I can't connect my Pioneer XW-SMA3 wireless wifi speaker to me Airport Extreme 802.11n (5th Generation), need help?

You would need to connect this speaker to the AirPort's wireless network by using the following Quickstart Guide path: Connecting this unit using wireless LAN > Connecting to a router without WPS-PBC function > then either path C or D as appropriate.

By default, the AirPort Extreme will broadcast an unsecured wireless network with a Network Name (aka SSID) of something like: Apple Network NNNNNN

Nothing seems to work setting up this speaker. All the methods “work” but no sound ever comes out.
I loaded the latest firmware. No change in problem from what came in box to new firmware.

I spent hours doing each of the network set up path options. (One of the worst user manuals I have ever used.) Factory reset (to be sure) when one line of troubleshooting was exhausted.

I made sure my SSID (name of your wireless network) was just a name with letters. Like Elizabeth or McIntosh.

I made sure the correct WPA2-PSK(AES) option and letters/numbers only password were set on the Airport Extreme. AES means it is the more secure of the options. WPA2 is the latest and most common. I forget what PSK means but, it is the rigtht one. Apple, of course, calls these something else in the Airport Utility but offers no translation to the more common terms. How about a help roll over or pop up at least?
BTW: the Airtport Utility has really been dumbed down in Mavericks. There is no power control. I live in a small house and always set it to a lower output to cut back on power use. This feature is gone!
I tried the direct set up from iPod using USB. Actually, that one seems to be the worst of the options and seemed to cause a network drop eventually. Set up from the Web Control page in Safari, seemed the best as the speaker indicated there was a connection but…
The blue lights all light up on the front indicating a connection but, no sound. There is sound because I can go from that, to iPod speaker or iTunes on iMac speakers and back. Sound is there, 4 blue lights are all on, no sound.
When first choosing it on Airplay on iPod, the player shows it is playing, the speaker shows it has a complete connection (all blue lights), but after a moment, the Airplay drops and goes back to speaker.

Doing same from iTunes also drops it after a bit.
But all the while, all 4 lights are blue, indicating a good network connection (if you believe it, which I do not).

Note that I have had an iMac with Snow Leopard and now Mavericks working with an Apple TV 2 (easy set up!), a Roku XR, an ealier Roku for years now plus: an iPod Touch and iPad Retina this year. No problems. Even going to Mavericks, easy. Even switching from one ISP to another! All routed though the first gen white and flat Airport Extreme (the one with the slow ethernet). All firmwares and updates the latest as I write this.

The only thing I have not tried is going with no Passphrase on the network. But, that is a non starter. I would not open up my wi-fi net work to anyone. If that is the solution, then it is going back to the store.

Which is a shame. I got it at a great price on sale. I think I know why it was on so deep a discount!

Here id an easy fix

Actually, this “easy fix” is clearly in the instruction as an option and, it does not work either.

Basically, follwiing the wi-fi set up (although, the other methods work too) I set up a second replacement speaker on my network with no problems. Same as the FIRST speaker. But once in an application, like iTunes, when one goes to select the speaker on the Airplay menu, nothing hapens, then, it times out.

This means all the blue lights are on (the speaker is on the network) and the Mac or iOS devices are seeing it but, when you go to choose it as the output source in Airtplay - nothing. No sound.

The sound, of course, IS playing fine via the speaker and via OTHER Airplay devices on my network (also, simply, choosable). It also sounds GREAT via a direct mini jac line to it. Making this wireless issue all the more frustrating.

Pioneer help claims it can be on a password protected network but, I fear, this may actually not be the case. That is a deal breaker if, indeed, it cannot be on a password protected network.

But I suspect that is not the issue.
I have a call in to Pioneer corporate HQ to an exec. Let's see how he responds and, if this is fixable. Otherwise, right now, these Pioneer products are not working on Mavericks and iOS 7.x with an Airport Extreme router (flat style, first version) - not that any of that shold make a diffence, as the Pioneer help person told me!

I was having the same problem when I was connecting the A3 speaker to my "Guest" network. To fix, I logged-in my iPhone as a private user with full access, and then ran the set-up process described above, by MIDIJAMM.

