Airport Express

Decided in the end to get an Airport Express. It works by the PC streaming i-tunes to Airport Express, which is plugged into a power socket near the main rig, and connected to ones DAC via toslink or preamp via rca.

Bit of a nightmare to set up for a Windows PC but got there in the end, having aged several years in the process.

Most of my i-tunes tracks are wav files recorded from vinyl in 24/96, imported from Soundforge.

First impressions, compared to using a cable from PC to hifi, are quite positive, although not without some reservations. There is superb immediacy to the sound and detail is not lacking either. Some of my lean or edgy recordings, such as Pharoah Saunders-Journey to the One, open up and sound more listenable. On the minus side, it sounds a little cloudy and less natural, the latter a bit like mini-disc.

Anyhow, I'm just wondering how these things function. Is there a Dac inside the AE? And does it stream 24/96 music from i-tunes in 24/96? (doesn't sound extended on top at all).

One final question, it seems to be completely bypassing the circuitry of my RME internal pc soundcard, which incidentally has a good 24/96 dac. Is this as it should be?

All the best

 

Yes it should by pass the soundcards DAc as you are streaming digital files to the Airport Express.

It does have its own DAC but clearly you can bypass this using the optical S/PDIF out

For more info/review have a look here
http://www.stereophile.com/accessoryreviews/505apple/

 

Interesting article that answers a lot of questions!

If I've understood correctly, AE only handles up to 20 khz. If true, this is a major downside compared to using a cable between PC and hifi.

 

For some time now, 20kHz has been regarded as the upper extreme of audibility.

Anti-aliasing (as applied in at least the vast majority of DACs) requires a cutoff at half the sampling frequency (44.1 kHz for CD) - the graph above shows about .5dB drop from 10kHz to 20kHz - which seems quite normal for what's a quite inexpensive bit of kit.

I don't think wireless vs wired networking comes into this - unless by "using a cable" you mean doing all the DAC stuff inside the PC and sending analogue out. If the latter - I think current wisdom is that it's best to do all that stuff outside the electronically-polluted insides of the PC (or Mac).

 

Hi

I beg to differ . Playing high-resolution files is easier on the ear in comparison to music limited to 20Khz and the latter is what I was describing in my first post. YMMV, of course, but I can definitely hear improvements and this is why I record most of my vinyl and regularly listen to it in its native 24/96. It sounds good while conserving the records and cartridge. Airport Express via optical has a nice low noise floor but resolution is limited.

That's a reason to go wireless . Or use an external soundcard:

Using an external soundcard might be the best compromise in that you'd gain a high degree of electrical isolation from the computer, as well as retain the full 24/96 or 192k signal.

Still, £65 delivered for the Airport Express is good value for what it does- so no real complaints.

 

On a different, but related slant, does anyone else feel slightly uneasy about the amount of radio waves flying about their living rooms, as with the Airport Express?

A friends father who is an expert in radiation, won't leave his wireless home network on for fear of over-exposure.

And if there's insulation on the outside of cables to minimise external RFI, then it should ideally apply both ways.

I use a Macbook and love the convenience, I'll probably end up buying Airport Express too, but with the increase in wireless stuff generally (just walk down any busy street with an MP3 player and hear the interference over your headphones) I become increasingly concerned about it in general, and at home in particular.

Or perhaps I'm just getting old.:-(

 

The AE outputs 20/44.1 via optical.

The graph above is the analogue output which you wouldn't want to use on a good hi-fi.

 

I run the Airport Express optical out through a Musical Fidelity A3.24 DAC (apologies to all the MF detesters out there), and I gotta say, it sounds great. Uncompressed tracks don't sound very far from the CD equivalent via the DAC.

Perhaps the most surprising benefit (for me, anyway) is what appears to be an step up in the quality of spoken word podcasts. Through the PC alone, they're pretty flat, but played via the DAC, they seem to improve no end.

Dunno if that helps any

Neil