Noise during Airplay music playback

The problem has gone away for me too! Just listened to music via the optical out to my Marantz and no popping noise. No idea what has changed, but I know there was no update to the AEs, Marantz or router. There could have been an update to iTunes or the Mac OS running iTunes as it seems there are always updates being downloaded (not as much as Windows, but still...).

Or could have been sunspots...

Consistently staticky, noisy, awful playback.

iTunes 11.2.2 playing a home shared library (also 11.2.2) over wifi

Air Playing to an ATV2.

DAC to a cheap old stereo receiver that has never popped, glitched, or ticked in all its nearly 20 yrs.

The only thing I've tried that resolves the issue is rebooting the AppleTV2. But it DOES resolve the issue.

Guys, i've been dealing with this issue for several years.

I'm currently using an iPad Air, and I AirPlay mirror the device to my PC using AirPlay receiver software called Reflector.

My PC is on wifi, connected at 200Mbit.

My iPad is also wifi (of course).

My router is dual-band.

I have drastically reduced the audio pops by changing the 2.4G and 5G channels on the router.

I live in a high-rise apartment, so I do have a LOT of neighbours that use both the 2.4G and 5G bands, I currently can detect 15 other wifi signals.

I used software which could determine the best channel for my router to use, and I don't get many audio pops anymore, but it hasn't completely gone.

If I switch to other channels, I could end up with audio/video lag/dropouts.

So some advise - experiment with different channels on the router, if possible run some software to find the least noisiest channel.

Maybe some of you solved your problem by accident, just because your neighbour changed channels on their router, and are no longer interfering with your wifi network!

PS - I notice that I get a LOT more pops during certain times of the day (mostly after 6pm), this is because some people leave their routers off during the day, and theirs doesn't auto-detect the best channel to operate on. So when you're having issues, re-scan your channels and find a better channel.

Hey, I thought I'd post my experience here. I was using AirPlay with an Airport Express (roughly 2013 model) and a Micromega MyDAC (a great, low-cost DAC, by the way), with both my iPhone and my Macbook Pro with Airfoil and got constant pops, no matter what I did with network settings, 5G or not, whatever.

So, finally, I just purchased a new AppleTV (MD199LL/A) and it works perfectly. No pops, no cracking sounds, it just works. Can use it to pump data into my DAC with the TV turned off.

I consistently notice the clicks and pops from my Airport Express when using firmware 7.5.2 and streaming from iTunes, iPad, or iPod. When reverting back to 7.4.2 they are not present.

Thanks, HeavyLiquid. You got it. I downgraded the AX firmware to 7.4.2 and that does the trick. 7.5.2 is the culprit.

well, when using the software AirServer as Airplay receiver on my MacMini the issues seem to gone.

I don't have an AE but I was thinking of getting one for the Audioengine speakers until I found the ticking problem. Now I am considering going with DLNA for audio.

I am not talking about home sharing but itunes match through the Atv.

Just posted the issue to the Apple TV support page (don't have an Apple TV but since it's the same thing everywhere...).

Wait&see

your headphone jack on your macbook air is also a toslink output, u just need the toslink that is a headphone jack on one side, standard on the other. u can get them cheap on amazon

This is great news! Actually it works for me also! Seems that the last AppleTV or OSX update fixed the problem.

Running Mountain Lion 10.8.3

Apple TV 2nd gen 5.2.1

acasademont - Thanks for your reply.

Nice to see that my result wasn't just a fluke.

Hey Anders! Are you happy with the RX8 on your Marantz ?

Regards,

Miguel M.

Hi Rishi,

Did you try firmware 7.6.4 ? This solved the problem (at last!) for me, as well as for others.