Finally, check your volume levels, both in iTunes and on the A3. I've found the volume settings are a bit wonky with the A3, and they tend to re-adjust themselves when I reconnect to the A3. While unlikely, it could be everything is fine but your volume is all the way down.

Did Joseph get an explanation from the Pioneer exec? Or customer service? I can verify the same level of frustration, and lack of success in connecting my A3 to my all-Apple home network. I have a brand new Time Capsule (802.11ac), connected to my Comcast cable modem. My network is full of Apple products: Apple TV, Airport Express. Airplay streaming to these Apple devices is seamless (though for stutter-free Airplay, Apple TV MUST be connected via Ethernet).

I have followed the advice given in this thread, and can report the same issues described by Joseph. I've run the wireless set up "path" via my MBP/Safari. Everything seems fine (log onto the Pioneer set up network, change the "friendly name"). I've run this set up path a dozen times, manual and auto, with the same result: the A3 shows up as an available Airplay device, but when selected in iTunes, an error message pops up, claiming the device "cannot be found on the network".

I get the exact same result when following the so-called "direct connect via an iOS device" path (in my case, a less than a year old iPad Retina, running iOS7.0.6). Follow the instructions, the little "Allow" dialog appears, click "Allow", the unit blinks, network light settles into a solid blue... and same result: the A3 shows up as an available device on my iPad, but when selected, the connection times our after a few seconds, and the music player pauses.

I guess it's time to start barking up the Pioneer customer service tree. I religiously update all of my devices, so the first few steps of EVERY customer service script don't apply here. I can also add the same lack of success with the iHome iW1 - that unit failed similarly, in that it appeared as an available Airplay device, but when selected, connection timed out, never having made a single sound.

I have verified the A3 is capable of sound output, as I can play music through the unit via the iPad "dock connection". Using the input selector on the A3, you apparently can select a direct connection to, in this case, your iPad. Sound quality is about what I'd expect: nothing to write home about, but good enough. However, if I wanted a hard-wired system, I would just get another stereo!

If I may digress, the dream sold by Apple of Airplay has been one of the more consistently frustrating things to bring online. They wax poetic on the Apple pages about effortlessly streaming music throughout your home to a variety of devices (Apple TV, Airport Express, Airplay Speakers). Well, I bought in, invested heavily, and only through painful trial and error, and hours of pouring through forums and support posts have I achieved some measure of Airplay stability (audio).

Alright. I hope someone can come up with a solution. In the meantime, the A3 will soon be on it's way back to Amazon...

Gil M gave the biggest clue. The volumn is wonky. Sometimes, very low.

Also, when you go to do it, you have to be super patient while it connects.

Once the check mark confirms it is connected, check the iOS volume! Half the time, very low.

Here is what happened with me: I walked away from it all for a week after much frustration. Then one day, I turned on one unit (I have two) that I had not done a thing with. Not update, no attempt at nothing. I did the iOS link. It linked right up! So this is that seperate network option direct to the speaker.

Then I went to the other (in my office) and, even though it had a firmware update and was supposed to now be on my network, it too, showed up just fine on the list of Airplay devices. It was/is/has been on the network, apprently? Even though, while attempting set up over and over, it never would work.

Other than volume, the mystery is why just leaving it alone seems to solve the connection. All the variations and trouble shooting in the world could not get it to work. Then, it just works.

This is not an Airplay problem. It is a slow Pioneer device problem.

Regardless, like others have posted, the speaker can be finicky with sudden Wi-Fi connection loss. One day, you might have to reconnect it one or two times. Other days, it goes into the night undisturbed! I left it on once all day and it never cut out. I suspect bodies do interfere with the Wi-Fi on it. Put it above heads if you can and a clean line of site from the router, device, or computer.

