Apple Airport Express. Please help me.....

Gazzip

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Hi everybody. I have finally taken the plunge and am ready to accept computer based music on my hifi, but have hit a slight problem: I appear to be computer illiterate. I have purchased all of the toys required, (I think), but cannot make music jump from my Mac to my Hifi without it dropping it's signal every couple of seconds. I really hope that one of you lovely people can help me here because I have really, really tried but cannot crack this baby.

What I am trying to do, and the kit I currently have to do it, is as follows:

1) I have a 6 month old, wirelessly enabled iMac which contains all of my music in iTunes.

2) I have an 02 internet home hub serving the iMac wirelessly with internet connection.

2) I have a Cat 5 Ethernet cable running down in to my new Airport Express from the aforementioned iMac.

3) I have a mini-Toslink to Toslink cable from my Airport Express to my DAC.

4) I would like to use my iPad as a remotre control to stream the music to my Airport Express via the Cat 5 cable. Not wirelessly.

Does anybody know which of the settings I should be using to achieve this? I have had it kind of working but the audio signal drops every thirty seconds or so which makes me think that maybe the Airport Express is just ignoring the Cat 5 and is trying to do its business wirelessly. For information wireless streaming isn't going to work because the Airport Express is burried in a no signal area. any help would be generously received.

Please help me, my CD Player is for sale and I'm running out of time!
 

Gazzip

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Jan 15, 2011
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Gazzip said:
Hi everybody. I have finally taken the plunge and am ready to accept computer based music on my hifi, but have hit a slight problem: I appear to be computer illiterate. I have purchased all of the toys required, (I think), but cannot make music jump from my Mac to my Hifi without it dropping it's signal every couple of seconds. I really hope that one of you lovely people can help me here because I have really, really tried but cannot crack this baby.

What I am trying to do, and the kit I currently have to do it, is as follows:

1) I have a 6 month old, wirelessly enabled iMac which contains all of my music in iTunes.

2) I have an 02 internet home hub serving the iMac wirelessly with internet connection.

2) I have a Cat 5 Ethernet cable running down in to my new Airport Express from the aforementioned iMac.

3) I have a mini-Toslink to Toslink cable from my Airport Express to my DAC.

4) I would like to use my iPad as a remotre control to stream the music from my iMac to my Airport Express via the Cat 5 cable. Not wirelessly.

Does anybody know which of the settings I should be using to achieve this? I have had it kind of working but the audio signal drops every thirty seconds or so which makes me think that maybe the Airport Express is just ignoring the Cat 5 and is trying to do its business wirelessly. For information wireless streaming isn't going to work because the Airport Express is burried in a no signal area. any help would be generously received.

Please help me, my CD Player is for sale and I'm running out of time!
 

Gazzip

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I have been fiddling and have discovered that when I disable the wireless function of the Airport Express, (AE), and "send" my music directly from the computer to the AE via Cat 5 the audio drop out no longer occurs. However by disabling the wireless functionality of the AE I am no longer able to control the music via the iPad because the Airplay symbol has disappeared from the iPad control panel.

Hmmm. Very frustrating. For my next question I must therefore ask if anybody can either, a) tell me how to make the airplay symbol come back to my iPad, or b), recommend an App that doesn't require the AE to be working wirelessly to allow me to control my computer based music remotely by using the iPad?

Thanks in advance,

GazziP
 

chebby

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You say you connect the MacBook to the AEX with ethernet cable?

Try connecting the AEX to your router/Homehub with ethernet cable instead.

Leave wireless switched on (on the AEX and on the MacBook) for AirPlay, and leave the AEX connected with optical cable to your DAC as you have it now.
 

Gazzip

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chebby said:
You say you connect the MacBook to the AEX with ethernet cable?

Try connecting the AEX to your router/Homehub with ethernet cable instead.

Leave wireless switched on (on the AEX and on the MacBook) for AirPlay, and leave the AEX connected with optical cable to your DAC as you have it now.

Thanks Chebby. I am popping home at lunchtime so will try your suggestion then. Fingers crossed!
 

Gazzip

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Gazzip said:
chebby said:
You say you connect the MacBook to the AEX with ethernet cable?

Try connecting the AEX to your router/Homehub with ethernet cable instead.

Leave wireless switched on (on the AEX and on the MacBook) for AirPlay, and leave the AEX connected with optical cable to your DAC as you have it now.

