"Mini" to Optical for Airport Express

Hals_den - This is the first time I've heard the "sound burst" complaint from an AE. Since it only happens between tracks, this is at least a clue. I need to know if it ever happens when playing long playlists or only when manually selecting a new track. Also, are you double-clicking on the track or using the mouse select and then the play button?

If it is the iTunes player injecting these, then the Pace-Car will probably not eliminate them. It is probably bad data bursts and the Pace-Car just sends through whatever data you input to it.

Steve N.

Thanks for the honest answer Steve. The noise does happen when playing from a large playlist. Lately, we've been using the party shuffle mode of iTunes and the problem happen in that mode as well. It seems to happen more with large music files as in AIFF encoded and longer songs.

How much for the turbomod with is2 if i provide the dac?

Streetdaddy - the DAC-1 Turbomod is $1200, the I2S interface is $500.

I would also recommend the op-amp upgrade for $300

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

I'm new to this, I'm not sure if this pertains to the original question...but here's a review of toslink vs co-axial digital cables.

review (six moons):

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/toslink/toslink_2.html

AE only has the analog 3.5 mini out (to RCA), and a mini-toslink digital out. You can't stream via USB. Van Den Hul Optocoupler (one of the cables reviewed) has a mini-toslink to square toslink cable for $100. I have no idea if using an mini-toslink adapter would affect the signal. I imagine it would.

Van Den Hul:

http://www.vandenhul.com/p_B42.aspx

Hope this helps.

I'm going mini-toslink from AE to the square toslink of my DAC, RCA cables from DAC to a NAD 325bee.....