Airport Express compared to High End Transport.

Ghunter - many thanks for the information - this is exactly the kind of information I'm looking for. Its wonder to hear that a computer streaming music to an Airport Express can compete with a high end transport like the Chord Blu transport!!

I've heard the Chord DAC64 and agree that it is very special. It is interesting that the DAC sounded better without the 4 second buffer - when I heard it it seemed to sound richer and fuller bodied with the buffer - but the transport used was an Arcam CD player - I'm sure that the Chord Blu Transport takes it to a whole new level.

Once again, many thanks for the information and all the very best in your journey to audio nirvana.

All the best,
Neville

i have had similar positive experience using airport express into emm labs dcc-2 sounded almost as good as the
cd/sd transport so good that i sold the $6000 transport

Tfl303 - that's excellent information!! The EMM Labs DCC-2 is one of the DAC's I'm seriously considering getting.

Tfl303 and Ghunter - what kind of optical cable are you using for connection from the Airport Extreme to your DAC? I understand that the connection out from the Airport Extreme is a "mini-optical" which is different than an "standard optical" - I may be off base on this. Did you get a standard optical cable and then an adapter for mini-optical to standard optical?

Many thanks,
Neville

The AE uses mini-optical. My unit came with an optical cable and an adapter. I kept the adapter and use it on a VH Optocoupler. Keep in mind that the AE only has an optical jack so if your DAC does not have an optical input, you will need to get the AE modified or use a converter -- I use the Monarchy Upsampler which converts the signal to coax.

I am just getting started on comparing the AE signal to my RA Opus 21. So far the differences are evasive. As you might expect, there are huge differences between file formats with Lossless being head and shoulders above the others.

FYI Keyspan has a new remote control integrated with the AE and iTunes. A bargain at $40 on Amazon.

Mcmanus - many thanks for the information. Would love to get an update from you once you've had a chance to compare the AE to RA Opus 21 against the RA Opus 21 standalone a bit more. Thanks for the Keyspan tip _ I'll look into getting one.

Thanks and all the best,
Neville