Airport Express (2015) + Airplay = drop outs in music

In response to MonkeyBoy1103

Just got a peachtree nova from a coworker and hooked it up last night and have jitter isssues. Hooked up via optical toslink. I have two airport express units. A super old first gen and a fairly new one. I tried the old one and had the problem. Didnt try new one yet. Any solutions yet.

Would buying an older apple tv fix the issue? Or Any other device rexommedations.

I'm having a similar problem passing optical to my new KEF LS50 Wireless speakers which have a built-in DAC. Spent about 30 min on the phone with tech support yesterday and they are trying to blame my wifi signal. My Airport Express is about 8 feet from my AirPort Extreme . I even asked if the optical jack could be the problem and then they blamed my cable.

Surely Apple can and should fix this issue.

Audio output, for the AirPort Express, is only via it dual-purpose (analog/digital) audio port. It does NOT send audio via Wi-Fi. However, it does receive it via AirPlay over Wi-Fi or Ethernet.

I am assuming that you are using a TOSlink digital optical cable between the Express and your KEF speaker, AND that you are streaming audio via AirPlay to the Express...correct?

Not sure what you are asking Apple to fix here. The original post is about two years old now. If you are looking for some sort of solution, I would suggest that you start a new post. Include what the issue that you are having and what you have tried already to resolve it. I would also highly recommend that you provide details on your current network configuration, including the make & models of all of your networking hardware.

I guess I'm confused, I know it's an old thread but I thought there were posts sprinkled over time and a post as recently as a week ago...

As far as the setup. I'm using the newest AirPort Extreme in bridge mode from my ISP router and the newest AirPort Express. Both have latest firmware. Express connected to my speakers via TOSlink optical. And yes, the issue is Airplay specifically on the Express. If I swap out the Express for an Apple TV 3, it works great.

I think my issue is a flaw in the optical out on the Express. As others have insinuated on this thread, I believe there is a flaw in the optical out.

You are correct. The drop outs are from jitter on the optical outs and Apple has not fixed it. Given the strong rumors that Apple is out of the Airport business, it seems unlikely that it will ever be fixed. Return the AE if you can and get a gen3 AppleTV which works fine. Or live with analog inputs to your speakers.

FWIW. 3rd-party AirPlay receivers exist today and have been for a few years now. What hasn't happened yet is anyone that has provided a combination portable wireless router and AirPlay device in competition with the AirPort Express.

I think that AirPlay is hopelessly broken and Apple doesn't really care about it. Sure they advertise as a great feature but dropouts are very very common. A dozen years ago I could stream music from a G4 iMac to the original AirPort Express over a wireless 'B' network all day long, even though the router and APE were separated by about 50 feet. Now I can't stream even six feet using a MacBook Pro and wireless 'N' network. Forget about trying to stream any mp3 file, the most I get from them is about 45 seconds before it starts to drop and within two minutes the stream is gone. I can stream AAC files with minimal drops, meaning a couple seconds every 5-7 minutes. Also I now have to quit everything else that would use the network, meaning Safari, Mail and Messages can't be running at the same time. If I even look at email on my phone, the playback drops.

AirPlay has evolved somewhat since the AirTunes day specifically with support for video, but the IP protocol suite used has not.

Drop outs with the Express has never changed due to a lack of a clock circuitry in the base station. If there is an interruption in the digital input there is nothing to feed the built-in DAC and that appears as a skip or drop-out.

Did anyone solve this?

My appletv plays music perfectly even when im doenloading stuff. But okaying music on the airport express (gen2 - latest) drops out as soon as their is a minor load on the network.

Im using analog jack with the AE.

For what it's worth: I have tested most of the Dacs mentioned in this thread and a lot of other brands. The two only Dacs that I have used that didn't gave any jitter problems in connection with AE optical Toslink output were the Beresford 1530 Bushmaster (Max 96KHz) and the Rotel RDD-1580 (Max 192KHz). Both excellent High End dacs of which the first one is the cheapest and will stay in my system (Quad and Harbeth). The AudioLab M-Dac is a good third alternative because of it's Jitter rejection options, but it DOES give audible performance reduction. If you are not on the High Res upsampling carrousel this will settle the matter for you and you can go back to listening to music. :-)

Same here. Reverting to the old firmware worked. Switched from analog to optical on a new mini receiver/dac. Was getting dropouts. Went crazy trying to figure it out. Finally came across this thread, downgraded to 7.6.1 and optical works great. Thanks!

Same issue and solution here. I have a 1st Gen 802.11n AE going to an ARCAM irDAC by TOSLINK. The jitters had become progressively worse over the last few firmware upgrades but were unbearable with 7.6.8. Downgraded to 7.6.1 and the issue is resolved. Pretty lame, Apple.

Today is May 20th 2017.

I just got a new 2nd gen Airport Express with firmware 7.6.7 came with it. Now upgraded to 7.6.8.

I'm connecting to my Peachtree DAC.iT with Toslink. The jitter and skips are just insane. After spending hours of research on the internet, I also came to the conclusion that the Airport Express is getting worse and worse with every firmware update. it seems like Apple has no idea this issue even exist? Is there anyway to directly report this issue to Apple and file an official request?

I really hope this could get resolved in the next few months.

P.S. the analog works fine, but the DAC sounds nothing like the richness from the Peachtree DAC.iT

This has been an issue for literally years. It is beyond unlikely that it will get fixed especially with the strong rumors that Apple is getting out of the WiFi game altogether. I suspect that the hardware is underpowered and that more recent requirements in the firmware were prioritized over the digit optical output. In other words a hardware issue that Apple is well aware of but uninterested in correcting.

I replaced my Airport Express with a 3rd generation AppleTV but those are no longer available. The current generation ATV does not have optical outs.