Noise during Airplay music playback

I recently ran into this problem myself, as I just started using my Airport Express (1st Gen N) for wirelessly streaming audio to my iHome iP1 speaker via analog connection from my iPad and iPhone. The AirPlay audio is rock solid when playing audio from most of my apps (eg. Pandora, CNN), but it is consistenly popping when using SlingPlayer.

Thinking all the wireless streaming within my LAN was perhaps causing bandwidth issues and thereby creating the popping noises (SlingPlayer 4mbp/s inbound video and audio wireless stream on iPad + Sling audio outbound stream on AirPlay + Airport Express inbound audio stream on AirPlay), I changed my Airport Express to connect wired to my network via Ethernet. That seemed to slightly reduce the amount of soft popping sounds when using SlingPlayer and streaming audio via AirPlay, but it did not eleminate the pops.

So then I saw this bug thread and downgraded to 7.4.2 firmware on my Airport Express, and it seems to have fixed the issue. Seems to be purely a software issue with the more recent firmware builds, which Apple should be able to resolve if / when they put an engineer on it.

I'll add that since my last post, although running the 7.4.2 firmware on my Airport Express (1st Gen N) eliminated the occassional soft popping noises, that older firmware introduced a well-known bug from before: occassional dropped audio.

So I decided to test each of the firmware releases, going backwards from the latest 7.6.1 release.

Results:

7.6.1 -- frequent soft popping noises

7.6 -- frequent soft popping noises

7.5.2 -- no soft popping noises (perhaps best release to use for now)

7.4.2 -- no soft popping noises but occassional dropped audio

One other note: when running the troublesome 7.6.x firmware, the popping sounds are not present when first streaming audio via AirPlay, but within 30 seconds the popping noises begin to appear and then become more prevalent over time. This would indicate to me its a buffering issue or something related to processing packets on the Airport Express.

If this popping sound behavior exists on 3rd party audio equipment that has AirPlay networking software built-in, hopefully that equipement supports firmware upgrades!

Having this problem on my Pioneer VSX-52 Reciever when connecting my iphone or ipod or ipad to it via USB. Haven't tried airplay yet because I dont have internet here at the moment, but I can listen to the ipod via headphone to RCA cable and it sounds fine. Anyone got any info on this yet?

Track from a Hi-Fi test CD:

Wide Sweep: 5 Hz - 22.05 KHz, L + R, -15 Db

I've just tried this test again with the same hardware as before, but changes in software/firmware -

Snow Leopard 10.6.8

iTunes 11.0.2

AirPort Extreme (1st generation)

Version 7.6.3

802.11n only (5GHz)

Apple TV 2nd generation - latest firmware.

Optical audio out of Apple TV is connected to a DAC.

The track from the test CD plays WITHOUT noise/distortion.

I haven't done this test for some time, so I don't know which change in software/firmware has eliminated the distortion.

I repeated the test with my old Apple TV (1st generation) with the latest firmware.

Same audio noise/distortion as before.

I can also confirm that I've noticed this 'popping' (like static on an old LP) for the last 3 years. In that time, I've swapped out the Airport Express, gone through 2 more 'main' routers in my home, 2 new Macbook Pros, a whole new receiver + speaker system, etc. And the problem's still there.

It is most easily noticed when listening to piano (glad someone else confirmed this!), probably b/c of the lack of general 'noise' (meaning louder instruments, background sounds, etc.) that might otherwise mask the popping.

I, of course, have verified that the popping is not there in the original recording. You can do this easily by plugging in a pair of headphones. The source is clean.

Also, the popping frequency increases the louder the piano is. In other words, popping appears to be directly related to amplitude of signal. The louder the piano gets, the more pops there are. Source file does not have any pops though, & the WAV file shows no clipped waveforms.

Audio files of just silence don't pop at all.

Airfoil pops even more than iTunes/OS X built-in AirPlay. Airfoil's popping is also correlated with amplitude of signal (how loud the song is).

Fascinating stuff. The correlation with volume makes me think this is probably a relatively easy fix.

Hi,

I did actually try updating the firmware of my Airport Express. It didn't help.

FYI here's my setup:

Macbook Pro (retina) connected via Wireless-N to Linksys E3200 Router.

Yamaha RX-V473 Receiver connected via ethernet (as is my PS3 - there are 2 RJ45 jacks available on the Airport Express) to the Airport Express (latest) router, which is set up to 'Join a Wireless Network'; that is, the 5.4GHz Wireless-N network the Linksys E3200 router is broadcasting.

The E3200 also happens to be broadcasting a 2.4GHz signal for my iPhone 4. Eventually, I'd probably get rid of the 2.4GHz band altogether, since my iPhone is the only device using it.

But, of course, oddly enough, the drop outs cease when my Macbook Pro is connected to that 2.4GHz band... which is not even the band the Airport Express is on.

Extremely strange.

Update: Between 2010 and 2013, either one of the firmware updates of the Airport Express, or my hardware upgrade to the latest Airport Express, fixed the static/popping problem in the digital line out of the Airport Express.

Now both AirPlay and AirFoil can send sound static free to my Yamaha receiver connected via an optical TOSLINK cable to the Airport Express.

