Apple Airport Express

I read about this little gadget in one of the recent issues and decided to give it a go. I figured that using my laptop as a juke box would be a fun idea, so I ripped my CD's to an external HDD in Apple Lossless and then off to the new local Apple store. The guy at the store really had no idea what I was talking about. He kept talking about it as a router and that it had the mini jack output, but didn't know about the optical cable that Monster supplied(even though they carried the kit at the store) I hooked it up, my existing network located it right away, and "Voila" what a cool toy!! The toslink out to my Marantz's digital input and then to the internal DAC sounds good to me. A couple of weeks later I sold my B&W 602's and moved up to a pair of Audes Blues and now I have a better understanding of high end sound. Anyone out there been using the Airport and yout thoughts.
Thanks Wes for the article and pointing me in the direction.

November 17, 2005 - 9:36pm

Anthony Tam

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Joined: Oct 6 2005 - 2:06pm

Re: Apple Airport Express

Yes I use one. I must say, computer based hi-fi with the kind of flexibility a product like the Airport Express isn't too shabby...

In my application, I use it mainly for casual listening. Now if they had something that would let me route the audio of my DirecTV receiver (the XM channels) to Ethernet and then out to my rig via Airport Express... I would be very happy indeed...

November 18, 2005 - 11:38am

mmole

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Joined: Aug 31 2005 - 7:29pm

Re: Apple Airport Express

That was timely. I just got back from the Apple Store in Short Hills New Jersey and guess what? They didn't know what I was talking about! All I wanted was the toslink-to-mini digital cable to connect the Airport Express to my DAC (as described in their own documentation). The clerk wanted me to go to Radio Shack. His manager wanted me to go to a "specialty audio store like Sam Ash." When I mentioned that the Airport Express was getting lauded as a "Product of the Year" in the latest "Stereophile" they, uh, never heard of the magazine either.

Wes/JA: Now that you've recognized their product and for the sanity of the next thousand readers who are heading for their local Apple store, is it possible for you to contact Apple and hip them to what is going on so we're not met with blank stares and misinformation? Thanks.

November 18, 2005 - 2:12pm

Editor

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Joined: Sep 1 2005 - 8:56am

Re: Apple Airport Express

Quote:
Now that you've recognized their product and for the sanity of the next thousand readers who are heading for their local Apple store, is it possible for you to contact Apple and hip them to what is going on so we're not met with blank stares and misinformation?

The problem is that the minimum-wage clerks whom Apple employs have not had the appropriate training. All I can suggest is readers do what I did, which was to ignore the clueless clerk and buy the Monster cable kit, after checking that it does include the 3.5mm optical-to-Toslink adaptor.

What freaks me out is going into a store and realizing that no matter how little I know, I still know more than the guy behind the counter :-(

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

November 19, 2005 - 1:09pm

stereophillips

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Re: Apple Airport Express

D'oh! That last post was me -- I forgot to log in. I also forgot and wrote HTML code rather than UBBC. I am a baaaad forum participant.

November 19, 2005 - 3:57pm

garysi

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Re: Bad Forum Participant

No soup for you!

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