugins never keep up with updates of Mac OS X released by Apple).

The USB port of Airport Express is only meant for remote printer support whereas USB port of Airport Extreme can be used for remote access of both printer and hard drive. Though there were some issues of unreliable remote access of hard drive attached to USB port of older Airport Extreme models reported in Mac User Forum.

For local digital audio interface without wireless streaming, if you can have the interface through optical link (electrical noise free), there is no reason to use USB as it depends on CPU as controller with unreliable bandwidth and has rather restricted sampling rate/resolution. This is particularly true for all latest Mac models as headphone output serves as digital/analog combo audio output. On Mac platform, you can use Audio MIDI Setup utility (in /Application/Utilities folder) to adjust sampling rate/resolution of the digital audio output (I set it to maximum of 96kHz/32-bit all the time).