Above experience was with Airbase Extreme (first white flat model with the 10Gb ethernet router) through a few walls to the basement (small cottage) using an iPad Retina and an iPod Touch. All latest OS at time. Firmware in and softeware for router also latest.

the posting by midijamm with advice from a bloke named jason, did the trick for me. The missing info in the instructions was to hold down the input select on the front and the network setup AT THE SAME TIME. Also, I found that after trying unsuccessfully a few times I had to turn the machine off and start fresh from the beginning. I am hoping that now that I got the speakers onto my air extreme network, I can go back and use the quick start sequence so that the speaker will power up automatically whenever I access Airplay on my devices. We will see.

Thanks, I followed this out of the box and it worked perfectly - I was up and running in 3 minutes.

The only limitation am finding is that I can't play music out of both my TV's speakers and the A3 speaker, so now I need another speaker.

Use Airfoil to play to multple speakers from a Mac.

But to be honest, the best way to do that is use only a Sonos system. I would, if I had the money.

Thanks, Joeseph, but I mean play my AppleTV through the tv and A3 speakers simultaneously.

midijamm this worked!

I managed to make mine connect via the 2.5GHz band on my TimeCapsule AC (thanks midijam) but it won't connect on 5GHz band. Well, ok. It worked for a while. I could play music from iTunes using the Remote app on my iPad Air. I was even able to do multiple with my Apple TV 3 but then I deselected the A3 and now I can't reconnect via the Remote app. I can reconnect with the native Music app but no sound from the A3.

I just unboxed this thing. The remote that came with it doesn't seem to work either. It may be going back to the vendor.

Gonna take a rest and try again. So frustrating.

For the record (and for anyone still struggling with this), I never got it to work with DHCP. I also have a Pioneer A4 which works flawlessly with WPS setup, but for some reason the A3 never wanted to cooperate. They're both running the same version of the software, etc.

So here's what I ended up doing, maybe it'll work for you:

1. Plugged in the A3 to my network using an ethernet cable for setup purposes
2. Used Airport Utility to see what its IP ended up being (if you hover over the list of unit that show up when you click on the Airport Express/Extreme, it'll list the IP)
3. In my case, the IP for my Airport Extreme was 10.0.1.1, the IP for my A3 was 10.0.1.32. (Other common automatic DHCP addresses are in the form 192.168.1.x)
4. Since the device already has an IP of 10.0.1.32, I'll use that as the IP for a manual setup
5. Pointed my web browser to http://10.0.1.32 and got the Pioneer Web Control web page
6. Went to the Network Configuration page
7. Selected manual SSID input, with the following values:
   • SSID: (the name of your wireless network)
   • Security: (whatever your network is using, for me it was WPA2-PSK (AES), note that the UI is terrible at showing the current setting here, even after setting it to WPA2 and loading the page later, it falls back to WPA (not WPA2), so double check that the value is right)
   • WPA Passphrase: (your wifi password)
   • DHCP: OFF (This is the thing that made it work! So next, we'll have to give it the manual values:)
   • IP Address: 10.0.1.32 (this was my IP for the A3, replace with the address you looked up in step 2/3)
   • Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0 (99% of the time, this is what you want, unless you know what you're doing to stay within your home network)
   • Default gateway: 10.0.1.1 (the IP for the Airport router, replace with the value you looked up in step 2/3)
   • Primary/secondary DNS: 10.0.1.1 (I pointed both of these to my Airport Extreme too, which will probably work for you)
8. Click “Apply”
9. The A3 will power down. Disconnect the ethernet cable, and power it on again
10. The A3 should now connect to your wireless network and be happy. If there's no sound when you use it in iTunes, ensure that the volume on the unit itself (different from the iTunes volume control) is turned up.

Pioneer owes me a few hours of my time, hopefully this will help someone else. I'm still incapable of getting the A3 to use WPS to connect, whereas the A4 works perfectly. So frustrating.

This helped me a bunch, thank you dracvl for the info.

I tried turning off DHCP, and manually entering the settings, but it still wouldn't connect. I left those settings intact though and started playing with my routers settings. I went into the Wireless > Radio Settings section of my Cisco router. I changed the settings to be more broad:

Before, I was only listening on N at 20mhz. I also turned on the WPS setting on my router, but I don't know if that made a difference because I didn't attempt to connect via WPS.

My guess is that this thing uses Wireless G network mode at 2.4 ghz and that's why mine wasn't working.