AirPort Express with AirTunes

[kugino]

From what I've heard so far.. it seems iTunes decompresses the AAC/MP3 file, and re-compresses it with the lossless encoder for transmission. So if you're using the optical audio out, it's digital all the way so there shouldn't be any loss of quality. If you're using the analog out, then your guess is as good as mine!

yeah, that's how i understand it, although lossless isn't compressed. even though the file size is smaller than wav or aiff, apple lossless isn't compressed - that's nice b/c you can save your CDs as AL files and if you want, you can even convert them to wav or aiff later. some people at head-fi have done the AL to wav conversion and they say it's indistiguishable from CD to wav files.

as for the DAC in the apple express, i'm not sure how good it is...but using optical out to your stereo or external DAC should sound pretty darn good. the only conversion going on is the apple lossless to 16 bit PCM and i'm not sure how good that converter is.

it appears that with 54 mbps (theoretically, though not actual, i know) the streaming should be good enough to approximate the AL quality file...that's assuming you play songs that you've personally ripped as AL. if you're playing 128 aac files, air express' conversion to apple lossless isn't really lossless like ripping from a CD. it's just the kind of data stream air express uses...the aac/mp3->AL stream quality probably is only as good as whatever you compressed at.

 

[iBook]

Here is the remote control (for now)

Would this be a good solution for listening to the iPod in one room while the iPod chills in another?

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APP...cTT6XO32i5dayI17ND0fyd/2.3.0.5.10.3.45.1.13.0

$49.95 and it's available now on the Apple store.

 

[pjkelnhofer]

Would this be a good solution for listening to the iPod in one room while the iPod chills in another?

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APP...cTT6XO32i5dayI17ND0fyd/2.3.0.5.10.3.45.1.13.0

$49.95 and it's available now on the Apple store.

It has an IR remote control meaning you need line of sight back to the iPod.

 

[Dave00]

Only one speaker set at a time?

(from macworld)
You can also only play one thing at a time, and to only one set of speakers. But now those speakers can be just about anywhere.

If true, that'd be a major bummer. It'd be nice to be able to play the same music to multiple areas of the house at the same time. I looked on the AirTunes description; it does seem that on iTunes 4.6 you would have a menu selection for each set of speakers. Wonder why it would be limited to one set?

--D

 

[whooleytoo]

yeah, that's how i understand it, although lossless isn't compressed. even though the file size is smaller than wav or aiff, apple lossless isn't compressed

I'm afraid you're mistaken there, if it weren't compressed, it'd be the same size as the raw aiff file! It is compressed, it's just not (the more commonly used) lossy compression - i.e. when uncompressed it is identical bitwise to the original.

 

[iBook]

A lot of people say this, but if I lose/ruin my CD can I got to Tower Records and get a new one because I already bought it once? Nope, unless I made a copy of it somewhere else I am SOL.

True, but here's an opportunity to offer a higher level of service. Remember, it's the customer experience that drives brand loyalty, customer satisfaction and greater profits.

Part of paying a premium price to download an unpremium product (i.e. you can't compare the AIFF file to a highly compressed mp3) should be a higher level of care.

There would be no additional cost to Apple to let customers re-download the file. And the control mechanism already is in place with the DRM technology the company's deployed. The mp3 in question will only play on the PCs "authorized" for that user's account.

The risk of piracy is zilch.

Frankly, I don't understand the policy.

I've bought shareware before and lost my registration code. When my PowerBook died, I contacted the companies in question so I could re-download the apps and use them on my trusty new iBook. You wouldn't believe how quickly I heard back from these companies -- and there was real manual looking through their records to help me.

Given that Apple could make the redownload service available on an automated, no-cost basis, IMO, FWIW, I think it should.

You cite the example of Tower Records and say Apple should follow the same policy. I remind you of Apple, who asks that we "THINK DIFFERENT."

Apple should ACT DIFFERENT.

 

[Dave00]

10 meters is not a great distance. it's like, what? 33 feet... that is like just bigger than an average room. my house is over 10,000 square feet, with 12 acre gardens... how do you expect salling clicker to do it's job? Bluetooth in general is not designed for this purpose.

i know you state that YOU can go anywhere... but for most normal sized houses, salling clicker is out of the question.

