General Forum

Re: Apple Airport Express

spthomas — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:45:15 GMT

Alex:
Correct, but there's no point in this IMO as CDs are 16 bit.

Yes, there is a point. You can download 24-bit music from a variety of sources and play from iTunes which you cannot do with any CD player. A computer and good DAC I think means SACD will probably never take off (not that it was).

The mixonline article was interesting. My own feelings about this are-

- I've seen CDs from 1982 that were very well engineered and sound is as clean as anything, so care in the engineering of the whole sound chain is important.

- I still wonder about dynamic range. Specifically, if you have an organ playing a soft flute with the swell shades shut, it's very soft; I don't know how many DBs it is. In this situation it seems there's hiss competing with the soft sound, but maybe, as the article suggests, it wasn't as well-engineered as it could have been. But was that because of the settings needed to handle the sound when all the stops are on?

When I was a student in Pittsburgh I remember recitals played on the Beckerath organ at St Pauls, which could range from a whisper to a huge wash of brilliant sound that filled that large space. I can't say I've ever heard any recording on any system that comes close that experience and I'm not sure I can say what it is that's missing. I do wonder, as is mentioned in the article, about phasing, as the sense of space is probably what I miss most, other than the issue that most speakers don't go low enough in frequency.

Re: Apple Airport Express

mbee — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:14:59 GMT

I can use the wlan connexion to stream a HD movie from the internet to the TV without freeze while playing a song from the library smoothly on the airport express... So I don't think that it's the wlan capacity that reaches its limit...

I have just seen that a lot of people are complaining of airport problems since Leopard or some updates, not solved yet, I hope that it's our problem, and will be solved soon!

Re: Apple Airport Express

Stan — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:54:37 GMT

Sigmund:
mbee:

Hi, maybe you can resolve my issue with my brand new 802.11n Airport Express :
When I listen to my iTunes Library, there is no problem at all, the sound is correct.
When I listen to internet radios via the macbook speakers, there is no problem...
But When I listen to internet radios via the Airport Express, I got a lot of sound "cuts".
Me too. (Haven't tried radio with the new external DAC yet, though.) I would love to see a solution. My Airport Express i 802.11g, three years old. I have tried it with an iMac G5 running OS 10.4.11.

Are your Macs also wireless? It could be just a bandwidth issue: streaming both the inet radio to the mac and the itunes to the AE. Both of these streams consume the network bandwidth. Yes, theoretically, there should be plenty, but reality is often different.

Stan

Re: Apple Airport Express

stampfki — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:49:13 GMT

When I connect the AE via optical Toslink to the DTS module of my BV3-32, it should improves the sound as well, isn't it?

Any experience with the DAC of the Beovisions?

Volker

Re: Apple Airport Express

mbee — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 05:20:23 GMT

I'm not alone anymore... I hope we will get a solution soon!

Re: Apple Airport Express

Sigmund — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 04:35:36 GMT

mbee:
Hi, maybe you can resolve my issue with my brand new 802.11n Airport Express :
When I listen to my iTunes Library, there is no problem at all, the sound is correct.
When I listen to internet radios via the macbook speakers, there is no problem...
But When I listen to internet radios via the Airport Express, I got a lot of sound "cuts".

Me too. (Haven't tried radio with the new external DAC yet, though.) I would love to see a solution. My Airport Express i 802.11g, three years old. I have tried it with an iMac G5 running OS 10.4.11.

Re: Apple Airport Express

mbee — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 03:34:29 GMT

Hi, maybe you can resolve my issue with my brand new 802.11n Airport Express :

When I listen to my iTunes Library, there is no problem at all, the sound is correct.

When I listen to internet radios via the macbook speakers, there is no problem...

But When I listen to internet radios via the Airport Express, I got a lot of sound "cuts". My internet connection is very good, and as radios works in iTunes that's not the problem. The wifi rate is also ok as there is no slow down when I download something while listening to music, and I set the airport to create a N only network, but the problems is the same with n + b/g compatibility. When I set the airport to connect to my wifi network (instead of creating a network), the problem is exactly the same.

Maybe it's the macbook encoding or a software issue? (but that's a core 2 duo black macbook with all the software up to date...)

Re: Apple Airport Express

Sigmund — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 02:33:40 GMT

soundproof:
The AE is limited to the Redbook standard of 16bit/44.1kHz.

Interesting. Do you have a reference for these specs? I have been searching, but Apple hides them well. Anyway, now I don't have to waste my time to experiment with more bits and higher sample rates.

Thanks for the article. Although the experiment hardly reveals the whole truth, it is lovely provocative.

Re: Apple Airport Express

soundproof — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:39:28 GMT

The AE is limited to the Redbook standard of 16bit/44.1kHz. The stand-alone DACs usually handle up to 24-bit/192kHz, with some handling even greater wordlenghts and sample-rates.

Yet if you read this article, you'll find that a formal study of high-resolution vs. Redbook seems to have delivered a surprising result. Seems that CD-resolution is more than enough ...

http://mixonline.com/recording/mixing/audio_emperors_new_sampling/index.html

Re: Apple Airport Express

Alex — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:37:06 GMT

Correct, but there's no point in this IMO as CDs are 16 bit.

Re: Apple Airport Express

spthomas — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:09:07 GMT

Do these more expensive DACS take 24-bit inputs? My understanding is AE only puts out 16-bit signals but the digital output on the iMac computer itself can put out 24.

Re: Apple Airport Express

jk1002 — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:58:57 GMT

That was robbery. They are not cheap as there are very few brands using these kind of connectors.

Next time please do look on ebay, there are quite a few dealer type sellers that offer them a bit cheaper.

Re: Apple Airport Express

Stan — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:49:58 GMT

linder:
B&O may be a little dismayed to find that more people are using A.AUX on their system to the exclusion of other choices except video. I also use a DAC with Apple TV for music and now internet radio on Apple TV. Internet radio never sounded so good.

Actually, I think they're laughing all the way to the bank... at least on a small scale... I just bought a new DIN to RCA AUX input cable from B&O, and it was 50 USD!!! I should have shopped around, but, was focusing at the items with more digits in their cost... seems like the last one I bought a couple years back was ~20, and, at the time, I thought THAT was highway robbery. I don't think this is a coincidence...

Stan

Re: Apple Airport Express

linder — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:46:30 GMT

B&O may be a little dismayed to find that more people are using A.AUX on their system to the exclusion of other choices except video. I also use a DAC with Apple TV for music and now internet radio on Apple TV. Internet radio never sounded so good.

Re: Apple Airport Express

soundproof — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 04:01:40 GMT

Good choice - that's a DAC that has been very well received.

I find that a DAC between my Macs and sound systems is necessary, compared to just running the analog line out from either the Mac or an Apple Express. The difference in sound quality is so obvious - more detail, less noise and an absence of "brittleness" results, the music simply sounds richer.

I have a DAC feeding my Beolab 5000 amp, from an Airport Express. And it's wonderful to be able to use a 41 years old unit together with this modern source, and getting the best of both worlds.

Here's a view inside the DAC that Sigmund's bought - it becomes clear why Apple can't fit all of that inside a computer (or an Airport Express).