itunes & stereo speakers - beyond Airport Express Base Station

[AlwaysOptimistic]

Hi there,

New member... For the last 5 years I've been using an Airport Express Base Station to listen to iTunes over my home stereo speakers.

The Base Station is plugged directly into one of the inputs on my stereo receiver - iTunes connects with the Airport Express Base Station via wifi Bluetooth.

As you may know, software for Airport Express Base Station is no longer supported, and as such, it is wonky from time to time. How can I listen to iTunes over my stereo without any issues?

When I go to Apple and ask them, the common response is some version of "Why don't you use small bluetooth speakers?" haha - I don't think this will be an issue on a forum like this

I don't want to buy bluetooth speakers - I have a pair of great stereo speakers.

Would love to still listen through iTunes and into my Outlaw Receiver

Thanks in advance, Craig

 

[ryanosaur]

Hi there,

New member... For the last 5 years I've been using an Airport Express Base Station to listen to iTunes over my home stereo speakers.

The Base Station is plugged directly into one of the inputs on my stereo receiver - iTunes connects with the Airport Express Base Station via wifi Bluetooth.

As you may know, software for Airport Express Base Station is no longer supported, and as such, it is wonky from time to time. How can I listen to iTunes over my stereo without any issues?

When I go to Apple and ask them, the common response is some version of "Why don't you use small bluetooth speakers?" haha - I don't think this will be an issue on a forum like this

I don't want to buy bluetooth speakers - I have a pair of great stereo speakers.

Would love to still listen through iTunes and into my Outlaw Receiver

Thanks in advance, Craig

I do the same... Airport Extreme, though. Minimize as best you can, connection points... hardwired ethernet from computer to hub to receiver. Or you can use that mini toslink on the back of your express and go optical input at the Receiver if your receiver uses that.
I get you, can be a little wonky sometimes, but just short of straight-up new gear... *shrugs
But if possible, eliminate the wifi or bluetooth link. Hope that helps!

 

[AlwaysOptimistic]

I do the same... Airport Extreme, though. Minimize as best you can, connection points... hardwired ethernet from computer to hub to receiver. Or you can use that mini toslink on the back of your express and go optical input at the Receiver if your receiver uses that.
I get you, can be a little wonky sometimes, but just short of straight-up new gear... *shrugs
But if possible, eliminate the wifi or bluetooth link. Hope that helps!

Thanks... actually right now i go wireless to the router, and ethernet from router to hub, then jack into receiver... can't go direct from mac to hub b/c of logistics in the room. The issue is the software - sometimes the volume works, other times it doesn't b/c they don't update hardware drivers OR software any more. thx for your input

 

[lovinthehd]

FWIW bluetooth and wifi aren't the same. Bluetooth isn't quite as hi-fi in any case. Altho not familiar with Apple Airplay particularly pretty sure it's wifi based, not bluetooth.

 

[ryanosaur]

FWIW bluetooth and wifi aren't the same. Bluetooth isn't quite as hi-fi in any case. Altho not familiar with Apple Airplay particularly pretty sure it's wifi based, not bluetooth.

unless maybe if you're streaming from your phone? Never figured that out for certain.

 

[lovinthehd]

unless maybe if you're streaming from your phone? Never figured that out for certain.

That would depend on the Airplay receiving device, whether it has both capabilities, I'd think. Not an Apple guy so don't really know but pretty sure I've read Airplay is wifi based....I use wifi via DLNA compliant stuff.

 

[snakeeyes]

That would depend on the Airplay receiving device, whether it has both capabilities, I'd think. Not an Apple guy so don't really know but pretty sure I've read Airplay is wifi based....I use wifi via DLNA compliant stuff.

Yes Apple Airplay uses WiFi and has superior sound quality vs Bluetooth. It’s also more stable than Bluetooth for example if you move your iPhone around etc.

 

[ryanosaur]

Yes Apple Airplay uses WiFi and has superior sound quality vs Bluetooth. It’s also more stable than Bluetooth for example if you move your iPhone around etc.

Now that I think about it, that makes sense. Thanks!

