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RexySF

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 13, 2006
31
0
Miami, FL
Quick question... Thinking about using airport express as part of a whole house audio system. My question is will the music streaming to the airport(s) be in sync with the music playing on the local computer speakers or will there be a noticeable delay?
 
Quick question... Thinking about using airport express as part of a whole house audio system. My question is will the music streaming to the airport(s) be in sync with the music playing on the local computer speakers or will there be a noticeable delay?

delay
 
LOL... One vote for each... Anyone else? This is very important as my apartment is a loft and all the rooms are at least semi open to each other.
 
They are both right. When you click to play a song from itunes for example, it waits about 0.5 seconds before actually playing so there is a delay. However, because of this, you don't notice any delay in any of the speakers in the rooms or on your computer.

Hope this clarifies things for you.
 
the audio coming out of the express is delayed due to buffering, but iTunes delays both the user interface and the audio coming out of the local speakers to match what comes out of the express. even visualizations will match the music.

the only noticeable difference is a small delay (under 2 seconds) when you start playing or skip songs. since it has to re-buffer.

you can also stream to multiple expresses, and they will all be in sync with each other and the local speakers.
or you can stream to 1 or more expresses, and disable the local speakers, which i like because the music is coming out in the room, but other sounds (like mail alerts or whatever) come out of the local speakers.

there is also airfoil which lets you stream from other sources, but here you will notice a delay, so it's not the greatest for playing video, unless you use their player, or have a player that will shift the audio so it matches.
But it is great for pandora / last.fm, and it will also stream to other computers (win, mac or linux) iphones, and ipod touches.
 
Quick question... Thinking about using airport express as part of a whole house audio system. My question is will the music streaming to the airport(s) be in sync with the music playing on the local computer speakers or will there be a noticeable delay?

I use an Airport Express and stream mostly through Airfoil--and my computer and my stereo are in perfect sync. I play both my computer and what is sent to Express through Airfoil and there is no delay.
 
Perfect, thanks! This is exactly what I needed. I don't care about a delay in start up or switching tracks as long as every room is perfectly in sync.
 
Yep, 2 x Express and Mac always in sync. I think I tried once with the two Apple TV's going as well. That was fine too. Pretty cool being able to switch rooms on and off using the iPhone remote app.
 
Yep, 2 x Express and Mac always in sync. I think I tried once with the two Apple TV's going as well. That was fine too. Pretty cool being able to switch rooms on and off using the iPhone remote app.
Thats the plan! Just wish they would come out with an iPad version of remote!
 
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