MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2013), OS X El Capitan (10.11.5)
Try temporarily connecting a pair of stereo headphones to the audio port on the AirPort Express. Do you still get poor audio quality in this manner?
If so, what is your audio source for AirPlay streaming? Is the connection to the speaker analog or optical digital?
What exactly is "poor" about the audio quality? Here, I am assuming that you are using the analog audio option on the Express.
If you are, temporarily unplug the audio cable that is now plugged into the audio port on the AirPort Express and then plug in a pair of stereo headphones and test the connection that way. How is the audio quality when you perform this "test"?
I believe I said the speakers are not the problem as playing music through them without the airport outputs a great sound, but some quality is lost when I use the airport.
Audio source is I tunes on my macbook air or my iPhone.
How do I know if the connection is analog or digital? How do I determine this?
I believe I said the speakers are not the issue and I have great quality when the 3.5mm is directly plugged into my macbook or iPhone. However quality reduces when streaming through the airport.
Poor quality meaning the sound, just sounds like a cheap set of speakers. Tones are muddled and theres some crackling on loud or high parts of the song.
How can I determine if it is analog or digital?
I believe I said the speakers are not the issue
We never said that they might be.
Poor quality meaning the sound, just sounds like a cheap set of speakers. Tones are muddled and theres some crackling on loud or high parts of the song.
Did you connect a pair of stereo headphones to the audio jack on the Express to check the audio quality that way, as we asked you to do?
If the audio quality is fine when you test with a pair of headphones, then this tells you that the AirPort Express audio is fine, correct? That would mean that you may likely have an audio cable or audio cable connection issue. This is quite common.
You may be thinking that the Express is at fault, when the real issue is the audio cable. You may not have thought about that possibility.
On the other hand, if you hear the same kind of distortion when you plug a pair of stereo headphones directly into the Express, then the Express is defective and will need to be replaced.
"Crackling" in particular is common when the audio cable is not making good electrical contact with the audio jack on the AirPort Express. Wiggle the audio plug around a bit and see if that creates "popping" or "crackling". If it does, the audio cable is at fault, not the Express.
In other words, the AirPort Express can be fine, and your speakers can be fine, but a poor audio cable or a poor connection in the audio cable can be causing the distortion problems that you hear.
How can I determine if it is analog or digital?
Are you using a normal audio cable.....or.....are you using a Toslink cable? If you don't know what a digital Toslink cable might be....then you are probably using a lower quality analog audio cable. Click on the link below to see a toslink digital audio cable. To use this type of cable, your speakers or the speaker amplifier would need to be able to accept a digital audio signal, of course.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JLTUQBE?gclid=CInO1_GrzM4CFQkLaQodfGoKCw
AirPort Express poor Audio Quality
