Airtunes dropouts with Mac mini to Airport Express

Edo_musica,

"I stopped using the AE for my main system, went to a long cable. I know that is not practical for everyone. Still use the AE for background music setups and live with the drops."

Is the long cable you use USB, mini-jack, or ethernet? I am thinking of bypassing the wireless headache. If I use a long USB or mini-jack cable from the Mac Mini to the DAC in the room below (not using airport express at all) then I will have no sound on the Mac mini when I use it for other stuffs and itunes at the same time. Ethernet cable down to the airport express may be the other way (dont know if this will work with airtunes).

This PC audio is a headache!

With all these report of dropouts, how do you get a stabel system? Connect the Mac directly to the DAC (long cable to other room) using USB or mini-jack, or connect long ethernet cable from Mac to airport express?

Moving the Mac into the listening room is not a great idea since I dont have a minitor there so maintenance the itune library/sytem would be a nightmare.

I finally finished with getting the AEx hardwired to the mac mini. Problems solved. Using with the iTouch is great as a remote.

Correction, I use the mini-Toslink to a PS Audio DL3 Dac, not the mini-jack (analog).

Edo_musica,
When you run itunes for your main audio system or office system, can somebody use the computer (mac) for movies with sound coming thru the computer? Therefore the mac would be real multitasking.

If I run ethernet from my mac mini to my airport express, i can hook the toslink from the airport to the DAC. Will this work?

Update:
I changed my router channel to an un-used channel. So far for 2 hour, no dropouts yet. This is an improvement but I dont know how long it will last since wireless is a trickery thing. Mean while I will continue to work (or think about) making the set-up wired (instead of wireless).

Dropouts are UN-ACCEPTABLE for serious listening (for me).
Cheers,