 

[sterling shoote]

Airport Express is not Bluetooth, it's WiFi. I had a notice a few months ago about a firmware update, which I accepted. I have my Airport Express hooked up to my modem/router via usb and to my prepro via S/PDIF. I have two laptop's , an iPhone, and an iPad which see the Airport Express. All of these devices get iTunes to the prepro without problems of any sort except when I am performing multiple operations on my computer, in which case, I just use the other computer to get iTunes to my prepro and my iPhone to use as a remote control. It's all great. When I heard about Apple discontinuing the AE, I began looking for a substitute short of buying a new receiver with Airplay. I have not yet found any substitute, so I'm thinking about buying a used AE as a backup and also as a means to send iTunes from my iPhone to a pair of powered speakers, using the iPhone for volume control too.

 

[ryanosaur]

My train of thought is that while the Airports are discontinued, they still represent a good place to hang out until the next generation of WiFi is released and stabilized... be it 5g technology, or just the next step in the WiFi standards, 802.11ax... but I'm guessing that won't be readily available for taking full advantage of until later this year... also, I'm notoriously not an early adopter, preferring to wait a moment or two for kinks to get shaken out.

 

[SRL Acoustics]

I think one of your main concerns should be how your music is encoded in iTunes. Go to your preferences import settings and select AIFF for uncompressed full fidelity. Next forget the networking stuff buy something like a Focusrite Clarett 2 channel and run the line outputs to your stereo system. If you want to take it to another level get the HD player software to be your playback engine. It can read your iTunes library and offers stunning sound quality and up conversion which the Focusrite can decode. I set the output at 88.2 kHz 24 bit and use custom filter settings to get the best fidelity out of the iTunes library.

 

[everettT]

I think one of your main concerns should be how your music is encoded in iTunes. Go to your preferences import settings and select AIFF for uncompressed full fidelity. Next forget the networking stuff buy something like a Focusrite Clarett 2 channel and run the line outputs to your stereo system. If you want to take it to another level get the HD player software to be your playback engine. It can read your iTunes library and offers stunning sound quality and up conversion which the Focusrite can decode. I set the output at 88.2 kHz 24 bit and use custom filter settings to get the best fidelity out of the iTunes library.

Why add another "pre amp" into the mix? The simplest way to stream audio is from the source is via dlna client like serviio to a headend like chromecast, nvidia sheild, etc. and you can cover video as well with some. DSD and other high resolution audio is simple playback of source material

 

[lovinthehd]

I think one of your main concerns should be how your music is encoded in iTunes. Go to your preferences import settings and select AIFF for uncompressed full fidelity. Next forget the networking stuff buy something like a Focusrite Clarett 2 channel and run the line outputs to your stereo system. If you want to take it to another level get the HD player software to be your playback engine. It can read your iTunes library and offers stunning sound quality and up conversion which the Focusrite can decode. I set the output at 88.2 kHz 24 bit and use custom filter settings to get the best fidelity out of the iTunes library.

Why use AIFF over ALAC?

 

[Irvrobinson]

FWIW bluetooth and wifi aren't the same. Bluetooth isn't quite as hi-fi in any case. Altho not familiar with Apple Airplay particularly pretty sure it's wifi based, not bluetooth.

Bluetooth 4.0 easily supports 256Kbps streaming media (e.g. Amazon Music and iTunes). If you're into only uncompressed CD audio quality, or any of the so-called hi-res formats (e.g. 24/192),and you insist on being wireless, then you really need 802.11 (WiFi). I recommended to Sterling a Bluetooth device, since he's mentioned many times he's budget-oriented, but for a couple of hundred dollars you can get WiFi devices that will pass uncompressed CD audio. For serious listening I always use wired connections (and for HT, for that matter),but for background music when we are entertaining, or when I'm shopping for new music ideas, I stream Amazon Music over Bluetooth to my primary system.

I've tried comparing Amazon streaming at 256Kbps over Bluetooth with the same music on CD, to see if I can hear a difference. I think I can, so CDs are in no danger in my collection, but I haven't done a blinded test. For casual use, at the very least, 256Kbps MP3 over Bluetooth is pretty good.

