Airport Express (square) skips unbearably with Airplay

Problem seems to be solved with my router. Changed the channel on 2.5ghz band to 7 from 5. Left the 5.0ghz band as it was. No more skips. Did this through apple support, via Airport utility on the pc.

I'm another DAC user experiencing this issue, just logging this to indicate another affected device. In my case a Cyrus Pre XP Qx. As with other users I also have the previous generation of AE which has worked perfectly with the same DAC.

I too would like to add my voice to this thread. I have recently bought a latest gen AEx. It works absolutely fine using its inbuilt DAC. However I want to stream music through my hi-fi in better quality than the built in DAC can manage. I went to Richer Sounds this week and have borrowed a couple of DACs as a home trial to see which I preferred. Neither work properly with the AEx. The TEAC UD-H01 is awful, it keeps fading in and out and stutters horribly. The Cambridge Audio Dacmagic 100 does a better job, but still has little stutters every so often. This issue is clearly to do with the optical out on this unit. There are no network issues as the unit's own DAC displays none of these problems. I have tried different cables, and this makes no difference at all. Both DACs are brand new and work fine with other sources. The only cause of this can be to do with the AEx optical out. I am bitterly disappointed given Apple's reputation for quality. I am very reluctant to upgrade to the Apple TV (assuming this does work as some posters have indicated) as I don't see why I should spend more money with Apple, just because they can't test something right in the first place !

This is a very interesting comment on the Peachtree Audio website . . .

Why Apple TV instead of AirPort Express: The new Apple AirPort Express is very similar to the Apple TV, except for the advantage of being able to set it up with your computer. However, at present, the AirPort Express has excess jitter that prevents the DAC from properly locking onto the signal. The Apple TV, on the other hand, works fine.

Here's the link to their site - http://www.peachtreeaudio.com/computer-audio/airplay.html

So it's a question of waiting for a firmware upgrade for the AEx (which may never arrive), or taking it back and getting an Apple TV instead !

That's interesting to see such a statement from a manufacturer. Unfortunately at a glance this topic is a mix of people with networking issues (mainly wireless) and some with our DAC signal lock issue so unless it becomes very active with people stating that they are also encoutering this DAC issue I fear it will be overlooked.

I can't say I relish visiting the 'Genius Bar' to demonstrate the issue but if that's the best way to get Apple to look at the issue then I think it may be worthwhile. It would mean trailing in laptop, DAC & 2x APx so I might go in and ask before booking an appointment. Would anyone recommend another way of raising a support call with Apple? I'd rather have a firmware fix for the APx than switch to an Apple TV as the APx comms are a better fit for my plans.

I replaced my new square APX with older version...still using optical out to dacmagic....drop out is less but still occasional...for now, am going to use APX directly....but c'mon apple

Same problem here. Swapped my older Airport Express for the new variant and I get constant drops using the optical digital out. It's completely unusable for AirPlay streaming to an external DAC. Did this product even get tested prior to release? Hoping a firmware update is on the way in the next week, otherwise it's going back.

Hi,

I am running a Maverick Audio D2 and a Micromega MyDac from a first, respectively most recent generation of AEX's. Both are feeding the DAC without any issues. I would recommend that you use a good Toslink cable The AEX It is feeding light signals into the DAC so you should make sure that the connectors are clean and that nothing ist stuck in the 3.5 mm jack sockets.

just my 2 cents

I was experienceing constant dropouts with airplay...the soultion of join instead of extending a network worked perfectly

Same problem here. Tried roughly everything suggested in this thread and I grown tired to fiddle with the settings. Unfortunately I do not have another router so I can not use the option to "join" or "extend". The DAC that I'm using the AE with is Arcam rDac. I also have an ATV wich needles to say, works perfectly, but I don't want to use this as airplay for sound only because it forces me to use turn on my TV. I gave up...it just DOESN'T work. Hope Apple does something about it, but I wouldn't keep my breath...

I've experienced dropouts with both the new and old AirPort Express. A bunch of the new ones are now on the way back to Apple. They're useless to me because I wanted them just for AirPlay streaming. Now I'll give the Apple TV another try. The first attempt didn't work because the ATV didn't save the AirPlay settings after gooing to sleep. But I finally did after a normal restart. I use a Teac A-H01 as amplifier.

wish i saw this post earlier. i just got a latest AP express square to pair with my cambridge dacmagic 100 via toslink, and there is the stutter. it happens probably once every 30 seconds, but just as annoying. tried to change cables and wifi and even another dac but none worked.

I received an AP Express as a Christmas present to feed my Audiolab CD8200's internal DAC via an optical cable. I had previously fed directly from my MacBook Pro but wanted the convenience of wireless. My first experience was terrible as the signal dropped out every few seconds. Tried all the suggestions to no avail and then read in the Audiolab manual and saw that I could amend the digital in settings to make allowance for excessive jitter. I have had to set the device to the most forgiving setting and this is working fine, albeit the manual does say that the performance is likely to be reduced. Sounds good for now but I remain very disappointed that the AE didn't work out of the box and that the jitter performance is so poor.

The post above has solved the problem for me with an Audiolab CD8200. Disappointed that i had to come onto this forum to fix a problem which should never have existed.

just for those who want to find a new DAC, i tested it again with a wadia 121 and it sounds fine, hope it helps.