[mshan]

How good or bad is the digital and analogue output of the Airport Express?

Is that mini-pin toslink digital output capable of producing sufficiently high quality output for streaming into a dedicated 2 channel audio or headphone rig?

 

[timo_nyc]

I run the APEX analog out to a Pioneer amp, and it think it sounds great. At some point I'm going to get a DAC (chiefly because my video processor doesn't have analog-audio out, so I can't use it's internal audio-video sync without an external DAC) which I understand also works great.

 

[mshan]

Are you using those Apple (Monster Cable) mini to RCA and mini to optical cables?

If so, how is their build quality and sound quality?

 

[DukeTogo]

Mshan:

I have an Airport Express and I got the Monster kit to go with it.

I cannot comment on the sound quality but I can try and describe the build quality for you a bit. Since pictures of these cables are few and far between, I'll describe the cables in a bit more detail too.

Actually here is a good pic:
http://images.chapters.indigo.ca/Ima...8728420_lg.jpg

First off the mini-RCA cable, is about 6 ft maybe, and is labelled as "iCable - Balanced Audio Interconnect with microXLN, Double Helix Construction, Duraflex Jacket by Monster Cable". I have no idea what microXLN is supposed to be or what they figure is "balanced" about the cable.

It seems to have gold plated jacks and the RCA connectors fit quite snugly onto my Yamaha receiver. Equally the mini-jack plugs quite solidly into my Airport Express. The Cable is of a reasonable thickness, and has a fairly flexible jacket - it doesn't retain any fold patterns in the wire from packing or anything. At the RCA end, there is a plastic body that splits off the cables and from there you get maybe 2.5 inches of wire until you hit each RCA jack.

It matches the Airport Express quite well if you care about that. The RCA plugs don't have a terrible big body to grab onto, unlike the typical Monster plugs you see in Best Buy/FutureShop.

My optical cable is still in its wrapping, but seems to have a thinner cable. It appears to be about the same length.
The cable says "iCable - High Performance Digital Fiber Optic Cable by Monster Cable" Both cables say "Made in China", which you probably figured.
The digital cable is much lighter than the analog one. It's probably plastic fibre rather than glass fibre? The ends of the digital cable are either a gold or brass tip and have little clear plastic plugs over them just now. These would get lost in a real hurry... not sure if they are just there for shipment or what. Basically imagine a little plastic hat just barely enough to cover the tip on your ballpoint pen. It's not like some of these plug-covers that you can snap into and are somehow clipped to your cable to prevent loss. Again the white matches well with the Airport Express.

The third part of the package, which honestly was the whole reason I bought it, is the power-plug adapter. Normally the Airport Express comes with the adapter that has the flip-out prongs, and you just jack the whole thing into your wall. I didn't want this. So the Monster kit, has an adapter that plugs into the Airport Express and instead gives you maybe six feet of AC power cable. So you can plug it in, and then put it on a tabletop or something.

Now you could do a few other things to accomplish this, but would ruin the look of the Airport Express, in its sleek white glory. The alternative options would be - use an extension cord to wherever you want to plug it in (say on top of your audio rack), or pull out the supplied Apple flip-prong adapter and slip in a C7 (C6?) power cable - maybe something from PS Audio/Audioquest, whoever. Even the generic power-cable used by your DVD player should work, if you already swapped that for something better. In theory, the high-end cables would be better power cables, but would not have the same retention of the clip-in Monster/Apple power cable. And neither would have the same finished look of the clip-in cable, or the white colour of the Airport Express.

I'm not sure it would make one damn bit of difference what quality power-cable you use or not... I don't think I'll start trying that sort of tweak until I'm plugging it into some rather more upscale equipment.

 

[timo_nyc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mshan Are you using those Apple (Monster Cable) mini to RCA and mini to optical cables? If so, how is their build quality and sound quality?

Yes I am. I picked up the whole monster shebang before I knew about this place and monster's rep.