Thanks Chebby. I am popping home at lunchtime so will try your suggestion then. Fingers crossed!

Well, still no real joy here I'm afraid. I am still experiencing stuttering play whilst streaming from my iMac upstairs.The stuttering only happens when I am using the iPad as a remote control. If I "send" the signal direct from my iMac to the AX it seems to work fine. Does anybody have any ideas what I am doing wrong here?

Surely there is a way of connecting the AX to my computer and making it use a wired ethernet connection only for the streaming part, whilst allowing me to utilise my iPad wirelessly as a remote control via Airplay?

Any bright ideas and/or settings advice would be very much appreciated before this goes back in the box and I head back to the IStore for a refund?
 

professorhat

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It might be better to book it into a Genius bar (clicky) and ask them before you get a refund, since you shouldn't be getting these issues. I thought you could do what you wanted in terms of streaming over ethernet, but looking at the settings on my current AEX unit, I can't see it any more.

It seems odd you're only getting dropouts when controlling from your iPad as well - are you sure you're not using AirPlay from your iPad and streaming direct from this to the AEX when you're doing this? Or have you downloaded the Apple Remote app and are definitely connecting into the iTunes library on your iMac to play this?
 

Gazzip

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professorhat said:
It might be better to book it into a Genius bar (clicky) and ask them before you get a refund, since you shouldn't be getting these issues. I thought you could do what you wanted in terms of streaming over ethernet, but looking at the settings on my current AEX unit, I can't see it any more.

It seems odd you're only getting dropouts when controlling from your iPad as well - are you sure you're not using AirPlay from your iPad and streaming direct from this to the AEX when you're doing this? Or have you downloaded the Apple Remote app and are definitely connecting into the iTunes library on your iMac to play this?

Eureka! I went to bed and had an epiphany, got up, donned gown and slippers, woke up iMac, (and wife), created a new network rather than trying to join an existing one, joined my iPad, AX and IMac to said network, fired up amp and dac, and am sitting here listening to uninterrupted streaming music. Ace.
 

chebby

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Gazzip said:
Eureka! I went to bed and had an epiphany, got up, donned gown and slippers, woke up iMac, (and wife), created a new network rather than trying to join an existing one, joined my iPad, AX and IMac to said network, fired up amp and dac, and am sitting here listening to uninterrupted streaming music. Ace.

Excellent.

(Although I am slightly more impressed that you donned a gown in order to fix the problem :) That has a certain style.)
 

professorhat

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Gazzip said:
professorhat said:
It might be better to book it into a Genius bar (clicky) and ask them before you get a refund, since you shouldn't be getting these issues. I thought you could do what you wanted in terms of streaming over ethernet, but looking at the settings on my current AEX unit, I can't see it any more.

It seems odd you're only getting dropouts when controlling from your iPad as well - are you sure you're not using AirPlay from your iPad and streaming direct from this to the AEX when you're doing this? Or have you downloaded the Apple Remote app and are definitely connecting into the iTunes library on your iMac to play this?

Eureka! I went to bed and had an epiphany, got up, donned gown and slippers, woke up iMac, (and wife), created a new network rather than trying to join an existing one, joined my iPad, AX and IMac to said network, fired up amp and dac, and am sitting here listening to uninterrupted streaming music. Ace.

Good stuff - glad I was no help whatsoever ;)
 

Gazzip

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professorhat said:
Gazzip said:
professorhat said:
It might be better to book it into a Genius bar (clicky) and ask them before you get a refund, since you shouldn't be getting these issues. I thought you could do what you wanted in terms of streaming over ethernet, but looking at the settings on my current AEX unit, I can't see it any more.

It seems odd you're only getting dropouts when controlling from your iPad as well - are you sure you're not using AirPlay from your iPad and streaming direct from this to the AEX when you're doing this? Or have you downloaded the Apple Remote app and are definitely connecting into the iTunes library on your iMac to play this?

Eureka! I went to bed and had an epiphany, got up, donned gown and slippers, woke up iMac, (and wife), created a new network rather than trying to join an existing one, joined my iPad, AX and IMac to said network, fired up amp and dac, and am sitting here listening to uninterrupted streaming music. Ace.

Good stuff - glad I was no help whatsoever ;)
On the contrary professorhat, your advice was enough to make me persevere. (currently typing this in gown and slippers).
 

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