Airport Express compared to High End Transport.

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

Does anyone know if it's possible to use another playback program like Foobar with AE, in place of iTunes?
It seems Foobar has upsampling options and sounds better than iTunes when a USB - SP/DIF convertor is used instead of AE.
Any ideas?

Rooze

Rooze, At this point you can only use iTunes. AE only "listens" to Apple Lossless format. iTunes translates non-AL files into AL format on the fly to stream to AE.

Actually, I'm now using a USB interface to link them together as the AE inserted a delay in when starting playback. Very annoying.

Also, sorry for any misunderstandings in my original post - the 4-second buffer is neccesary to bring the DAC64 up to the level of the Blu. Without the buffer, it sounds thin.

It's also worth noting that the Blu has a dual output that I did not try. I've heard from my dealer that this once again takes the Blu to a different level as it seems to split the signal or something and the DAC64 has circuitry to reassemble it. I'm still ecstatic with my system.

I just bought an Audio Research DAC-5 and might just give the AE another chance in that context.

Graham

Graham,

Thanks for the update. I loved the sound of the Chord DAC64, especially when engaging the 4-second buffer. Let us know how the Audio Research DAC-5 works out for you with the Airport Express.

All the best,
Neville