Airport Express dropout

[admin_exported]

Hi folks. I'm very close to setting up my AE but have one last problem. I now have it working using airfoil to the airport express in analogue but am still having trouble with this optical out. I gave up putting it through my CA 740C and bought a CA Dacmagic. Now it works perfectly throuh iTuners but drops out very briefly every 30 seconds or so through airfoil to the Dacmagic. How annoying is that?

Does anyone else have this problem sending AE optical to a DAC, especially the Dacmagic. Any help would be well received as it is very frustrating. Its so close to sorted aaaagghh...

 

[Dan Turner]

Hi Cidershed,

I was plagued by wireless drop-outs affecting playback via my AEs, including going into a DacMagic. However I am sure that this was down to wireless network interference and not anything to do with the AE -> DacMagic interface, because when it was working OK there were no blips after starting playback. I have now largely solved the wireless interference issue, but having upgraded by replacing my old amp and the DacMagic with a Naim SuperNait i now find that i get an intermittent issue with a 'blip' after beginning playback....

So the issue you're getting could be to do with wireless interference? If you do a forums search then under the wi-fi and Computer forums you'll see a plethora of threads about AE issues including a few started by me no doubt!

Some people don't seem to get these issues. If you're unlucky enough to, then it can be a long and painful road.

If i'm sitting down specifically to listen then I plug my MacBook in directly, if it's just background, then I use the AE. As soon as the right dedicated streaming device comes along at a sensible price I'm going for that in my main system. I can still use my MacBook to stream to AEs in other rooms (where they are connected via analogue and therefore don't have these issues!)

Good luck!

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Dan. Yea, its a shame cos even though the AE sounds OK in analogue, it sounds great through a DAC. I must have spent 15-20 hours setting this AE up and I'm getting pi**ed off fiddling about. Googling AE dropouts brings up a very long list of hits and possible solutions but frankly I'm sick of it all now.

I think my best solution is to listen in analogue for now and invest in a laptop with a digital out to wire straight into my 740C. Surely that won't be riddled with problems, right?!!!!

 

[Anonymous]

Weird thing is iTunes plays perfectly through digital which would suggest the network is fine. Is there any other software for sending music to an Airport Express other than airfoil I could test this with?

 

[John Duncan]

So iTunes works perfectly but Airfoil does not?

 

[Anonymous]

Yes. I really can't work that one out but its true. I've e-mailed Rogue Amoeba but any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[SHAXOS]

Mine drove me up the wall. I now use an ethernet cable to get a stable connection...

 

[Anonymous]

But I get a stable connection with analogue and iTunes! Just need that airfoil to optical out dropout fixed and I'll be a happy boy.

 

[Anonymous]

Just got a reply from Airfoil saying

"If you have no trouble with the optical connection, the problem is that some newer AirPort Express Base Stations have a problem with their digital output.

Apple recently updated iTunes to compensate for this issue, but we haven't yet replicated the fix for Airfoil since the details of this fix are not yet known.

Unfortunately, the only current workaround is to not use an optical connection. Try that and see how it works."

So there's the problem, not great. Will Airfoil ever fix this, will Apple give them the info they need? I'm not best pleased as you can imagine. Can anyone with a recent Airport Express using airfoil let me know if they have the same problem. Its hard to know what's true in all this. Not happy :-(