Airtunes from Apple,what do you think about it?

[XheartcoreboyX]

i have a 2.1 powered speakers and they are in my bedroom..sometimes i use my macbook pro on bed/livingroom/brother's room..and i would love to be able to control my music from anywhere..it would be amazing..so i though about Airport Express Airtunes,and considering connecting it to the wireless network we have here..the big question i have..will the sound quality be as good as if i connect the speakers directely??

does it worh the money?

thanks for any response

 

[fredsherbet]

It sends the audio in apple lossless, so the quality is as good as the source (i.e. just as good as a direct connection)

I have two airport expresses now (picked one up for £20 last week) but I think the normal price is too high. If there were about £40 they'd be much more attractive.

I bought my first one at the full price because i wanted airtunes, and i certainly don't regret it just disappointed you can't use the Ethernet port when it's connected to an existing wireless network hope that answers your questions!

Fred

 

[XheartcoreboyX]

It sends the audio in apple lossless, so the quality is as good as the source (i.e. just as good as a direct connection)

I have two airport expresses now (picked one up for £20 last week) but I think the normal price is too high. If there were about £40 they'd be much more attractive.

I bought my first one at the full price because i wanted airtunes, and i certainly don't regret it just disappointed you can't use the Ethernet port when it's connected to an existing wireless network hope that answers your questions!

Fred

thanks that was helpful =) ,
so does it automatically connect to the wireless network?
if it take to friends house can i connect it to their wireless network without any pain and wasting time??

 

[fredsherbet]

yeah it's pretty simple... i think i usually connect directly to it through an Ethernet wire to set the settings, if all else fails

it has a reset button... can't recall what it's default settings are, but probably to act as a wireless router, which means you would then connect to it's wireless network, tell it what network you want it to connect to, then it restarts itself and you're away

I've never had any problems with it, and I've moved it around and stuff

 

[Magnus Reftel]

i have a 2.1 powered speakers and they are in my bedroom..sometimes i use my macbook pro on bed/livingroom/brother's room..and i would love to be able to control my music from anywhere..it would be amazing..so i though about Airport Express Airtunes,and considering connecting it to the wireless network we have here..the big question i have..will the sound quality be as good as if i connect the speakers directely??

does it worh the money?

thanks for any response

It's hard to say exactly how the sound quality will compare (it depends on how you're connecting your speakers now and how you're planning to connect the Airport to them among other things), but in general, you shouldn't be able to tell the difference.
For me, the Airport Express was worth it (I needed an access point anyway), but just barely. It's still priced a bit too high in my opinion.
It will need to be configured when you change which wireless network you want to connect it to (since it has to know which one to join at least), but it's all done via a fairly simple GUI program on the Mac.

 

[XheartcoreboyX]

yeah it's pretty simple... i think i usually connect directly to it through an Ethernet wire to set the settings, if all else fails

it has a reset button... can't recall what it's default settings are, but probably to act as a wireless router, which means you would then connect to it's wireless network, tell it what network you want it to connect to, then it restarts itself and you're away

I've never had any problems with it, and I've moved it around and stuff

eh thats amazing news XD
just curiously can you connect the same speaker and the same airtunes to more than 1 computer?? like if i have 3 computers in the same wireless network with itunes on them...can i play itunes music through the speakers connected to airtunes from any of the 3 computers??
-that sounds like a complicated question lol-

It's hard to say exactly how the sound quality will compare (it depends on how you're connecting your speakers now and how you're planning to connect the Airport to them among other things), but in general, you shouldn't be able to tell the difference.
For me, the Airport Express was worth it (I needed an access point anyway), but just barely. It's still priced a bit too high in my opinion.
It will need to be configured when you change which wireless network you want to connect it to (since it has to know which one to join at least), but it's all done via a fairly simple GUI program on the Mac.

good to know,the most thing i cared about is the sound quality!!
plus:they say it works as a wireless network extender as well,does it extend only apples wireless router? or any wireless router?(i have belkin)

thanks! =)

 

[fredsherbet]

all computers on the network running itunes should be able to connect to the airtunes.... but only one at a time!

and if you have multiple airtunes, each computer can only connect to one airtunes at a time

it is possible, however to play the music out your local speakers and one set of remote speakers at the same time (and the music does line up! )

plus:they say it works as a wireless network extender as well,does it extend only apples wireless router? or any wireless router?(i have belkin)

it can extend wireless routers that have EPS.