 

[lovinthehd]

Bluetooth 4.0 easily supports 256Kbps streaming media (e.g. Amazon Music and iTunes). If you're into only uncompressed CD audio quality, or any of the so-called hi-res formats (e.g. 24/192),and you insist on being wireless, then you really need 802.11 (WiFi). I recommended to Sterling a Bluetooth device, since he's mentioned many times he's budget-oriented, but for a couple of hundred dollars you can get WiFi devices that will pass uncompressed CD audio. For serious listening I always use wired connections (and for HT, for that matter),but for background music when we are entertaining, or when I'm shopping for new music ideas, I stream Amazon Music over Bluetooth to my primary system.

I've tried comparing Amazon streaming at 256Kbps over Bluetooth with the same music on CD, to see if I can hear a difference. I think I can, so CDs are in no danger in my collection, but I haven't done a blinded test. For casual use, at the very least, 256Kbps MP3 over Bluetooth is pretty good.

I've used an inexpensive BT receiver in my van for a while, and I've used it with my older home gear without network capabilities, too. It sounds fine. It is 4.0 too, not the AptX that supposedly delivers the best audio possible but I don't have a source to take advantage of that anyways. I use a couple Chromecast Audio units now for those older non-networked systems now, no need to spend hundreds to stream my FLAC files I made from my CD collection and it's more useful than bluetooth. My main and bedroom systems have network capabilities so I just stream with their apps or from my computer (or phone) to those. Altho now that the Chromecast Audio has been discontinued, not sure what I'd get once they run out.

I use wifi streaming (wirelessly) for most of my listening (usually my own flac files or sometimes pandora or spotify), altho sometimes I just use some of the files I've got on thumbdrives that reside in various inputs too. I don't find any difference using wifi vs the thumb drives or discs, tho. If I had to use bluetooth that wouldn't be horrible either but wifi has superior range and convenience for me.

It's so much better than relying on vinyl in any case

 

[SRL Acoustics]

Why use AIFF over ALAC?

AIFF is uncompressed digital audio with any pq subcode included. ALAC is Apple lossless format. It is a data reduction format. I once encoded a cd cut using ALAC and AiFF and Abed them. It wasn't even close. I have never used ALAC since then.

 

[Irvrobinson]

AIFF is uncompressed digital audio with any pq subcode included. ALAC is Apple lossless format. It is a data reduction format. I once encoded a cd cut using ALAC and AiFF and Abed them. It wasn't even close. I have never used ALAC since then.

I'm not following you. ALAC uses lossless compression to store the data, but on replay it is decompressed without data loss. If you heard a difference from the original CD you either made a mistake in the encoding parameters (though even 128Kbps MP3 would be close for most music) or you imagined the differences. No other outcomes are possible.

 

[lovinthehd]

AIFF is uncompressed digital audio with any pq subcode included. ALAC is Apple lossless format. It is a data reduction format. I once encoded a cd cut using ALAC and AiFF and Abed them. It wasn't even close. I have never used ALAC since then.

ALAC is lossless as was said. I assume there's something wrong with your analysis. Hope your acoustic stuff is better than this conclusion.

 

[SRL Acoustics]

ALAC is lossless as was said. I assume there's something wrong with your analysis. Hope your acoustic stuff is better than this conclusion.

Aah, you had better research this some more. It is NOT Lossless. It fits in an M4 container, does not use error correction, in fact it was developed to be the audio component of quicktime which is a lossy compressed audio video format. It is NOT like a zip unzip file. It uses "prediction" processing which ls not even close to Linear PCM. It was developed to be a replacement with better fidelity for MP3 files but I actually prefer MP3's that are encoded with the LAME encoders at "insane" levels 320kb per second. But those still do not sound as good as uncompressed files. My acoustic stuff was designed to meet my own maniacal standards and have been proven in top recording studios. That is incidentally my background. I ran a company in the 70's and 80's that designed, equipped and installed the largest recording studios in Nashville. Have you ever heard an Ampex ATR100 1/2 inch two track playing masters? If not you need to find a new reference point for your comparisons.


.

 

[SRL Acoustics]

I'm not following you. ALAC uses lossless compression to store the data, but on replay it is decompressed without data loss. If you heard a difference from the original CD you either made a mistake in the encoding parameters (though even 128Kbps MP3 would be close for most music) or you imagined the differences. No other outcomes are possible.

see below post