No offense, but this makes you sound rather out of touch. The usual house is not 10,000 square feet (many apartment complexes are not 10,000 square feet) and the usual room is not 33 feet.

 

[johngordon]

I love Apple. They keep coming up with stuff you never knew you needed until you saw it.

are you kidding? our PB sits in the lounge by the sofa, and i've traipsed a wire to the stereo in the past, and thougth *you know what we need - a little gizmo that coonnects to the stereo, and we can do this wirelessly!*

good to see someone at apple was right there!

Iain

 

[Mt.Everest]

Compression myths cleared up

From what I've heard so far.. it seems iTunes decompresses the AAC/MP3 file, and re-compresses it with the lossless encoder for transmission. So if you're using the optical audio out, it's digital all the way so there shouldn't be any loss of quality

If your collection is encoded as mp3, aac, or anything other than Apple Lossless, then Airport Express is not adding any fidelity when it "uncompresses" to AL. Even using the optical out will not affect this. Once your music is compressed to an mp3 or aac, it will never be anything better sounding than what you encoded it at. You would have to re-rip your collection to say, go from 128AAC to AL to gain any fidelity.

MT

 

[iChan]

No offense, but this makes you sound rather out of touch. The usual house is not 10,000 square feet (many apartment complexes are not 10,000 square feet) and the usual room is not 33 feet.

No Offence taken. however, I am not out of touch... i know my house is big, my point was that the Salling Clicker would not be suitable "around the house" in my case and many other people's houses in fact, as salling clicker was not designed for this purpose.

In my previous house, only 3,000 sq feet... salling clicker lost its connection when i move from the back wall of the living room to the kitchen which is about 30 feet, and through one wall... now, this is a guess, but i presume that even apartments are bigger than that...

I stated the 33 feet as a little over average the size of the rooms in my new (parent's) house.

 

[iChan]

I wish, that's nearly 4 times bigger than my parent's 4 bedroom/3 bath house that is plenty big for a family of 5. Our yard isn't more than a 1/2 acre I'm sure. If this guy thinks the average house is over 10,000 sq. ft with 12 acre gardens, I'd sure like to move to his neighborhood.

this is not a debate about the size of one's... ahem... house, but about the fact that many people are being conned into believing that Salling Clicker would be a suitable remote to control iTunes around the house, which clearly it is not.

Salling clicker was not designed to be used around the house. alas, even Bluetooth, the technology Salling CLicker is based on is not designed to be used over long distances...

you can argue all night that people don't have houses large enough for the connection to Salling Clicker to die, but the bottom line is... ah, you know the rest....

 

[whooleytoo]

this is not a debate about the size of one's... ahem... house, but about the fact that many people are being conned into believing that Salling Clicker would be a suitable remote to control iTunes around the house, which clearly it is not.

It varies from case to case; out of curiosity I tried it in the stairwell in my apartment block, and could still connect to my Mac from 2 floors down. As with any radio interface, it depends on the walls, RF/EM interference etc.

 

[Rower_CPU]

Let's stay on topic, folks.

Off topic posts are deleted from the News threads.

 

[Geert Bosch]

Does Airport Express work for audio from other apps than iTunes?

I would like to use Airport Express to reroute audio from Garage Band and other apps to my hifi setup. Will it appear as extra set of speakers to any application, or just to iTunes? I really hope the first and that they didn't screw up here... Also hope the Apple Lossless compression won't eat too much CPU.

-geert

 

[iChan]

I would like to use Airport Express to reroute audio from Garage Band and other apps to my hifi setup. Will it appear as extra set of speakers to any application, or just to iTunes? I really hope the first and that they didn't screw up here... Also hope the Apple Lossless compression won't eat too much CPU.

-geert

so far, i know for a fact that Airtunes is only compatible with iTunes... but it would be silly if apples didn't implement it OS-wide for Tiger.

you are right though, it is a mistake...

 

[kugino]

I'm afraid you're mistaken there, if it weren't compressed, it'd be the same size as the raw aiff file! It is compressed, it's just not (the more commonly used) lossy compression - i.e. when uncompressed it is identical bitwise to the original.

yes, you're right. it is compressed, but it's lossless...i was conflating the two.