[iirc] the airport express and extreme have EPS. I think most other routers don't... it's a fairly new technology and isn't a standard yet?[/iirc]

 

[Applespider]

tell it what network you want it to connect to, then it restarts itself and you're away

If you go to the same locations often, you can save profiles in the airport Express. So you can have a profile for Home which is the default but then perhaps one for various friends/hotels etc. Think you can have 5 profiles.

eh thats amazing news XD
just curiously can you connect the same speaker and the same airtunes to more than 1 computer?? -

Yup. Any computer with iTunes open on your network will 'see' the Airport Express - there's a little dropdown menu at the bottom which will show 'Computer' and then any Airtunes in range.

 

[XheartcoreboyX]

If you go to the same locations often, you can save profiles in the airport Express. So you can have a profile for Home which is the default but then perhaps one for various friends/hotels etc. Think you can have 5 profiles.



Yup. Any computer with iTunes open on your network will 'see' the Airport Express - there's a little dropdown menu at the bottom which will show 'Computer' and then any Airtunes in range.

glade it workss =D
so another big question..is it going to extend my Belkin(not Apple's base station) wireless router signal?? so i can finally use my mac downstairs??

 

[fredsherbet]

the question you need the answer to is:
Does your Belkin router have EPS?

 

[XheartcoreboyX]

the question you need the answer to is:
Does your Belkin router have EPS?

so what is ''EPS''? anyway how to know if the router have that? -yup im a noob-

 

[fredsherbet]

google is ur friend

EPS is some sorta technology, but i don't think it's an official standard yet, so not commonplace in routers (i think)

what's the model number of your router?

 

[XheartcoreboyX]

google is ur friend

EPS is some sorta technology, but i don't think it's an official standard yet, so not commonplace in routers (i think)

what's the model number of your router?

well, the router is in my brother's room and its locked,well anyway i will check later,so incase i search the model and i find out that it doesnt have EPS,will i still be able to use airtunes to work with itunes on my mbp and share a printer(as it has a usb port)?

 

[fredsherbet]

yeah, no probs everything will work the same, EPS just allows you to extend the range of the network, rather than just join the network.

I haven't gotten round to connecting my printer yet, so I don't know how easy that is... maybe someone else has experience on that??? I'll prob do that this evening, so can report on my experience then!

 

[XheartcoreboyX]

yeah, no probs everything will work the same, EPS just allows you to extend the range of the network, rather than just join the network.

I haven't gotten round to connecting my printer yet, so I don't know how easy that is... maybe someone else has experience on that??? I'll prob do that this evening, so can report on my experience then!

well thats good to know,so excited to hear about your experience with the printer =),i will be checking the thread later..thanks for your response,was very helpful!

 

[vandlism]

and if you have multiple airtunes, each computer can only connect to one airtunes at a time

Not true. I have 2 Airport Expresses set up in my house to extend my network as far as possible, and each one is hooked up to a stereo system. As a result, I can play one song from my laptop wirelessly to the speakers as well as playing on my MacBook's speakers all at the same time. It's all in sync too.

In terms of audio quality, it's solid. Though I'm sure you'll never use it, it has the capabilities of DTS and 5.1 .

 

[fredsherbet]

Not true. I have 2 Airport Expresses set up in my house to extend my network as far as possible, and each one is hooked up to a stereo system. As a result, I can play one song from my laptop wirelessly to the speakers as well as playing on my MacBook's speakers all at the same time. It's all in sync too.

as i said, you can play on local speakers and one set of remote speakers at the same time, but not two sets of remote speakers.... Correct?

I'll be setting up my second airport express this evening, and will be able to verify either way then, anyway.

In terms of audio quality, it's solid. Though I'm sure you'll never use it, it has the capabilities of DTS and 5.1 .

oooh interesting... may have to play with that

 

[MacPossum]

I use AirTunes with my AirPort Express and I love it. You can have the AirPort Express join your current network even if your router doesn't have EPS. The only difference is the AirPort Express won't 'expand' your network, it will just become a part of it.

 

[fredsherbet]

well... i have printed my first thing through the air

it wouldn't work with my Dell printer no mac drivers but it did work with my HP printer, once i installed the drivers on my macbook

later i'll try on a windows box


As for multiple speakers... if i tell it to, it trys to play through both my living room and studio speakers (through two airport expresses) but can't i'll try wiring into the network to see if its just bandwidth that's stopping it.

Both play for a second, then it flickers, and then it stops... so there's no software prohibiting it.

If completely works with the local speakers and either of the remote speakers at the same time.

 

[Scottyk9]

as i said, you can play on local speakers and one set of remote speakers at the same time, but not two sets of remote speakers.... Correct?

I have 4 AE's connected to 4 speakers in my house - all will play simultaneously. Just make sure you have the latest AE firmware updates.