"Mini" to Optical for Airport Express

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.....

OH just to clarify, the six moon review claims that the signal out of certain toslink cables (Wireworld superNova and Van Den Hun Optocoupler $100) are at least equal to much more expensive co-axial cables.

Since the AE only streams digital out of it's mini-optical (toslink), there is no USB audio out (only printers), this pretty much rules out all the USB and co-axial DACs.

The Pacecar you put between your DAC and your pre-amp/integrated amp is like $1000+ dollars. That's a lot of cash. And I really don't know about spending thousands+ dollars on an external DAC.

I'd rather use that money for a quality turntable if I really wanted a superior listening experience, because no matter what, dollar for dollar, analog is going to sound better than digital.

I use a Macbook, and sitting on my couch being able to stream audio wirelessly while I'm surfing the net is pretty wicked. There's no way I'm running a USB cord to my stereo.

Also for all you non-itunes users, there is the Airfoil program (google it) that allows you to stream programs other than iTunes through AE.

Hope this helps.