I’ve an airport express, I was gonna rip all my music (inc vinyl) lossless and hook it up to my “proper” system (Crimson A630s, DNM entry level pre-amp, some US DAC, Kytes to be followed by some DIY floorstanding MONSTERS).

Is it gonna sound crap? My cd player is an ancient Marantz CD52 (not even the Ken Ishiwata SE).

Itunes/airport express appeals due to removal of source (I’d keep the Thorens!), ease of remote, further remote/multiroom capability.

Sorry re. missing Q, I’ve had a beer 😳

DAC I have has dig in and is a Sounstream DAC 1

then maybe get a standalone dac like a beresford and use the optical-in. that way you bypass the airport express dac (has to be optical connection to keep it in the digital domain), that’s if you don’t like the sound of the dac in the AExp.

edit: i missed the dac bit but the optical connection must be used

And the question is? Or are you just telling us what you are doing? 🙂

*bumps*

It’ll be fine. I use mine without a separate DAC but then neither the room, the equipment nor my listening habits justify the extra box. The external DAC route is the one that folk trying to get the very best sound quality tend to go down.

All music here is ripped as .wav files and the wireless network handles the larger file sizes without issue. Control is normally through the ‘remote’ app on either phone or ipad.

I use an airport express to a NAD amp just using the 3.5mm socket and the sound quality is very very good, so I can imagine with a DAC it will sound excellent. As long as you have a decently strong signal so you don’t get any dropouts then it’s a winner. Thinking of doing the same as I buy more music online (iTunes etc) than I do CD’s nowadays.

DNM pre-amp – nice.

Should should better than you expect

or look at a Logitech Squeezebox rather than the Airport. I don’t have the ears to tell the difference but they are supposedly designed with audiophile DACs.

Integration with iTunes is fine and either the web interface, or even better using iPeng as a remote on an iPod touch/iPhone/iPad is as good or better than Apple Remote.

Thanks all, seems it’s not crap, I don’t think I’ll bother venturing onto any hifi forums to discuss it though!

I use an airport express with a ‘proper system’.

As long as you use an external dac, then it makes a pretty good source.

See here:
http://www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/505apple

p.s. I did have some problems with unreliable streaming and interference when used on wireless G (2.4GHz). This was probably due to my crappy router though. using another airport express to create a 5GHz wireless N network sorted it.

Possible new airport express.

If you can hang on for a few days it might be worth waiting, no guarantees but just in case. Wouldn’t want to buy it only for it to be superseded a week later.

My cd player is an ancient Marantz CD52

These were crap even back in the day- I know I’ve heard them- so don’t worry about the airport express.

MW I already have it.

UTD sorry mate but not in my system.