However, when I use AirPlay to directly communicate with my Yamaha RX-V473 (which is updated to the latest firmware), which is connected via an ethernet cable to my Airport Express, the static returns.

This makes me feel as though the problem is in the software/firmware, and perhaps the AirPlay version/code is outdated on the Yamaha receiver?

The drop-outs, btw, continue to persist when the sending device (MacBook Pro for me) is on the 5GHz band.

At least the static problem is solved in the line out of the Airport Express. That was driving me nuts.

P.S. So when I said the firmware update didn't help, above, I hadn't tested the line-out of the Airport Express yet, and was only commenting on static persisting using the Yamaha receiver connected via ethernet to the Airport Express.

All, I recently enabled airplay in my 2009 Macbook Pro running OS 10.9.1 and itunes 11.1.3 with my Sony STR-DN840 receiver and have the same issue with static and popping that is not present when the laptop is hard lined to the receiver.

Any help is much appreciated.

Hi all,

I am also noticing static/clicking when streaming music over AirPlay. However, unlike the others, I'm not using an apple router or an apple TV. I am streaming from either a Macbook Pro or an Iphone 5 to a Klipsch G17 Air using an Asus RT N56U Router. I notice the exact staticy-noises and clicks others are describing, especially when listening to loud piano music. There is no static when the speaker's line-in is connected to the computer; it only occurs over AirPlay. Was anything learned about this issue that doesn't relate to the Apple TV firmware?

Thanks,

Gabriel

I have the same problem with an Airport Express using Airplay. I have this plugged into an amp via the 3.5 mm audio jack. Even with no audio playing there are random pops. Sometimes there's so much noise I have to turn it off. Sometimes it helps if I launch Airport utility - it cuts the noise for a moment though it sometimes restarts. (I'll stop saying somtimes now since that doesn't help.) But for me that means the problem is with Airplay and nothing else.

The Airport Express (with 7.6.4) is connected to a Netgear Rangemax router - the problem occurs whether wireless or wired, and whether the source is iPhone, iPad, or iTunes on my iMac.

Please Apple fix this - Airplay is almost unusable. I'll be asking for a refund on my Express.

Just updated to 7.6.4 a few weeks back on all 3 of our AEs. Now the popping static is happening only on one of the AEs using an optical connection to our Marantz amp. This is definetely related to how the digital signal from the AE is being decoded by the DAC in the Marantz. Another AE with an optical connection to a NuForce DIA mini-amp works fine with no static or popping so the DAC in the NuForce seems to be more compatible with the digital optical signal coming from the AE. No static/popping playing to speakers connected directly to the Mac Mini (which is used to stream the audio throughout the house) or to the 3rd AE connected via analog cable to an analog amp.

This is driving me nuts. A´ve had this problem many years now, although I´ve never used an AT earlier(I have one now, AT3). Just the integrated Airplay in my recievers. Same issue as you are having.

I´ve had a couple receivers/speakers in the past 4 years, all with the same problems:

Libratone Lounge - soundbar

Denon avr-2113

Marantz sr7008

And now I have a Nad D7050 digital amp.

None of these are very cheap, and I cannot understand why this is still a issue after so many years.

The results are always the same:

With cable from mac(tried both analoge and digital): Perfect sound

Airplay from mac/ipad/iphone to AT3 then amp: Perfect sound

Streaming to amp via bluetooth: Not as good quality, but not any clicking sounds.

Airplay directly to amp/receiver: Clicking sounds. Dosn´t matter if I use ethernet/wifi, spotify/iTunes, Apple lossless/mp3, 16bit/24bit sampling rate, Airport Extreme/other routers... ALWAYS the same results. Especially noticeable when playing piano songs or classical music at higher volumes.

BTW. I have the latest firmware update on airport extreme, AT, Nad amp, plus the latest updates on iphone/ipad.

Please fix this Apple. Airplay is useless to me this way.

Well, the issue vanished for me.

A few weeks back I decided to give it another try. I have an Airplay-compatible Marantz m-CR603 amp.

I used to have the same clicking and popping as most of you, from my mac or from an iPad.

Not any more.

Can't say I know what solved it.

- new OS ? (Maverick)

- new router ? (different ISP)

I doubt it was a firmware update for the amp. I havent had one for years.

I'm leaning toward the router. It can't be a bandwidth issue since I'm always plugged through ethernet.

But in my experience, some devices (wireless printers, smartphones) will not always be 100% compatible to a given router.

Yeah, could be the router. I´v used apple routers for quite som time now. First AE then time capsule. Ironic though:p I have all the pieces in my hifi from Apple(router, mac, iphone, airplay reciever), and that could be the problem:p I dont think its the OS because the problem still remains if I use iOS 6, iOs 7, mountain lion or Mavericks.

Its not a huge problem for me(i can use AT when I want to sit down and listen to music), just very irritating. I paid 1000$ for my amp and 800% for the speakers(b&w cm1), guess I didn´t expect this to be a problem at this price range.

Anyway, thanks for your insight! Guess I have to try another router(another time, pretty low on cash now:p)