Hi,

I know this has been covered in various formats before, but what is the best way to connect an Airport Express to a BV7-40 MKIII?

I was going to purchase a mini-jack to toslink (S/PDIF), but you can't seem to select the S/PIDF as an input - it only appears to work in conjunction with something else. There also doesn't appear to be the old fashioned B&O AUX input?

When I first bought my old BV7-32, my dealer produced a mini-jack to scart cable, but I would have thought that was inferior compared to an all-digital cable (as the Airport Express has a digital out)?

My plan was to follow Soundproof's idea to use an iPod Touch as a remote control and would like to play my iTunes-based music through the BV7-40.

Moxxey,

It's easy to convert 3.5mm Optical to Toslink, but what you may need is to convert optical to SPDIF coaxial.  There's a box on eBay for $79 that does this. You may find others.  

I have good experiences with these converters; I have been using two for quite some time now with good results.

In the Netherlands they can be bought for about 20 euro (look at www.panda.nl for "converter toslink coax"); you should find something like the picture shown at the bottom of the post 

Bieele 

I've hooked up the Mac Mini (MKi) to the BV7-32 MKi via L+R connectors on the back.

Previously I had the iPod hooked up to these connectors.

The BEO4 selection is "PC".

The cable for this setup is approx. max. 10 Euros. 

Coolskin:

I've hooked up the Mac Mini (MKi) to the BV7-32 MKi via L+R connectors on the back.

Thanks. I'm going to speak to my dealer. My old BV7-32 MKI had a mini-jack to scart cable and enabled me to select A.MEM for the Airport Express.

You might be wondering why I didn't keep the cable etc? As my computer was up in the home office and there was no way of controlling the Airport Express streamed content, I got bored of the system. Now it's controllable via an iPod Touch, makes it more interesting.

The Airport Express has optical digital Toslink OUT through the minijack. You really should get a converter of the kind shown above, which will convert the optical s/pdif from the Airport Express to a coax s/pdif which you can connect to one of the digital RCA IN plugs on your BV7 MK III.

You will then get full quality transfer of your audio files, and these will first be converted by the BeoSys3 in your television. BeoSys3 has much better DACs than that found in either a Mac mini or in the Airport Express itself.

So you think you get better quality, by using 3 converters?

1 converter from the Express (ADC), 1 convertor from optical to coaxial, 1 convertor from the BS3 (DAC)

Just feed the analogue signal, like Coolskin suggested, and your done! Cheap, simple and the best solution, if you ask me.

DoubleU:

So you think you get better quality, by using 3 converters?

1 converter from the Express (ADC), 1 convertor from optical to coaxial, 1 convertor from the BS3 (DAC)

 

Just feed the analogue signal, like Coolskin suggested, and your done! Cheap, simple and the best solution, if you ask me.

I'm afraid you've been confused by the input here. You only need one converter.

The audio signal from the Express comes as both analogue and digital (optical) through the same minijack out. It is this toslink optical signal that you wish to convert to a coax digital signal compatible with your BV7, and you only need one converter to do so (it's the one you see a photo of in the thread.) Make sure you get the Toslink IN/Coax OUT version.

You'll also need a minijack toslink to regular toslink cable (from Express to converter) and a 75Ohm digital coax RCA cable from the converter to your BV7. And then you're set. 

http://www.panda.nl/product_info.php?products_id=293&PandAsid=80848f7ce0feff76692d46185c25b019

Also, the digital signal is far superior to the analogue out - seriously, night and day difference. I haven't used an analog out signal from my Macs or Airport Expresses in at least a year, ever since making a comparison.

moxxey:

Coolskin:

I've hooked up the Mac Mini (MKi) to the BV7-32 MKi via L+R connectors on the back.

Thanks. I'm going to speak to my dealer. My old BV7-32 MKI had a mini-jack to scart cable and enabled me to select A.MEM for the Airport Express.

You might be wondering why I didn't keep the cable etc? As my computer was up in the home office and there was no way of controlling the Airport Express streamed content, I got bored of the system. Now it's controllable via an iPod Touch, makes it more interesting.

A.MEM = BS3200, V.MEM = HDR1

At the moment I have Mac Mini from the stone age. It hasn't digital out unfortunately.  

As silly as it sounds, Coolskin, you can beam a full resolution signal to an Airport Express from your Mac mini, using WiFi, and then take the digital toslink signal from the Express. That might be better than replacing a perfectly good Mac mini just to get toslink out.

I am also interested in this setup as I have a BeoSystem 3 and planning to hook it up to a Airport Express using the setup described here, however I notice the issue described in the beginning of this thread, which was:

If following this setup where the AE is connected using the SPDIF to the BeoSystem 3, is this selectable via my Beo4 when it receives no video input (scart/svhs/component)??

Could I connect my AE SPDIF to the e.g. AV4 - how should I select this on my Beo4?

- Christian