Airtunes dropouts with Mac mini to Airport Express

jeanluc,

I use a 9ft USB cable from a G5 Mac to a USB DAC through two walls into the main system (living room)

your concern about the mac mini sound is likely when you are in front of the mac mini right? I use my computer in my office with another set of powered speakers in that room-I can either use mini-jack(analog) or the Toslink to a separate DAC. You just need to select the output choice in the Audio Preferences or the Audio MIDI setup - the USB DAC shows up as an option in the output menu. Pretty easy to set up. So in my set up itunes is either playing in the office or the living room, not both when using the digital outputs. I can use the headphone out (mini-jack) and have sound going to Toslink simultaneously. But on my computer USB and mini-jack do not work simultaneously. BTW: older G5 PPC dual proc. OS 10.4.11

I am pretty sure you cannot use the ethernet from computer to AE for music.

hope that helps. send me a PM if you need more details.

Markphd,
What are you sending over the enet cables? are you using a mac?
-ed

Or get another router... and if the situation doesn't improve, return it.

I'm listening to the AE right now, like you, configured to "join" my existing network and it works great. You can't beat the convenience.

I've used a D-link, Linksys (WRT54G.. cheap), and another Airport Express. The D-Link gave me no problems, but I was living in a house/low density neighborhood. Another Airport Express as the router was the worst sound. Makes sense I suppose, a lot packed in a small package.

I didn't expect there to be a difference in sound vs the linksys but there seems to be. I was having minor drop-out problems with the Linksys in my new place (apartment/lot of singles) during certain hours. Not nearly as bad as my other place during Christmas as mentioned, but for some reason around dinner time and 2 AM, it would drop out for a few seconds.

The Airport Express as router never experienced drop outs for the 2 weeks I had it in.

However, I'm going to stick with what I think is the better sound. As a matter of fact, while writing this, I just switched back to the Linksys, and am quite happy. The 2nd AE as a router and it's sound was starting to tick me off.

If the dropouts become too problematic I'm going to change channels or do some research and get another router.

At our big box electronic store, there is a 90 day return policy....

Or you could always get a really long USB cable as suggested, provided your DAC accepts USB. As for digital cables though, note that the AE and MacMini's optical output is a "mini-toslink".

I'm using a meter long VanDenHul Optocoupler II, mini-toslink on one end, standard toslink on the other (no adapters necessary) into a Monarchy M24.

Not sure if an adapter would degrade the signal/sound, and I'd imagine an extra long glass toslink cable wouldn't be too cheap.

I wouldn't give up on the wireless set-up just yet....this is of course, provided you haven't already tried different routers. Like the other poster suggested, it may very be your neighbors, in which case you're going to have to explore other options.

Good luck.

PS.. Ethernet to Airport Express would not work. Music can only be sent through the Mini-Jack. If you use a 3mm RCA Y cable then you're using the AE's DAC. Use a mini-toslink optical cable and it sends the signal to YOUR DAC.

The USB output on the AE can only be used for printing. No audio signal.

Why wouldn't you be able to use the Mac-Mini while using itunes?

I'm doing it right now with my Macbook?

7 Wireless Router Problems And How To Solve Them

Notable quote:

Most routers work on the 2.5GHz band. So do Microwave ovens, cordless phones, garage door openers, baby monitors, and some other electronic devices. Have you added anything to the environment recently that works on the 2.5GHz band -- just about when the problem started? If so, turn it off and see if there's an improvement.

If that's not an issue, keep in mind that the 2.5GHz band has only three real channels (1, 6, 11) despite pretending to have eleven (the others overlap with each other).