Airport Express and Pandora?

I just received my Airport Express, set it up and am unable to play Pandora from my iMac to the Apple Express base station. I have read through the forum here and it looks like I will need yet another purchase. Rogue Amoeba's Airfoil? Is it true?

Yes.

Looking at the installation instruction for Apple Express, it appears that I should be able to play music through my iMac to my living room stereo through Apple Express without anything more than Adobe Air and Airport Utility.

With AirPlay, you can wirelessly stream videos, music, and photos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to Apple TV (2nd generation) and stream music to AirPlay speakers or receivers, including AirPort Express ... so basically all that is needed is an v10 iTunes host and the 802.11n AirPort Express Base Station (AXn) to stream audio.

AirPlay comes with iOS 4.x and iTunes v10. Rogue Amoeba's Airfoil would be required if you want to stream from other sources than iTunes (like Pandora) from your Mac or PC.

Hey Randy, the issue here is how Apple has "walled off" wireless audio streaming so that the only two ways you can wirelessly send audio to your AirPort Express are:

1) Using the AirPlay feature in iTunes on your Mac.

or

2) Using the new AirPlay feature built into iPad and iPhone. The difference here is that AirPlay from iPad or iPhone lets you stream most/all audio. Not just iTunes audio (this is how I get Pandora to my AirPort express)


The two other workarounds here are:

1) Buy AirFoil for your Mac so that you can stream all audio from your Mac (not just iTunes).

2) Plug a cable from your iBooks headphone out port into your audio system's input.

No problem Randy. I love Pandora and was in the same boat as you were. (iMac was at the back of the house - AirPort Express at the front, and I wanted to stream) I ALMOST bought AirFoil (which is pretty nice by the way), but then Apple announced AirPlay from my iPad. Best of luck to you.