Stupid Question - Please be gentle

[True Blue]

What do you need to use an airport express?

I already have a wireless network in place and a stereo which I have my Caiman plugged into.

My music is on my laptop and whilst I can plug in via the USB to the caiman, sometimes my wife / son are using the laptop whilst I want to listen to my music.

Does the PC have to be hardwired to the Network in order for airport express to access the files?

Thanks in advance

 

[Messiah]

You will need a good deal of patience

(It can be problematic to set up but hopefully not)

Once it is set up though you will just need to plug it in near the DAC or stereo. Then you can use a 3.5mm to toslink cable to connect to the DAC (or alternatively 3.5mm jack to 2 phono).

Once that is connected then you can stream the music via iTunes to the Airport Express. No need for it to be hardwired to the network.

 

[John Duncan]

Yup, all you need is one of these:

or an adapter to fit on the end of a normal optical cable like this:

 

[True Blue]

Thanks Messiah / John. So once is set up I plug in near stereo andrun to DAC 🙂. The PC with I Tunes on (laptop) can be wireless as well and the system will see it then??

 

[John Duncan]

Indeed. Get it to 'join existing network', and once set up iTunes will then show an option for you to stream to that Airport Express. Get Airfoil as well for $25 and you can stream anything other than iTunes that you like from your laptop, including Spotify, BBC iPlayer, yadda yadda.

 

[True Blue]

Thanks John, one final stupid question then I am done (until it comes to setting the thing up LOL). The AE says it is wireless N but my home network is only G. Will this cause any problems??

 

[John Duncan]

No, it'll just run at 'g' speed instead - my router's a 'g' and it's fine. You'd also find that if you used an iPod Touch/iPhone as a remote that it's slow down to 'g' as well, which is plenty for music (though wouldn't cope with video streaming).

 

[True Blue]

Thanks again 🙂