MacBookPro/Airport Express/Airplay

I have no idea what I did but it is working now.  Go figure.

Jeff A

Flakiness with the Airport Express a bit like you described prompted me to go to Mac Mini hard-wired to my SN.

As exasperating as today has been, I can understand why.  I think I lost several hours of my life.

At the moment, the music is playing and all is well.

regards

Jeff A

Not much help, but a few years ago i used an airport express for audio and ended up selling it.

For some reason, it just wasnt up to the job although i may have had a duff one.

I've got two, I use one for audio into another room and the other to extend my home wireless network to other parts of my home. They were easy to setup and have been fault free for 2 years.

It would seem that I have been lucky.

Anyway, glad you got it sorted.

My use of the Airport Express appears to work just fine as long as I am the only user in the household.  Add the spouse's iPhone or iMac (or even the microwave oven) to the mix and I get drop outs.  I am the only one awake at the moment and the AE/hi-fi has worked flawlessly for the last three hours.

Coincidently, there is also a thread on AE problems over at the pink place.  There was suggestion to run Airport Utility in the background whilst using the AE.  Can't hurt.

thanks for the responses/input

Jeff A

My AE's are joined to a 5GHz network, out of the way of microwaves, baby monitors etc...This is the network for important stuff like my MacBook Pro, Mac Mini. Streaming stuff for main Hi-fi is hardwired. I have another wireless network for other things running at 2.4GHz (iPhones,iPads guests etc.) and they all meet at a network switch.

For example over Christmas there were 3 iPhones, 2 iPads, 1 MacBook Pro, 1 MacMini, 1 Samsung Mobile, 1 Kindle, 3 Printers 1 NAS all connected and available/using my home network. Music was being played to main Hi-Fi and to Dining room via AirPlay on Airport Express and Backups took place to a Time Capsule. No glitches or drop outs.

So you could potentially setup separate 5GHz and 2.4GHz wireless networks and keep the iphones etc connected to that and the AE's on the 5GHz.

I have read something similar to this and other than realizing there are separate possibilities I have no understanding how to access those and separate the mediums using them.

Perhaps I need to hire someone to come on site.

thanks

Jeff A

+1 having ditched the Airport Express and gone back to MacBookPro > optical >nDAC.

Also with hard-wired the sound quality is noticably better.

Guys, Is the problem with the Airport express or your reliance on streaming music via wifi. If you look around on this and many other Forums the message is the same.. "don't use wifi for streaming the actual music".

Mine is all hardwired and the wifi is used for control point, web browsing and other intermittent activity that does not need a nice reliable consistent connection. Even so because I have quite a few visitors/family members that join my network, I split the wifi to 2 bands so that I can give a bit of priority to stuff that is important to me.

I believe you are probably right.

thanks

Jeff A

There is an update for Airport Express released Thursday:

 "support.apple.com/downloads" at the Apple support sight.

Jeff A

Jeff,

I agree with Spartacus.  Wi-Fi is fine for testing a proof-of-concept, but once you decide you like the setup, running inexpensive Ethernet wire between the various nodes is the best "permanent" solution.  Leave Wi-Fi for remote-controling the Mac from an iPhone, etc.  Once that is done, you can turn Wi-Fi off at both the Mac and AE, as wireless control from the iPhone goes via the wireless router.  All for better reliability and, often, better sound quality.

Good luck.

Nick

Hi

Thanks for the info.  The AE is working flawlessly at the moment but I am the only "user" as well.

When it gets finicky, I tether the iPod Classic (has my iTunes library also) direct to the Wadia 171i transport so in that sense it is hardwired.

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions.

Jeff A