Airport Express Airtunes questions

ajf

ajf

ajf

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I put a post in the home cinema section about music servers and the suggestion was an Airport Express with AirTunes.
My original post is here:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17815756

I had a few questions which may be better asked here as they relate to the hardware:
Would it work with Vista?
Does the 'Airport Express with AirTunes' come with the audio cables or do I need to buy them seperately? They have some listed on the Apple store but it is not clear whether these are required or just upgrade cables from the basic ones included.
I already have a wireless network. Do I need to integrate it into that or can I use it standalone just with iTunes or would I need to specifically 'connect to a network' on the PC for it to work?
Where is the processing of the audio file happening? On my PC or the Express unit? Just wondering about the DAC? Or am I getting confused?

I get a little lost when technologies start to merge!


Thanks
Amdrew
 
As long as iTunes works with your version of Vista then yes, it will work.

You need to buy the 3.5mm -> 2x RCA (Phono) seperately.

You tell the AirPort Express to "Join existing network" so setting it up is as easy as configuring a PC to the network. You have to give it a name, and tell it to act as the AirTunes server but otherwise it's plug-and-play to be honest.

It transmits the audio from iTunes to the AirPort Express in a lossless format, so the conversion happens in real-time in iTunes. Don't worry though, you can tell it to use a small/medium/large buffer.

Any other questions? :)
 
Thanks very much.
Think I might give it a go as it seems a much cheaper option thana full blown music server.

No more questions - yet! Hopefully it will be straight forward....

Andrew
 
Just to try and build on what I said..

If you download "AirFoil" you can use the AirPort Express to play the audio from ANY source :)

Oh, and if you don't.. you can still pop a CD in your PC and stream it to the Hi Fi without actually ripping it. (Can be handy if you've borrowed a CD and don't want to mess about putting the CD in the Hi Fi, and changing sources on the amp).
 
Sorry to resurrect, recently upgraded to vista x64 and I have Airtunes for streaming from PC to hi fi. Tried installed the Airtunes software and it crashes everytime. I'm going to try Airfoil later and see if this will provide a workaround..
 
iTunes is only available in 32 bit form, and the driver support for x64 is limited at best.

Are you using iTunes to stream the music?
 
Yes I was using iTunes to stream using XP 32 bit and the Airtunes software installed. Itunes runs fine on Vista x64 as far as I know. So I guess i'm looking for other streaming methods to get my music to my stereo?
 
Did you upgrade, or was it a clean re-install of x64?

Bit weird how iTunes would work fine, and AirTunes would be so picky :confused:

Did you try AirFoil for x64?

Might be worth emailing the creator of this thread for some help installing AirTunes, as he has x64.
 
Clean install, tried Airfoil and it worked! But iTunes could see the remote speakers but couldn't use them as something else (airfoil) was using the connection. So I exited airfoil and its working now without it!? Weird but i'm happy now, thanks for the advice.
 
No problem :)

For reference, if you set AirFoil to "system" (i.e. you want all your system sounds through it) then it generally needs a reboot of the app to work.
 
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