Airport Express distortion

Question

Level 1

9 points

Airport Express distortion

I get a "fuzzy" distortion when playing music through Airport Express. It is most noticeable at louder volumes and with music that has a lot of treble, like piano or violin. It comes and goes, and it varies in degree but it's mostly there.

At first I thought it was my amplifier or external DAC that was the cause of the problem, but I have tried with a different amp, and have also tried bypassing the DAC, but the problem remains. When I plug headphones directly in to the Airport Express the distortion is still there.

At one point I figured it had something to do with the electrical feed, so I plugged in the extension chord from my Macbook (which is grounded) and tried plugging the Airport Express unit in to a different socket, but it didn't help.

I usually play streaming music from Spotify via Airfoil, but I've also tried lossless files from iTunes and playing Spotify via Airplay from an iPhone4 with the same result.

I have even tried with a different Airport Express unit and still get distortion, so it's not only my unit it seems.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Mar 12, 2011 1:46 PM

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Answer 1

Jeffg53

Level 1

5 points

Apr 19, 2011 2:15 AM in response to nadeama

I have tried reverting but it didn't fix it for me. I get the same distortion with 7.4 and 7.5. I have the problem on two Airport Express units. I get distortion on the left channel and only with some music. The problem seems to be brought on by strong bass.

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Answer 2

Apr 19, 2011 2:45 AM in response to mats_j

I had some distorsions issues with AEX in the beginning.

To solve them, it was enough to turn music level very low on the source (MacBook or Iphone4) and turn it louder on the amplifier.

Now it works good (no miracle quality, though).

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Answer 3

Mar 12, 2011 4:49 PM in response to mats_j

Hi
I've been battling with the same problem. Tried on 2 different computers and AEXs and finally figured out that it's AirTunes problem (mostly).

When click on "multiple speakers" in iTunes (on either 10.5 and a 10.6 osx macs) and select any of the AEXs, I start hearing the crackling sound on some tracks. The strange thing is that the crackling comes on the computer headphone output in a more consistent continuous manner, whereas out of AEXs it's more in bursts, which disappear if I back up the track a few seconds and allow iTunes to play the same portion of the track again. If no AEX's are selected from iTunes "multiple speaker" selector, the tracks play perfectly through computer headphone output.

When I tried Airfoil and set iTunes just for computer output, it reduced the problem out of AEXs to a large degree.

All AEXs have latest firmware.

Please heeeeeelp!

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Answer 4

Mar 29, 2011 5:18 AM in response to mats_j

Check your cables and upgrade if you can..
I just went through a long exercise on this.

I was getting the ground loop hum and distortion.

I had tried two older 1/8 to RCA cables i was using and they werent well shielded

Based on a couple of other postings...
...switched to an apple style 1/8 to RCA and video cable and viola no noise.....

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Answer 5

Mar 29, 2011 12:17 PM in response to mats_j

Having the same distortion problems, hearing music but no vocals ...
I guess this is a update problem in iTunes and/or Airport ..

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Answer 6

Mar 30, 2011 2:10 AM in response to rolandinho e

Definitely Not a cable issue.

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Answer 7

Apr 9, 2011 11:02 AM in response to Saaamting

i am also facing the same issue. bought the aex today and first thing was the music distortion. no vocals. please help apple technical staff

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Answer 8

nadeama

Level 1

24 points

Apr 10, 2011 1:28 AM in response to vibhore agarwal

I've been having the same problem with audio distortion through Airplay, using a Toslink cable to go from my Airport Express to my external Digital/Analog converter.

Reverting back from firmware 7.5.2 to firmware 7.4.2 on the Airport Express has completely fixed the problem for me. I've tried going from 7.4.2 to 7.5.2 and back a couple of times to make sure it wasn't a fluke, and the distortion is always present with 7.5.2 and always disappears when using version 7.4.2.

So, it seems it may be a bug that was introduced in the latest firmware.

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