Airtunes won't play through my stereo!

Hello Sobafan. Welcome to the Apple Discussions!

Temporarily substitute a pair of stereo headphones for your stereo. Can you get sound through the headphones?

Do you mean plug headphones directly into the Airport?

Yes.

Since it's not working using headphones, there are at least four possibilities of what might be wrong:

1) The headphones are bad. One option is to try another set of headphone that you know work.
2) The audio source is bad. If you play the song thru your computer's speakers, do you hear sound?
3) The AX's audio circuity or audio port is bad.
4) The AX is not configured properly.

The following is the basic setup steps for this last item:

AirPort Express Base Station (AX) - iTunes Setup
Either connect to the AX's wireless network or connect directly, using an Ethernet cable, to the Ethernet port of the AX, and then using the AirPort Utility in "Manual Setup" mode, make the following changes:

AirPort > Base Station
o Base Station Name: <rename or leave default>
o Base Station Password: <enter desired password>
o Verify Password: <re-enter desired password>
o Remember this password in my keychain: (optional)
o Set time automatically: (unchecked)

AirPort > Wireless
o Wireless Mode: Join a wireless network
o Network Name: <existing wireless network's name/SSID>
o Wireless Security: <select the encryption type of the existing wireless network>
o Wireless Password: <enter the existing wireless network password>
o Verify Password: <re-enter the existing wireless network password>

Music
o Enable AirTunes (checked)
o iTunes Speaker Name: <enter desired speaker name>
o iTunes Speaker Password: (optional)
o Verify Password: (optional)
o Click Update to write the new settings to the AX

In iTunes:
iTunes > Preferences... > Advanced > General
o Look for remote speakers connected with AirTunes (checked)

I have experienced the same problem, but have not been able to resolve it. I have updated the firmware, made sure all the preferences are set correctly and even tried turning off IPv6 (even though my remote speakers do show up in iTunes). Everything seems to be set properly and everything says I am connected to the network, but music only comes from my locally attached speakers no matter what iTunes says is the destination. There Airport Express is only connected to powered speakers and nothing else and my computer is the the only thing connected to it via airport. Note that at first all worked fine but now I get no sound at all. Help! Thanks. {I'm running iTunes 7.7.1 and OSX 10.4.11 on Dual 1.25 GHz G4}

I can just say this the same here - have resetted AX , have created a new network, checked off and on all related Airtunes setting in both AX utility and itunes... very frustrating really

my speakers show up in itunes - I selected them, but sound still comes from computer..arghh

I'm having a similar problem. The wrinkle is that iTunes won't play any songs when the Airtunes speakers are connected. It will play through the computer speakers if they are selected, or if both speakers are connected (though in the latter case no sound comes through the remote speakers.)

The frustrating thing is that they worked a few days ago for a day and now no longer. Since I've been having this issue I have updated the firmware and restarted the computer. Thoughts?

I have the very same problem, woke up one day, and it just stopped working. I tried to reset it, tried other speakers, tried to google it out, but no luck. Please, anything.....

Hi there. I had the same problem where the itunes (version 8) wasn't connecting to airtunes and was coming up with an error message. I managed to fix it last night by downloading the airport express (AX) utility and follow the prompts. refer to http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2278

Make sure you locate the AX utility and open it and then let the utility locate the existing network as it will prompt you to do.

It worked for me, so hope it works for you.

Good luck.

Thanks for reply. This is not my case, I can actually see little red light in Airport Express's audio jack when Airtunes remote speakers are selected in Itunes (which, I assume, has something to do with the digital output) and I don't get any error message.
I'm starting to think it might be a hardware problem...

I don't think it is a hardware problem, but even though the pop-up in iTunes selects my remote speakers, the sound still comes from the computer and not the headphone I have plugged into the AX. I'm now looking through all relevant discussion threads for more ideas.

Same problem here. with one little difference... if I select the remote speakers in itunes (8.0.1) i get music for maybe 10 seconds and the rest is silence...
very strange... My airtunes worked for two years now and I had never any problems. so maybe it is indeed a hardware problem.

Same problem. Plays on computer speakers even when Airport Express is selected as the speaker.

My setup is G4 MD Tower in the office with a ethernet connection to a Buffalo AirStation. Thats connected to the Express using WDS which is connected to speakers in the living room. Is this at all similar to you others with the same problem? Whats super confusing is that the desktop sees the Airport Express, I can use the Admin utility to change settings behaves just as it should. And it worked for a week. Worked last night! I was also using Airtunes from the iPhone to connect to the desktop and change things. Worked perfect.

Its not hardware on the Express as I can connect and play with my macBook.

Also, when iTunes is supposed to be playing to the Express (but actually playing locally) and i break the the network (reset the Express or Buffalo router) iTunes behaves like it should. Stops playing cause it can't see the Express...BUT ITS PLAYING LOCALLY!

Found out that that Airport won't play anything that has video in it (probably because of the latency involved with Airtunes audio).

Unfortunately this seems also true for music videos, which of course might not make sense, if you just want to listen to the song.

And of course allowing iTunes to implement a adequate lag for the video, so that it would be in sync with the speaker, would make much more sense.

Oh, and the way this "feature" is (not) displayed in iTunes is not very helpful and leads to unnecessary frustration.