Airport Express / Airfoil & Spotify and B&W Zeppelin Problem

[admin_exported]

Recently bought a B&W Zeppelin which is superb and have connected it to an apple airport express, using an optical digital cable . I was going to connect to my system wirelessly but decided to connect to my router with the ethernet cable to check everything is working. Itunes and the airport express work pretty well and does not seem to cut out very often if at all after the first minute.

Decided I wanted to listen to spotify so downloaded and paid for airfoil. Using airfoil and spotify the music cut outs frequently which is very annoying. It does not do this when i play the music through the laptop so i presume it is not a network problem.

Airfoil have suggested it is an apple airport express problem, which seems funny as itunes works fine. They have suggested using an analogue cable instead to connect the B&W Zeppelin and Airport Express. Just wondered how this would effect the sound quality? B&W suggest using an optical digital so I was wondering whether the sound quality would decline.

Any thoughts or help would be much appreciated. Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

From my own experience, and from reading a lot of forum threads, this is a Spotify problem.

People experience the same problems whatever connection they use. I've experienced it with a digital cable straight from Mac to DAC.

After all Spotify is beta software, and dependent of servers with limited capacity. But for some reason, Spotify seems to be some sort of holy cow, and everybody blames whatever other HW or SW they use.

 

[fatboyslimfast]

Fahnsen:But for some reason, Spotify seems to be some sort of holy cow, and everybody blames whatever other HW or SW they use.

Chip/Shoulder Fahnsen?

I have had streaming issues with Spotify - but these have been independent of output device (i.e. whether on iphone/macmini or through Airfoil. Early evening seems worse.

Generally I download the songs using an offline playlist (I'm a premium user) and this resolves any issues. Obviously not helpful if you are only a free user, but I thought it worth mentioning.

OP - have you tried iTunes/Web Browser/Something Else through Airfoil? If so, does it have the same issues? If not, then it's almost certainly Spotify having capacity issues.

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry I can't help either but totally agree with Fahnsen. As a premium user I use AirFoil to stream Spotify from an offline playlist and it performs flawlessly as indeed it does with Foobar, Winamp, Realplayer, Napster and my web browser. So like him I'd have to conclude it's a spotify problem.

My 2p worth it's definately worth the fee I've only had Spotify for a couple of months but would hate not to have it now not least for the massive amount of new music it's "exposed me to"

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all your help. I tried everything again lastnight. Playing itunes through the airport express is fine. Playing anything through airfoil and the airport express and there is cut out, whether its itunes, spotify etc. So it appears to be a problam with digital optical cable and the airport express with anything but itunes!

Connected it with an analogue cable and it works fine. So like airfoil said it seems a problem with the airport express digital output. Apple recently updated itunes to compensate for this issue, but the details of the fix are not yet know so airfoil havent been able to replicate this.

Pity as I have been told that the digital optical lead would give better sound quality, is this true?

Thanks

Jonathan

 

[Anonymous]

jlc9779: have been told that the digital optical lead would give better sound quality, is this true?

Sound quality depends on the digital-to-analogue converter, and the DAC inside AirPort Express is not the greatest one available. Thus sending optical signals from the APE to an external DAC or the built-in DAC in an amplifier or reciever (or CD player with an optional TOSlink input) would most probably be better than using the analogue output from the APE.

 

[Sorreltiger]

Since Spotify and internet streaming via Airfoil isn't lossless anyway, I would imagine that the difference between optical and analogue is marginal. I'm not sure that your Zeppelin (good as it may be) will really show up any differences either. IMO it's all about convenience and spontaneity rather than the last word in hi-fi (I can get that elsewhere).

 

[Anonymous]

Sorreltiger:Spotify and internet streaming via Airfoil isn't lossless anyway

Spotify uses a compressed format, but the streaming through AirPort supports full CD quality. If you stick to Spotify or lossy files I guess adding a separate DAC might be overkill. Playing a CD or a lossless file you'll benefit from a DAC.

I haven't tried the Zeppelin and can't say if its SQ justifies a DAC.

 

[Sorreltiger]

We agree then!