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frustrated AirPort Express owner...

E

eyeon

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 7, 2004
161
0
Montana, USA
I just got my new AirPort Express today in the mail and was overjoyed to rip the box open and set it up. However, Apple neglected to inform me that they do not include any cables to connect the unit to a stereo... slightly disappointed, I shrugged my shoulders, "Oh well, I'll make a quick trip out to Best Buy and pick one up." Went out there and started asking around about a toslink-to-1/8" mini cable, with everyone shaking their heads and telling me they don't think anyone even makes those. I ended up talking to a technician in the back and he gave me the same answer... anyway, to make a long story short, I spent the better part of today driving around town from place to place trying to track one of these things down, and no one had a clue as to where to find one! So here I am, having to order one from the internet, pay shipping, and wait another week for it to get here before I can even use the damn thing!

The reason I don't just get the monster cable add-on audio accessory kit thing from Apple is a) I need one that is a specific length, and b) I don't want and would never use the 1/8" mini-to-RCA or the extention cord, so I'd be paying extra for something I would never use.

So, word of warning, don't plan on using this thing for AirTunes unless you already have (or have access to) the proper cables...
 
Apple made it clear that you will need a cable for Airtunes, I for one already had a few from years of collecting random electronics and accessories. I don't see why you had so much trouble finding that part, though, I have three of them, and I've seen them sold at Circuit City and other electronics places. I haven't tried Best Buy, but I find it odd that no one even knew about them. But then again, the guys at Circuit City looked at me as if I were speaking Dutch when I asked if they had a Component Video switch or if they had any DVD players that output via DVI.
 
If you absolutely cannot find an optical cable, I suppose I could sell you one too. I've had these things for about five years so it's not like they are new or anything, I still find it hard to imagine that Best Buy doesn't even know about them. One of them came with my minidisc recorder I got back in 97 or 98. Two have adapters on them so you can convert either end to toslink or mini optical by popping off the toslink connector, one is mini on both ends, and the other I have is toslink on both ends. I got the last one from Best Buy, one with the adapters from Circuit City, and the other two I got from a Sony minidisc recorder. I know I've seen these at the Bose store in town and once I saw one at Radio Shack, I'm not sure where all you've looked but perhaps that could give you a few ideas where to look if you don't get yours from online yet.
 
to an extent i think packaging cables with products is a bit overkill. i have so many freakin cables lying around my house that came with products that i never use. i usually just find one of them when something like a printer doesnt come with a cable. but printers should come with a cable because there is no alternative to hooking it up!!!! or. .. good idea. . . electronic stores should just have giant bins of cables by the cash register, and when you buy a product you simply pick up the cables you need or dont need and get them for free with your purchase! when i own an electronics store, thats what i will do. and put stupid people like the monster cable company out of business cause noone will pay for their over-priced over-engineered cables.
 
There is no substitute for quality, though. Try using standard cables like the components that come with the XBox HD kit and then switch to the Monster Cable brand, you can see the difference since the box the XBox uses is unshielded and introduces leak into the signal. Same goes for audio, as well. Using the cable that came with my system's subwoofer causes the sub to produce this slight hum, but when using the Monster Cable audio cable there is no hum. I also get much better picture from my PowerBook to my tv using my Monster Cable DVI cable as opposed to the generic cable I got for free.
 
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