Airport Express to DAC - Cable Suggestion

Herman is right, the USB port on an Airport Express doesn't support audio but with a DAC that handles jitter well the optical output is great. I've been using a glass-fiber cable bought here from member Captnstarstripe that is reasonably priced and sounds very good.

I use Van Den Hul's Opticoupler toslink cable ($120) which can be purchased with a mini-plug which negates the need for a adaptor plug when connecting to the AE. After calling around to several Van Den Hul dealers, I found mine in stock at Eugene Hi-Fi (info@eugenehifi.com) in Eugene Oregon. I have no affiliation with Eugene Hi Fi... just a satisfied customer... very friendly, knowledgeable and helpful over the phone.

install a jitter remover device between the AE and your dac. i do this in all of my setups and the sound is vastly improved. you can use a toslink cable from the AE to the jitter device, then use aes or coax to the dac depending on what is supported. i was never happy with the sound going straight into an external dac (didn't matter which dac i used), but inserting the jitter device made the dacs perform their best. garbage in, garbage out! the jitter device cleans up the signal before reaching the dac.

I run from an AE to a Bel Canto DAC2. I use a simple glass cable I bought from monoprice.com. For my application, this works fine. The Bel Canto is great at jitter reduction. Your DAC3 is generations ahead of my DAC2 in jitter reduction, so I assume it will be even better than my setup.

Rbstehno, what "jitter device" would you recommend?