I have to say that I have no complaints. Weaknesses in my setup (my wife's old Pioneer receiver and some old Pinnacle speakers) are with the speakers and the amp, IMHO, and not the APEX or the source encodings. Because I've been so happy with the sound out of this set up I haven't rushed out to pair the APEX with a DAC.

Yet.

 

[dcguy73]

I much prefer the sound of the Airport Express via its optical out. Its internal DAC is okay, but it sounds soooo much better (and more focused) via optical out to my Monarchy 48/96 upsampler and then through the Grace m902's DAC. I think the internal DAC sounds mushy and muffled in comparison.

I've been looking for a good glass optical cable (with a minijack?) for the AE and am contemplating buying a minijack adapter for a Wireworld III number. It's hard to find a decent minijack-to-optical glass cable.

 

[3lusiv3]

I use the analogue out of my airport express and it's sound pretty good to me.

 

[EdipisReks]

i use the analog out, and i have no complaints. i'm just using a cheap ratshack mini to rca cable, but i might pick up a different cable as the ratshack one is a bit flimsy.

 

[Magsy]

Is the optical 44khz? Resampled anywhere?

 

[JiiEf]

I'm contemplating an APX at the moment too. I'm assuming that even with the analog out + monster mini-to-RCA I would get a noticeable improvement over my current Creative USB SB MP3+ + Monster interlink 300s?

/JF

 

[Oliver :)]

As long as you don't compare with another external DAC the APX sounds pretty nice all by itself. If you set it next to a $500+ DAC it cannot beat that, but that should be a given. It's a neat little product.

 

[JiiEf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oliver As long as you don't compare with another external DAC the APX sounds pretty nice all by itself. If you set it next to a $500+ DAC it cannot beat that, but that should be a given. It's a neat little product.

Sounds good enough for me! Thanks!

/JF

 

[rpet]

My thoughts about the Monster cable kit:

I generally don't like Monster's products, so I'm using a generic gold miniplug->stereo female RCA adapter combined with the RCAs of my choice. This is a good option if you are using the APEX's analog out.

If you want the power extension cable, I've just swapped mine from my Powerbook.

However - one can be purchased separately for $15:
http://www.pbfixit.com/cart/catalog/...ion_Cable.html

Also - the mini optical cable can be found elsewhere, too.

So - your options aren't too limited. Unless you want white cable with the Monster logo on 'em.

I would love to hear comparisons on the APEXs internal DAC to a sub-$400 CDP and some of the sub-$500 DACs. any opinions are welcome. TIA.

-rob

 

[JiiEf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rpet My thoughts about the Monster cable kit: I generally don't like Monster's products, so I'm using a generic gold miniplug->stereo female RCA adapter combined with the RCAs of my choice. This is a good option if you are using the APEX's analog out. If you want the power extension cable, I've just swapped mine from my Powerbook. However - one can be purchased separately for $15: http://www.pbfixit.com/cart/catalog/...ion_Cable.html Also - the mini optical cable can be found elsewhere, too. So - your options aren't too limited. Unless you want white cable with the Monster logo on 'em. I would love to hear comparisons on the APEXs internal DAC to a sub-$400 CDP and some of the sub-$500 DACs. any opinions are welcome. TIA. -rob

That kind of comparison was what I was really looking for too... well, mostly.

As for the Monster mini-RCA, I do have a dislike for Monster stuff (personal experience at their local representative), but if the specs I've seen are correct, it's fairly long 6' (what I'm looking for), and so I was just wondering if it had the audio quality to not be the weakest link in the setup. Knowing monsters normal pricing, I'd expect the cables to consist of dental floss at that price range.

/JF

 

[audioengr]

The analog out is mediocre - understandably based on the design - low-cost AC-coupling caps with low-cost op-amps.

The Toslink out is very good however. Not as good as a coax out, but very listenable. I just use an adapter and a glass cable to do comparisons. Changing it to coax (mods) makes a significant improvement.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
Manufacturer