AirPort Express - the freeway to CD quality AM streaming

sachinchavan 15865

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Hi guys,

As must be obvious from my posts that I am hugely into streaming music. The Cambridge CXN 2, purchased over four years ago (and extensively reviewed by me in a thread) was a big step in this journey. It opened up many possibilities, the best of which were native play and internet radio.

Over the years our appetite for resolution has been rising and though Spotify and YT satisfy most of my listening needs, the urge to stream lossless remained. A couple of years ago I’d tried Tidal and Qobuz lossless, and knew it’s the way ahead. Alas Tidal, Qobuz and Amazon don’t seem to be interested in launching lossless in the big market that is India.

But meanwhile Apple took the initiative and launched lossless at Rs 99 pm. Now, I am quite invested in the Apple ecosystem even otherwise and this was a godsend. However, as we all know, Apple’s Airplay didn’t allow streaming lossless from handheld devices to your streamer/DAC. You needed a wire connection. An alternative was to play Apple Music from your MacBook and airplay to your streamer from the universal setting (and not the app). But I don’t want to either tether my phone/tablet to the DAC, nor do I want to go to a computer to play music on my stereo system. So, while lossless music was available for almost two years, I couldn’t benefit from it.

Cut to a fortnight ago, when a discussion on one of the threads reminded me something that I already knew - that there is one way still to stream lossless wirelessly from handheld Apple device to the stereo system. And it’s accidental, in the form of a product that is obsolete for almost a decade now!

The AirPort Express (AE) 1st gen, which was phased out in 2014 still uses AirPlay 1 over which you can stream lossless to it from any Apple device. I’d read it earlier, but never given it a serious thought. It helped checking with Manavendra (@mbhangui) who uses AE to confirm. So, I looked for a pre-owned AE 1st gen. and bought this from OLX:

IMG_5141.jpeg


It took me a while to get it set up (not straightforward, you need to do it through AirPort Utility from MacBook) and to work. I bought a mini toslink to toslink adapter for my existing optical cable to connect the AE to the CXN. Once all was set, I could start streaming lossless Apple Music from my phone/iPad wirelessly to my stereo system. And am happy with the result!

Yes, there’s of course an additional device (the AE) which could deteriorate the signal as compared to streaming (lossless) directly to CXN (which isn’t an option). However, as compared to even Spotify Connect (played natively on the CXN, without even the phone in the sound chain), AM lossless sounded far more satisfying and engaging. Not surprisingly, as I am listening to the full song without any compression. Over the last three days it’s been so enjoyable that I might not renew my Spotify subscription again.

Any of you using AE for AM, do add your experience.

(Note: I have not checked if the music played the way above is bit perfect. The CXN doesn’t show anything beyond ‘44.1 kHz PCM’. But guys have tested this out (checking for bit perfection upto 16 bit / 44.1 kHz with original files) and links to those articles have been posted in other threads. Of course higher res files will get compressed to CD quality as the AE can’t handle more than that. Manavendra is also our resident authority on this who could be explain the technicals in a way I can’t. I can hear the difference though, especially in the richness and bass. AE 1st gen, if you can get it, isn’t costly. So if you are an enthusiast, you can experiment with it, test and share the results).
 
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A bit of my impressions on Apple Music:

Apart from the fact that it is the only lossless service officially available in India, and that comes at an extremely affordable cost of Rs 99 pm, I find these other advantages:

1. A user interface that I’ve always liked. It’s uncluttered and aesthetic, like most things Apple. In comparison I’ve always found Spotify’s green theme garish and the pages cluttered with too many suggestions, including the pesky podcasts that I am not at all interested in.

2. One of the best implementations of lyrics, along with Spotify. The font size, the sync… it’s all perfect. I can only ask for Hindi lyrics to be in Devanagari and not Roman.

3. Excellent ‘Radio’ page. It’s the real deal. There are some curated stations and programs and many theme based radios. I’ve always felt the charm of radio’s unpredictably in exploring genres new to me and to get to depth of genres close to me.

4. Possibility to organise the playlists into folders (you need to create folders on the computer though) which is not possible in most apps, except Spotify.

However not all is hunky dory. My primary grouses against Apple Music:

1. Quite a skimpy ‘Listen Now’ page. It’s the second page ‘Browse’ which is much more useful for exploring.

2. No handoffs (across your devices) of the music you are playing. You have to start all over again if you switch to another device. The playlists and favourites are cloud based, so no problem there. Spotify has the best handoffs implementation.

Things that I am neutral about:

1. Fear of getting entangled in the Apple ecosystem. I am already in it, and find the pros more valuable than the cons.

2. Dolby Atmos / Spatial: Not to my interest and my stereo system isn’t build for it. So I keep the option switched off in the settings.
 
Link to the article mentioned in the first post:

On iOS
Apple's Music App, lossless streaming content, AirPlay 1 to AirPort Express 1st Gen - bit perfect at 44.1”


 
@sachinchavan 15865 Yes, airplay supports lossless but is restricted to 16 bit 44.1 khz.
So when you do AAC, there is no further compression, but when you do ALAC (hires) there will be compression. But again I don't think apple devices support ALAC natively unlike the Android version of Apple Music.
 
@sachinchavan 15865 Yes, airplay supports lossless but is restricted to 16 bit 44.1 khz.
So when you do AAC, there is no further compression, but when you do ALAC (hires) there will be compression. But again I don't think apple devices support ALAC natively unlike the Android version of Apple Music.
@Kannan, I am aware of and have pointed out the 16 bit 44.1 kHz limitation of AirPort Express. Also ALAC and AAC are just codecs, one has to look at the source material’s bit rate. CD Quality files would not need to be compressed to be sent to AirPort Express, only higher resolutions would need to be compressed. But given that most of the music I like listening is older and available in CD quality (lossless, but not hi-Res), AirPort Express would serve well.
 
