Airport Express vs Squeezebox Duet

[admin_exported]

I'm looking to hook my computer music library up to my hifi using either Airport Express or Squeezebox Duet.
Aside of price could anyone summarise the pros / cons - advantages / disadvantages of both systems?
Also would there be an improvement in sound quality by adding a DAC to the Squeezebox?

 

[John Duncan]

Airport express has no display or remote control (unless you add an iPhone or iPd Touch or one of these, and will only stream content from iTunes (unless you add Airfoil for $25). The audio output is ok, but nothing special, but beats my CD player when added to a DACMagic.

The Duet has a nice remote and a much better audio out, so I think you could get away without a DAC initially. On the down side, it requires squeezeserver software on your PC (or Mac or NAS) to work, of which I have no experience.

 

[Anonymous]

JohnDuncan:Airport express has no display or remote control (unless you add an iPhone or iPd Touch or one of these, and will only stream content from iTunes (unless you add Airfoil for $25). The audio output is ok, but nothing special, but beats my CD player when added to a DACMagic.can you point your ipod touch etc at your nas box and control it or does the computer have to be on too?

 

[John Duncan]

Well my nas's only work like network drives, not proper nas's with a server running, so I wouldn't swear on it, but I think that my iPod is controlling iTunes on my Mac and that it doesn't work with 'iTunes servers' which run on some NAS boxes.

If that makes sense.

 

[Messiah]

Airport Express....grrrrrr

 

[John Duncan]

Hey, it's working now isn't it?

Spilt milk and all that.....

 

[Messiah]

LOL,

Yeah it's working!

 

[Anonymous]

The Squeezebox Duet's internal DAC is pretty good, so I doubt you'd see much improvement with a dedicated DAC. I quite like the Squeezeserver/Squeezecentre software, it's fairly intuitive, although I have heard of people who had a bit of trouble with the initial install.