 

[appleguy]

More than one stereo/speakers

Who will want to stream to more than one sound system at the same time?
there is volume control on your stereos right?
Well I guess you could attach the Belkin TuneCast and then tune your radios into that.

 

[kjs862]

Help

What is the difference between Apple's AirPort Extreme vs a non-Apple wireless router besides the price. You can get a non-Apple brand wireless router for like $50 bucks. I don't see how Apple is charging so much for theirs. Thanks

Ken

 

[iChan]

What is the difference between Apple's AirPort Extreme vs a non-Apple wireless router besides the price. You can get a non-Apple brand wireless router for like $50 bucks. I don't see how Apple is charging so much for theirs. Thanks

Ken

i think it might be something to do with the airtunes feature.

 

[kaxixi]

USB audio compatibility?

Does anyone know if its compatible with USB audio (and not just USB printing)? If so, high-end users could attach it to a good USB soundcard, and would not depend on the D/A converters built into the device. Also, does anyone know how the digital optical out works on this device? That's the obvious way to bypass the built in converters (though I already have a USB soundcard ). I have never seen it combined with an analog connecter like this before.

erez

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

i think it might be something to do with the airtunes feature.

Actually with the Extreme (as opposed to the Express - let me propose a shorthand (AEX for Extreme and AXP for Express), is style and ease of setup for Mac's at least.

 

[appleguy]

Does anyone know if its compatible with USB audio (and not just USB printing)? If so, high-end users could attach it to a good USB soundcard, and would not depend on the D/A converters built into the device. Also, does anyone know how the digital optical out works on this device? That's the obvious way to bypass the built in converters (though I already have a USB soundcard ). I have never seen it combined with an analog connecter like this before.

erez

I believe it just works for USB printers. and not sound.

 

[WM.]

Does anyone know if its compatible with USB audio (and not just USB printing)?

Nope. Not compatible. Printers only.

If so, high-end users could attach it to a good USB soundcard, and would not depend on the D/A converters built into the device. Also, does anyone know how the digital optical out works on this device? That's the obvious way to bypass the built in converters (though I already have a USB soundcard ). I have never seen it combined with an analog connecter like this before.

It's a Sony standard, on MD players and some Discmans (like mine, a D-E805). I've never used the connector, but apparently you can get an adapter to a (more standard) Toslink connector fairly readily.

FWIW
WM

 

[WM.]

i have a slot loading crt imac, 500mhz, got it a couple years ago... i never had anything to do with airport. i only remember noticing an airport control strip thingy back in os9.

Now someone be kind enough to accept my internet lazyness, or "internazyness", and simply tell me all the answers. If i want to use of one of these airport express thingies to hook my living room sound system up to itunes, i would need to install some sort of airport card into my computer?

Well, you could run an Ethernet cable from your iMac to the AP Express. That would work fine, but you wouldn't get the wireless cool factor. If you want to go wireless, you do need an AirPort card for your Mac.

and most computers now have this built in? or just the laptops?

The very newest PowerBooks have AirPort built in, but for anything else (including your iMac), you need a card.

so in all, i'd need this card thing, the express base, and whatever software comes along with it?

Yes. The software's free, in case you're not clear on that. You would need to be running 10.2.8 or later, I believe.

how much does an airport card cost?

$79 new from Apple. Probably cheaper elsewhere, but I haven't looked.

oh yeah, and this thing would be a lot cooler if it could wirelessly transmit electricity, y'know, replace those pesky batteries... i'm thinking some kind of arching web of lightning or something.

There is something called a Tesla coil, but I don't think it's practical for sensitive electronics. I have seen one in action, exciting the gas in a compact fluorescent light bulb enough that it lit up a fair amount. Pretty cool. If you want to know more, do a Google search, I guess.

HTH
WM

 

[Powerbook G5]

Well, you could run an Ethernet cable from your iMac to the AP Express. That would work fine, but you wouldn't get the wireless cool factor. If you want to go wireless, you do need an AirPort card for your Mac.
WM

No, you can't. Does anyone not read the Apple hardware page on Airport Express or ever look at the pictures of it? There are *no* LAN ports. None. NO LAN PORTS. This has been said how many times but people keep saying you can hook random things into it as if it did. If you want to use this device, you must have a wireless ready Mac or PC. It's that simple.