Airport Extreme to DAC

The USB port on the Airport Extreme is for printer or external hard drive support only, there's no audio output from it so you won't be able to do what you're describing.

The Airport Express has digital optical audio output but your DAC doesn't have optical input so that's not a solution, either.

need to get an apple tv.

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What Sfar said, but you could use a Mac Mini in the rack and if you wish run it without a monitor or keyboard once you get it set up. You can control it from another computer, iPad, iPhone, etc. You can store your music files on a drive to the extreme or the one upstairs and the Mini can access them wirelessly. Of course you could hook the drive directly to the mini but drives do make a bit of noise.

Google "headless mac mini" and you will get a ton of info.

I run mine with a monitor and keyboard that sit on the opposite side of the room from my rack. I use a 50' HDMI cable with booster for the monitor and a sting of 15 foot powered USB extenders for the keyboard.

Get Pure Music or Amarra too.

Apple TV has no output to feed the Ayre.

Good luck, have fun.
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Once you get the Ayre set up, you won't need or have remote access to any controls for the QB-9 specifically, as it autosenses and adapts to the output bitrate (as well as displays it). If you are planning to use 24/192, select your media software to allow use of the proprietary ASIO driver provided by Ayre and Wavelength Audio, as well documented on their websites.

Herman and SFar have it right on. This must be set up on your computer as a media server and requires a USB 2.0 port directly to the DAC. (..and length, quality of the USB cable matters). The media server can then be controlled remotely in a number of ways, including iPad.

For the last bit of resolution at high bitrates, Charles Hanson recommends wired (e.g.ethernet) connections for data links and minimizing use of wireless in the near environment to reduce emi/rfi. However, the latter is IMO a tradeoff vs. the huge convenience of iPad as a controller.

BTW, you're in for an incredible experience with this DAC.

Thanks to everyone for the info. One last question..... New Mac Mini with Lion ( iMac upstairs has Lion ) or older one off of eBay with snow leopard and slot for loading CD's , money not really an issue. I'm also thinking I can get away with the brand new 599.00 version
2.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5
2GB memory
500GB hard drive1
Intel HD Graphics 3000
OS X Lion - Mini will only be used in my rack as a music server.