+1 for Apple's Airport Express & Airtunes

[ErinH]

Got my Airport Express today from a member on another forum for $55 shipped.
Was a PITA to set up, but after I did a google search I got it sqaured away. Total install time was about 1.5 hours. Apparently there are some people who have literally spent days setting it up. Guess I just happened to do the right things first.

Anyway, this thing is cool. I can play music through my stereo in the living room wirelessly from my PC in the computer room. That's some cool stuff. Especially considering I was going to buy a soundcard to run my computer wired to my receiver. All I had to buy was a mini-toslink-to-toslink cable for $3 at monoprice and the Airport Express and use iTunes to get things up and running.

Now I can play my entire library without having to burn CD's or dig my iPod out of my car. Plus, my wife's laptop can do the same, so if we're in the living room we can call up music through her iTunes and play it through our network, now.

It has other features such as using it as a router, an extender, or network printer server.

Thanks to the members here who suggested I give it a shot. And thanks to the dude who sold it to me for less than half the MSRP.

Just so some people who don't know wtf I'm talking about, here's a link:
http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/features/airtunes.html

 

[Matt34]

Got my Airport Express today from a member on another forum for $55 shipped.
Was a PITA to set up, but after I did a google search I got it sqaured away. Total install time was about 1.5 hours. Apparently there are some people who have literally spent days setting it up. Guess I just happened to do the right things first.

Anyway, this thing is cool. I can play music through my stereo in the living room wirelessly from my PC in the computer room. That's some cool stuff. Especially considering I was going to buy a soundcard to run my computer wired to my receiver. All I had to buy was a mini-toslink-to-toslink cable for $3 at monoprice and the Airport Express and use iTunes to get things up and running.

Now I can play my entire library without having to burn CD's or dig my iPod out of my car. Plus, my wife's laptop can do the same, so if we're in the living room we can call up music through her iTunes and play it through our network, now.

It has other features such as using it as a router, an extender, or network printer server.

Thanks to the members here who suggested I give it a shot. And thanks to the dude who sold it to me for less than half the MSRP.

Just so some people who don't know wtf I'm talking about, here's a link:
http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/features/airtunes.html

Thanks for the review Erin. I have thought about getting one of these for some time as I exclusively use itunes. Maybe it's time I just breakdown and try one out myself.

 

[ErinH]

Sorry for posting this in the wrong forum.


I'd like to add that, though it took me a while to get it set up, it shouldn't really take this long. I know there are a few guys on here who use this so maybe they can chime in on their setup time. It took me nearly that long to dig up the extra ethernet cable. Without connecting it directly to my router (which the instructions say nothing about), it would've taken much longer. The damn assistant NEVER recognized it. Deduct the time it took me to realize that, and dig up the cable and it took 10 minutes.

 

[gus6464]

And if anyone needs to know how to set up your iphone as a sonos type touch screen remote to work with the AP let me know.

Ohh yeah will also work with an ipod touch as well.

 

[kenhoeve]

You are limited to iTunes data, this can be a hurdle for some including myself. There are other more open format devices. I returned mine after one day...

 

[gus6464]

You are limited to iTunes data, this can be a hurdle for some including myself. There are other more open format devices. I returned mine after one day...

What other formats do you have? FLAC and Ogg?

 

[ErinH]

Airfoil software will allow you to use virtually any media player...

 

[Matt34]

Well I went into BB looking to buy this and ended up walking out with a Roku SoundBridge.
http://www.rokulabs.com/products_soundbridge.php

Best Buy didn't have any Airport Expresses in stock and when I asked an associate when they would be back in stock he mentioned the Roku which so happened to be on the clearance table for $80.

So I suppose I'll go get this hooked up now and see if it's a keeper or not.

 

[ErinH]

Cool. let us know how it turns out.

 

[jeffsg4mac]

Well I went into BB looking to buy this and ended up walking out with a Roku SoundBridge.
http://www.rokulabs.com/products_soundbridge.php

Best Buy didn't have any Airport Expresses in stock and when I asked an associate when they would be back in stock he mentioned the Roku which so happened to be on the clearance table for $80.

So I suppose I'll go get this hooked up now and see if it's a keeper or not.

I had nothing but connection issues with mine and just today I started looking into it. There is a list of compatible routers and mine was not one of them. I ran down and grabbed one that was on the list voila. Not an issue all day.

I have all my CD's ripped to an external HD at full quality. From what I can tell so far there is no audio difference going through the Roku and letting the receiver decode the PCM than from a DVD or CD player direct. I love mine today.

 

[Matt34]

I had nothing but connection issues with mine and just today I started looking into it. There is a list of compatible routers and mine was not one of them. I ran down and grabbed one that was on the list voila. Not an issue all day.

I have all my CD's ripped to an external HD at full quality. From what I can tell so far there is no audio difference going through the Roku and letting the receiver decode the PCM than from a DVD or CD player direct. I love mine today.

Good to know, I'll check that list and make sure my router is on there. I haven't hooked mine up yet, it was just too nice a day to be inside.

 

[jeffsg4mac]

Matt,

Did you ever get yours up and going? Further testing the new router and I still was having issues with stalling. I narrowed it down to the fact that I am using uncompressed files and My soundbridge is only 802.11b. I ran a hard line and it cleared right up.

 

[Matt34]

Matt,

Did you ever get yours up and going? Further testing the new router and I still was having issues with stalling. I narrowed it down to the fact that I am using uncompressed files and My soundbridge is only 802.11b. I ran a hard line and it cleared right up.

No, work is keeping me pretty busy, I'll make a real effort to get it done this weekend.