Installed an Airport Express in my office - Very happy

MillerLiteScott

I have a Gen II Airport express and was hoping to do airplay wirelessly to it but I have only been only to get it worked wired. I have a Fios wifi router and I am not to smart with the puters.

Any thoughts or help?

Thanks,

Scott

AsSiMiLaTeD

MillerLiteScott wrote: »

I have a Gen II Airport express and was hoping to do airplay wirelessly to it but I have only been only to get it worked wired. I have a Fios wifi router and I am not to smart with the puters.

Any thoughts or help?

Thanks,

Scott

Are you on windows or Mac? Either way you'll want to download the airport utility software and configure it to extend an existing network, select your FIOS network and enter your password, hit update, and when the airport restarts yank the Ethernet cable and you should be good to go

thsmith

What he said

MillerLiteScott

I am Mac. I did download airport utility but I don't seem to have the options to change anything. I am sure it is me. I will look again.

Thanks,

Scott

AsSiMiLaTeD

in airport utility do you see the airport express listed? If so, click on it and choose edit, click on the Wireless tab at the top, choose extend an existing network, select your FIOS WiFi and enter password, hit update in the lower right, wait for airport to restart, unplug ethernet, give it a minute to acquire wireless signal and you should be set.

thsmith

assimilated, do you hook up a standard optical cable to the optical adapter on the Mini ?

AsSiMiLaTeD

If you're asking how I have my airport express hooked up, I have a mini-toslink to regular toslink cable that I run out of my airport into my DAC. I have a Mac Mini but at the moment it's not in the mix.

WagnerRC

Great info guys. Thanks

thsmith

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

If you're asking how I have my airport express hooked up, I have a mini-toslink to regular toslink cable that I run out of my airport into my DAC. I have a Mac Mini but at the moment it's not in the mix.

Thank you for the info! I woke up thinking I meant to reference AE not mini, glad you knoew what I meant.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Here's the cable I ordered, it's not super expensive or anything but had decent enough reviews and is actually well built, works great for me. I'm actually a believer in cables, just not so much the digital ones, Best Buy has an AudioQuest that's probably the same cable they'll be glad to sell you for %60

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002JFN10/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

txcoastal1

On a bit of the high end this has been recommended to me and I use them between my Sonos and WS4.

They use glass optic

http://www.lifatec.com/toslink2.html

B Run

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

Here's the cable I ordered, it's not super expensive or anything but had decent enough reviews and is actually well built, works great for me. I'm actually a believer in cables, just not so much the digital ones, Best Buy has an AudioQuest that's probably the same cable they'll be glad to sell you for %60

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002JFN10/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have a first gen Airport Express using that exact cable, and am just using the DAC in my Rotel and i've been very happy with it.

thsmith

Thanks guys, I have that cable coming and a California Audio Labs Sigma II DAC.

AsSiMiLaTeD

I"ve got some more tests to conduct, but I had a friend over Saturday to help me test the AEX vs the AEX+DAC-IT and my initial results are...strange.

I decided to conduct the tests in a manner to produce the most distinguishable results, testing worst case against best case. So I took the new aex (which has significantly more jitter) and used the analog output against the older aex (which is supposed to be better) via digital output into my DAC, this methodology should produce the widest gap in sound quality. I then ran each analog output directly into my tube amp feedding my PSB Image B6 bookshelfs.

I was playing lossless CD rips via Airplay simultaneously streaming to both Airport Express units (no hi-rez so ruling out any conversion by the aex), the tube integrated has two inputs and I was able to toggle between the inputs without any drops in the audio or any audible indication of the change. It's the ideal scenario for blind testing between the two setups.

I played a large selection of music and had a friend toggle between the two setups and overall I had a hard time reliably identifying which setup was being used. There were selections whedre I was able to distinguish between the two reliably, but even in those cases I had to really focus to do so. Over roughly half the music we played though I had a difficult time even knowing that he'd changed the input at all, much less knowhing WHICH input it was on.

I was a little disappointed to be honest, I was expecting (and hoping to some extent) to hear a bigger difference between the two setups, especially after going through the trouble to grab the older airport express. When I initially set it up I thought I heard a noticeable difference, but blind testing results just don't verify that.

I tried to eliminate as many extraneous variables as possible, but there are still some things that could be clouding my results:

1 - The files are being streamed wireless by iTunes to each box, and everything I've read says that these files should be bit perfect coming out of the aex, but there is still a possibility of an issue at the source. It's also possible that somehow the ALAC version of my files are somehow of lower quality than the FLAC version (I rip to FLAC then convert to ALAC), I don't see HOW this is possible given how I have things setup, but it's possible nonetheless.
2 - It's also possible that the tube integrated is masking the differences between the DACs, it's got your typical warm tubelike sound, which means it's altering the sound and it may be smoothing over any differences in the DACs
3 - It's also possible that my system just isn't high-end enough to reveal any differences in the setups. I think I have a great sounding rig, but am not fooling myself into thinking that I've got something on par with a $20K system when I've barely got $1K invested between the integrated and speakers.

I'm going to try and rule out number 1 above by running a J River/FLAC setup through my DAC vs the Airport running analog. I'm also going to run both setups through my SC-25 and see what happens, and also probably a run through my headphone rigs. My guess is that the files and source are fine and that either the tubes are hiding the differences or my setup just isn't high end enough to reveal them.

So I've still got some testing to do, but ultimately I really like the sound I'm getting with this setup and this is the rig I'll be streaming to, and if I have to go through all this to find a difference between the two then maybe I'll just keep the aex-only setup.

thsmith

Thanks assimilated, looking forward to your updates.

AsSiMiLaTeD

I'm anxous to hear your impressions as well, if you hear a big difference on your office system then perhaps my ears are broken...

thsmith

Me to, otherwise I have a DAC that I do not need.

thsmith

The CAL SIgma II arrived yesterday. Hooked up and in rack in my office. I am not ready to comment on sound as I know the 12AX7 in it is crap and I have a sweet 5751 coming.

I will not comment that the old CAL 18 bit DAC has no problem staying in sync with the GEN 2 Airport Express.

Once I get the 5751 I will compare Gen 1, Gen 2 with CAL and without.

How is your testing Assimilated ?

thsmith

How is your testing Assimilated ?

AsSiMiLaTeD

To be quite honest, my results haven't changed much. I ruled out the files and computer by playing the source flac files through a Windows machine running J River. I also ran both setups through my SC and didn't hear much difference. If I focus I can hear the difference, but the way I see it if I have to try that hard to hear the difference then it's not worth it to me.

I was able to hear a difference more reliably and did prefer the Peachtree when I ran both through my more revealing headphone rig, but I still wouldn't call it night and day. Ultimately I just don't think my living room system is revealing enough to allow the differences through, and honestly I like it that way. Lately I've been leaning more towards a sound that's less revealing in favor of PRaT, and I seem to be enjoying my music more, and enjoying more of it.

thsmith

I know what you mean about enjoying the music. I am very happy how the APX sounds. The CAL Sigma II seems to provide more top end clarity using the Gen 2. I hope to try the Gen 1 this weekend. I am definitely hearing more with the DAC.

I could live with or without the DAC though.