Airport Express (square) skips unbearably with Airplay

There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the airport express/ATV issues. I have an 'old' airport express which at one time did work with my high end Linn Numerik DAC, then started skipping. I replaced it with an Apple TV - no problems now for some time (fingers crossed). The old Airport Express is currently working fine with a Marantz home theatre amp, via optical.

Thank you for all the responses.

So would it be correct to say that it's safer to buy an Apple TV rather than an Airport Express for streaming music if I plan to use it with a DAC (probably the Cambridge Audio DAC Magic)?

I'd say it's your only bet if you want to use something via AirPlay for the present moment.

I have two ATV (2nd and 3rd gen), three plugable airport express (1 1st and 2 2nd gen) and a new "squared" 3rd gen AE. I have tried all of them connected optically to my Musical Fidelity X-DAC V3, streaming music through an apple wireless n network in the 5ghz band. My conclusions are:

- ATV works perfectly, no skips

- 1st gen AE also work perfectly, but you need a strong signal or you can get now and them some drop outs

- 2nd and 3rd gen (square) skips unbereabely no matter what material you play, how robust the signal is, or what firmware you use.

In all cases you have to make sure you get a robust signal and data transmission on the receiving end, or you might experience drop-outs.

Although ATV transforms all music to 16/48, I would say -subjectively of course- that the sound produced is better than that of any of the AE.

I hope this helps

Bryan, I'm wondering if any issues have resolved for you with the 7.6.4 firmware update? Or did you ditch the AirPort Express altogether for an AppleTV?

I've been having similar issues with unberable skipping, though with an analog connection (RCA to 3.5mm to AirPort Express).

I updated to 7.6.4 hoping it would fix the problem, but it caused mutiny in my home network...I've spent the better part of the last few nights just trying to get AirPort Utility to "see" my AirPort Express and get it connected to the network again.

I've gone through all the steps in your original post, as well to try to troubleshoot and it always keeps skipping. The most irritating new issue is that music initially streams fine from my iPhone but skips every time I actually use my iPhone to do anything on the internet while also using AirPlay. Arrgghhh!!!

megadunch wrote:

I've gone through all the steps in your original post, as well to try to troubleshoot and it always keeps skipping. The most irritating new issue is that music initially streams fine from my iPhone but skips every time I actually use my iPhone to do anything on the internet while also using AirPlay. Arrgghhh!!!

I think this last point is a problem in the iPhone. In every single system I have set up, the iPhone is far less consistent during playback.

I'm not using a DAC. I have updaed to 7.6.4, and I can't say I have any significant problems. I feed the optical signal directly to my soundbar systems, and everything is ok.

It will be good to know what speaker systems and AE models you guys have. Could you guys be suffering from devices that are interfering on the 2.4 GHz band? Two of my speaker sets interfere with with the 2.4 GHz network. I use the latest AE to create two networks. I put all my devices (except my iPhone 4) on the 5 GHz network, and everything works.

That fact that you get skipping even with an analog connection implies that you have some interference.

Interesting, thanks.

I did try to configure my AE to connect to my home 5 GHz network to try to decrease interference, but I couldn't even get it set up -- the AE kept giving me the flashing amber light of death; neither AirPort Utility 5.6 or 6 could "see" the AE in the network to fix it; and every time I'd do a hard reset, restore to default settings, and try to reconfigure the AE, it would give me an error and tell me to "try again" (tried this using AirPort Utility 5.6, 6 and the Settings>WiFi setup tool on my iPhone). Maddening. I'm not even sure how I got it connected again to the 2.4 GHz network -- I just kept trying and eventually it worked. It often gives the flashing amber light though and requires at least a soft reset if not a hard one.

I don't use my AE as a router, I have it join my existing home network. Wonder if this could be part of the problem?

My AE is only a few months old, so it should be the most current generation; it's running the 7.6.4 firmware. I'm using a ~2009 MacBook, but it's running OX X 10.8.5, and my iPhone 5 is running iOS 7. My AE is connected via RCA-to-3.5mm to my receiver, an old Sony. I suppose that could be the cuplrit...

For me, some combination of going to 7.6.4 on the AE (not the latest model) and separating out my 5 GHz network by naming it differently, and never connecting to it, solved the problem for me. No skips at all from my MacBook Pro to the AE. I use a Time Capsule for Wifi.

The iPhone, on the other hand, has awful skipping with AirPlay.

I also do not use the AE to extend the network, just to join the existing one. Mountain Lion 10.8.5, 2010 MacBook Pro.

I also do not use the AE to extend the network, just to join the existing one.

Nope. Furthermore, I worked pretty extensively with Apple Engineering on the issue. They did a full on WiFi and Airport data capture to ensure it wasn't network bandwidth or interference that was causing the issue. I plan on following back up with them soon to see if there are any developments. On another note, I will say that the Apple TV is a good replacement for AirPlay streaming. The only bummer is that if I want to watch a YouTube video on my iOS device and want to stream the audio to my Zeppelin in the room. Apple TV wants to take over the whole stream (audio and video) and there's no way to separate it out. Small price to pay for having an optical connection available again.

Try the trick I point out in the middle of the page here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4788357?answerId=21842014022#21842014022

Limit the 5 GHz broadcast frequency to a single channel. That solved everything for me.

Try the trick I point out in the middle of the page here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4788357?answerId=21842014022#21842014022

Limit the 5 GHz broadcast frequency to a single channel. That solved everything for me, as I pointed out to Nategold.

No luck Payam...

I've tried every 5 GHz there is (36/40/44/46), but the skips were as unbearable as always.

Is there perhaps something wrong that I did?

I hope Apple fixes this soon, until then, I'm switching back to the old analogue cable.

Ok. This does seem to be a very bizarre case, indeed. Now, I have no reason to believe this will work, but you may want to try channels 157 or 161 on the 5 GHz band because those will be the furthest from the 2.4 Ghz bands.

At least, that's what Boston Acoustics told me when I complained about their TVEE25 soundbar systems.

Best of luck. I know how incredibly frustrated I was when the 7.6.3 update through things for a loop back in February. Apple replaced my current generation AE TWICE, until I figured out what the problem was myself. It does seem to be a hardware issue that they cannot fully fix with firmware alone. Using the high 5 GHz bands has so far worked for me.

Thank you for your reply, Payam!

There seems to be no channels 157 or 161 on my AE (s.att.).

It's in German but not that different. 😉