Got my AirTunes - this is neat!

[Oliver :)]

Finally, and I mean *finally* the new iMac touched down here, and with it came 2 AirPort Express Base Stations. At first I had some trouble until I remembered that access to the existing network is MAC-limited, so after telling the old APBS the AirPort IDs of the new APXs we were ready to fly.

At the moment, one APX is hooked up to my old Kenwood MD-Deck which has a nice upsampling 24bit DAC inside. I did not remember that the Kenwood packed so much punch from the days when I used its DAC for my ancient CDP. Maybe it did not. Maybe the APX backed by AppleLossless files on the iMac just makes an excellent source

*cough* If HeadRoom replied to my inquiry about their switchbox I might actually run it to both my speaker- and headphone-amp by now *cough*
As I said, I did not remember the Kenwood to sound as good as that. Therefore I will listen to it for a while before I make up my mind about possibly saving up for a standalone DAC that is more up-par with the rest of the rig. At the moment depth & extension are excellent, bass is deep & punchy, highs are... high

but a tad harsh, and I feel that it all lacks some refinement, that it resembles something that "sounds", if you get what I mean, as if you pressed the "go exite me" button.

The other APX is hooked up to another stereo downstairs, using the analog port and a decent as in expensive 3,5mm to cinch cable by our all time favorite MONSTER CABLE

. The cable really is not that bad. I did not listen to it much yet, but the two minutes I gave it were not revolting at all, the DAC inside the APX can't be that bad.

The problem I have is that all the old Macs here are equipped with 11mbps AP-cards, so when using our iBooks to stream from the iMac to both APX stations at the same time while also having all three Macs online, the real-world bandwidth of the network is exceeded & I get dropouts. Maybe I can improve this in some way, or maybe we just have to buy new portables with 54mbps cards, ha-ha.

Hints are appreciated!

The one and only complaint I have about AirTunes is this:
When you choose to stream a new track to the APX, you will miss the first 1-1,5 seconds of it. This means that for some reason beyond me there is no adequate buffering taking place before iTunes tells the APX to run the music. Nevertheless the problem is not there in-between tracks, you can actually see iTunes doing the buffering then, which is strange. I will tell Apple about this, it should not be that hard to get rid of.

All in all I am a very happy camper right now. As always, you cannot buy the really important things in life, but with this new setup I bought a whole lot of convenience

BTW: To the person in Cupertino who came up with the Setup Assistant that does the system migration from old to new machines - you rock! Unpacking the Mac + upping the RAM almost took longer than setting it up (and it could have been even faster if I did not choose to have all 17GB moved from the old machine)

 

[MichaelFranks]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oliver The one and only complaint I have about AirTunes is this: When you choose to stream a new track to the APX, you will miss the first 1-1,5 seconds of it. This means that for some reason beyond me there is no adequate buffering taking place before iTunes tells the APX to run the music. Nevertheless the problem is not there in-between tracks, you can actually see iTunes doing the buffering then, which is strange. I will tell Apple about this, it should not be that hard to get rid of.

Just select the APX before you start the track, problem solved....

 

[Oliver :)]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelFranks Just select the APX before you start the track, problem solved....

Please explain in more detail, I don't get it. I select the APX *once*, and the problem is there *whenever* I click on a new track, or skip back to the beginning of that track.

 

[Oliver :)]

On Apple's discussion forum I learned that what I described is a known problem arising due to the external DAC needing to come into sync with the signal from the APX. I was sure about it being there with analog as well though, I will have to test that again. Anyway, a "clear" track of say 3 seconds starting a playlist is at least a workaround. This needs to be taken care of via some kind of update though. iTunes should be the one playing "clear" tracks automatically & on the right occasions, not me.

 

[blessingx]

Hmm, I didn't have the problem with my G4 desktop or PC laptop.
I did have buffering issues, but not as you described. I suspect my other router.

What's your streaming buffer size (in iTunes). Not sure if this is just internet radio or will influence APX too, but worth a look.

 

[gerG]

Hi Oliver. Are you sure the first notes are missing, or are they just delayed? When I hit play there seems to be a time lag between itunes and speaker output, but the notes are all there. It is very much like itunes is dumping to a buffer, and AE is reading out of that buffer, and the time lag is the initial buffer fill. I don't know this for sure, just trying to figure out what is up with this thing.


gerG

 

[Oliver :)]

Quote:

Originally Posted by blessingx What's your streaming buffer size (in iTunes). Not sure if this is just internet radio or will influence APX too, but worth a look.

It is set to "large".

 

[Oliver :)]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gerG Hi Oliver. Are you sure the first notes are missing, or are they just delayed? When I hit play there seems to be a time lag between itunes and speaker output, but the notes are all there. It is very much like itunes is dumping to a buffer, and AE is reading out of that buffer, and the time lag is the initial buffer fill. I don't know this for sure, just trying to figure out what is up with this thing.

The time lag is there as well, a normal thing with streaming. Buffering takes time. But the first notes are missing, not delayed. You can test this by playing Smoke on the Water from the Machine Head SACD if you have it, or something else that starts with zero delay.

 

[gerG]

This is just freaking decadant! I am sitting in my listening room, in a very comfy chair, on axis with a GREAT speaker system, using my laptop as a remote to play one CD while I brows the library on another computer for what I want to listen to next.

Laptop computer = ultimate remote control.

Now all I need is software to fetch a cold beer for me.


gerG

 

[JohnnyLightOn]

It's the wave of the future. One day most people will listen to their music this way. Once you've done it, it's hard to go back.

I use the Squeezebox myself, but I also use and like iTunes and can imagine the AirTunes is a complete joy.

 

[MichaelFranks]

beanbag->me->powerbook->apx->cal sigma 24/96 tubed dac->fisher 400->triangle titus||K1000

no problems here

 

[bundee1]

Noyce!

 

[Oliver :)]

Thought it would be nice to get this in the thread: I had some talk on Apple's forums about it, and it was suggested that the problem is the DAC taking some time to sync to the incoming signal whenever the stream is stopped. Therefore a solution would be iTunes sending 2 seconds of silence whenever you skip a song / select a new song while having an APX selected. To my shame I had no time yet to take this to Apple as feedback for enhancing iTunes, XMAS was and still is eating my time at the moment. And I am not even one of those persons living for XMAS and XMAS only... *sigh* In fact I had zero time to sit down in front of my rig all week long, what a shame.

Anyway, I would suggest that any of you using the APX->DAC setup and also getting the problem with the lost first seconds write in to Apple asking them to update iTunes in order to take care of it.

 

[tyrion]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oliver Thought it would be nice to get this in the thread: I had some talk on Apple's forums about it, and it was suggested that the problem is the DAC taking some time to sync to the incoming signal whenever the stream is stopped. Therefore a solution would be iTunes sending 2 seconds of silence whenever you skip a song / select a new song while having an APX selected. To my shame I had no time yet to take this to Apple as feedback for enhancing iTunes, XMAS was and still is eating my time at the moment. And I am not even one of those persons living for XMAS and XMAS only... *sigh* In fact I had zero time to sit down in front of my rig all week long, what a shame. Anyway, I would suggest that any of you using the APX->DAC setup and also getting the problem with the lost first seconds write in to Apple asking them to update iTunes in order to take care of it.

I will have to check this out. I am using AX > CI dac > Rega integrated or Moth 2A3 and have never noticed any missing notes at the beginning of a song.

 

[blessingx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gerG Now all I need is software to fetch a cold beer for me.

Not sure how this is progressing, but maybe a start.