Assistance, setting up Lavry with AE.

Posted by: Right Wing on 28 April 2010

Hi

I would be very grateful if someone would be kind enough to give me simple instructions on setting this up;

I have an Imac, Netgear 'n' router and an Airport Express.

So far I have been unable to get this working properly, I am also unable to intergrate my iphone (remote app) to work with it too.

I have managed once to get a stream of audio from my existing 02 router (g) but it was dropping out very often. Hopefully the new router may solve this?

If someone could give me idiot proof instructions on setting this up, including the network bit, I would be very grateful.

Many thanks!
Posted on: 28 April 2010 by fixedwheel
I'm so tempted to say don't bother. Actually I am going to say that.

I had a play with an AE, couldn't get it to run consistently. And the Lavry deserves a better source, as I previously owned one.

If you want a recommendation, get a Squeezebox Touch, and iPeng for your iPhone. The software runs in the background on your Mac, or you can put a hard drive directly on the Touch. You can even sync your music collection from the Mac to the HDD attached to the Touch, which gives you a backup of the music and allows you to run straight off the HDD so you don't need the Mac on!

The Touch, by all accounts, also has a better digital out than its predecessor, and way better than the AE which is noted for jitter.

The Touch also does 24bit at 96k, and autoswitches between different sampling rates.

Maybe not what you wanted to hear, but hope it helps.

John
Posted on: 28 April 2010 by Right Wing
John,

Most interesting reponse, thank you.

I will look into this, I presume any HDD will be fine with a SB touch? - I would buy a mac HDD.

How would this setup compare to a Macbook directly attached to the Lavry do you know?

Cheers
Posted on: 28 April 2010 by fixedwheel
Bear in mind that you don't need a hard drive attached to the Touch. It will stream from your iMac etc. quite happily.

There is enough in the archives on using a MacBook or MacMini with a Lavry or other DAC. IMHO it is just OTT to use either as a basic music player. And iTunes won't switch the sample rates from track to track, so you then need to spend more money on something like Amarra or Pure Vinyl, and then add a HiFace USB to SPDIF interface. See where I'm coming from?

I've more than enough computer bits kicking around to build (several) near silent PCs, but I just don't want a PC in the HiFi rig.

Reports are very good on compatibility between the Touch and external HDDs. The only issue seems to be some of the 2.5" hdds that fall outside the specs for the power available through the USB port, and need extra power.

HTH

John
Posted on: 28 April 2010 by pcstockton
AE=serious drop outs.... Often the Mac just stops seeing the thing as it does with external hard drives. No matter how hard I try I just cannot get along with anything Mac. Apple on the other hand makes some nice gear.
Posted on: 28 April 2010 by james n
quote:
There is enough in the archives on using a MacBook or MacMini with a Lavry or other DAC. IMHO it is just OTT to use either as a basic music player.


Not really - you get iTunes. An excellent way to manage and access your music collection. You get the remote app - an excellent and intuitive controller. Squeezecentre and the squeezeboxes are good, but i was so glad to get rid. All the messing about rescanning libraries, adding artwork etc. I've run both systems (with the SB3 and Duet controlers) and iTunes based is so much better.

James
Posted on: 28 April 2010 by winkyincanada
quote:
Originally posted by pcstockton:
AE=serious drop outs.... Often the Mac just stops seeing the thing as it does with external hard drives.


I was an issue for me too. A better router (Apple TimeCasule) mostly solved it, but I ended up with a dedicated Mini connected directly (toslink) to the SN DAC.
Posted on: 28 April 2010 by MartinCA
I am feeding a DAC via an AE. I used to have an older 11G version linked to the pre-amp, but gave up because it kept dropping in and out. I researched the problem: its common and there were a 1001 theories about why it happens, and I tried a few of the suggestions without any real success. When I got the DAC I tried again with the 11n version of the AE. This has been much better. I did start to get drop outs again, but traced the problem back to my son competing for bandwidth on the WAN by watching You Tube. For me, the bottom line is that the better the signal, the faster the router, and the less competing traffic or interference then the less likely you are to have problems. Ok - a bit obvious - but I don't think it is a settings problem.

You can Google up quite a lot of discussion on these sorts of problems and I also found some helpful step by step guidelines for setting up this way. But it has an element of black magic to it. You try and try and nothing happens then one day for no apparent reason it starts working.