How To Route Streaming Music From iPad 2 to DAC?

"Apple Airport Express will give you by far the most convenient way to do it (wirelessly with AirTunes) -- this will allow you to still use th iPad for other stuff at the same time. Sound quality with an external DAC can be very good . . . way more than sufficient for any streaming audio service."

This sounds perfect for my needs. I have to confess that I had to research the Airport Express to see how it would work. Apparently I would use the USB port on the Airport Expresss to connect to the USB input on my DAC? My one concern is that the USB port on my Bryston BDA-1 DAC is limited to sample rates of 48kHz or lower.

JC

My understanding is the airport express only streams music through the optical port. I don't believe the USB port will allow streaming.

05-09-11: Jcote
"My understanding is the airport express only streams music through the optical port. I don't believe the USB port will allow streaming."

Thanks for the clarification. When I looked at the enlarged photo of thhe airport express it showed only an ethernet connection, the USB and an audio mini-jack. Apparently, the minijack is both analog and optical.

JC

JC, the mini-plug is indeed a combination analog and optical. You will need a TOSLINK cable with a mini-optical plug (or mini-optical adapter for a standard optical plub) on one end. You can link the iPad 2's iPod application directly to the airport express, and from there the TOSLINK cable will take the signal to your DAC.

The sound quality is quite good, incidentally, especially if your music files are in AAC or Apple Lossless formats.