Link to the article mentioned in the first post:

On iOS
Apple's Music App, lossless streaming content, AirPlay 1 to AirPort Express 1st Gen - bit perfect at 44.1”


The post you posted above, the guy has done extensive tests. The generation 1 airport express is a marvellous device and quite underrated. The other thing it does is wireless to wired briding, wire to wireless bridging, wireless range extender and like the Tata advt "We also make steel", the AE can say "We also play music".

The generation 2 AE cannot play lossless effortlessly. The generation 2 AE were shaped like the Apple TV cannot play lossless unless the audio was set system wide.
see this image
1683975625739.png
 
Today in a wa discussion with Sachin, I suddenly remembered my ipod touch (ios 9) that had suddenly lost the ability to utilize my apple music subscription. I powered it on and voila - It can play using my existing apple music subscription without again asking me for more money. In the last two years, apple must have modifed the apple music service to allow old devices too to consume apple music server. The airplay is really a wonderful protocol and can be made better if it can be open sourced. There are more software developers out there than those on apple's payroll. Here is my ipod touch (IOS 9) using airplay to play music to another devce - a 2011 macbook pro runnng Fedora core 38, which itself is running a reversed engineered airplay software known as shairport-sync. The shairport-sync is exactly the same software that all linux devices out there in the world uses for airplay support on linux.

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Hi guys,

As must be obvious from my posts that I am hugely into streaming music. The Cambridge CXN 2, purchased over four years ago (and extensively reviewed by me in a thread) was a big step in this journey. It opened up many possibilities, the best of which were native play and internet radio.

Over the years our appetite for resolution has been rising and though Spotify and YT satisfy most of my listening needs, the urge to stream lossless remained. A couple of years ago I’d tried Tidal and Qobuz lossless, and knew it’s the way ahead. Alas Tidal, Qobuz and Amazon don’t seem to be interested in launching lossless in the big market that is India.

But meanwhile Apple took the initiative and launched lossless at Rs 99 pm. Now, I am quite invested in the Apple ecosystem even otherwise and this was a godsend. However, as we all know, Apple’s Airplay didn’t allow streaming lossless from handheld devices to your streamer/DAC. You needed a wire connection. An alternative was to play Apple Music from your MacBook and airplay to your streamer from the universal setting (and not the app). But I don’t want to either tether my phone/tablet to the DAC, nor do I want to go to a computer to play music on my stereo system. So, while lossless music was available for almost two years, I couldn’t benefit from it.

Cut to a fortnight ago, when a discussion on one of the threads reminded me something that I already knew - that there is one way still to stream lossless wirelessly from handheld Apple device to the stereo system. And it’s accidental, in the form of a product that is obsolete for almost a decade now!

The AirPort Express (AE) 1st gen, which was phased out in 2014 still uses AirPlay 1 over which you can stream lossless to it from any Apple device. I’d read it earlier, but never given it a serious thought. It helped checking with Manavendra (@mbhangui) who uses AE to confirm. So, I looked for a pre-owned AE 1st gen. and bought this from OLX:

View attachment 76955


It took me a while to get it set up (not straightforward, you need to do it through AirPort Utility from MacBook) and to work. I bought a mini toslink to toslink adapter for my existing optical cable to connect the AE to the CXN. Once all was set, I could start streaming lossless Apple Music from my phone/iPad wirelessly to my stereo system. And am happy with the result!

Yes, there’s of course an additional device (the AE) which could deteriorate the signal as compared to streaming (lossless) directly to CXN (which isn’t an option). However, as compared to even Spotify Connect (played natively on the CXN, without even the phone in the sound chain), AM lossless sounded far more satisfying and engaging. Not surprisingly, as I am listening to the full song without any compression. Over the last three days it’s been so enjoyable that I might not renew my Spotify subscription again.

Any of you using AE for AM, do add your experience.

(Note: I have not checked if the music played the way above is bit perfect. The CXN doesn’t show anything beyond ‘44.1 kHz PCM’. But guys have tested this out (checking for bit perfection upto 16 bit / 44.1 kHz with original files) and links to those articles have been posted in other threads. Of course higher res files will get compressed to CD quality as the AE can’t handle more than that. Manavendra is also our resident authority on this who could be explain the technicals in a way I can’t. I can hear the difference though, especially in the richness and bass. AE 1st gen, if you can get it, isn’t costly. So if you are an enthusiast, you can experiment with it, test and share the results).
Congrats Sachin :)

I have used the AE for quite some time streaming lossless from a mac. the jitter content is very high hence I had to use a Monarchy audio jitterbug to make the sound good.

But in an apple ecosystem it a fantastic product and sad they stopped it.
 
Congrats Sachin :)

I have used the AE for quite some time streaming lossless from a mac. the jitter content is very high hence I had to use a Monarchy audio jitterbug to make the sound good.

But in an apple ecosystem it a fantastic product and sad they stopped it.
Thanks Arjun. Can you point me to a jitter buster solution I can buy in India at a reasonable price? Also, can you help me with audio clues to detect jitter in the music I hear? Head-nodding effect (or rather the lack of it) is one I can think of.

Also, I wonder what would be the jitter coming from say my router? Or the broadband network components upstream to it? Are all these jitters additive? What would be the amount of jitter introduced by one component (the AirPort Express here) in comparison with the jitter that got introduced from the streaming platform’s server to itself? And if I use a jitterbug after the AirPort Express, will it cure the signal of the jitter introduced by the AirPort Express only or of all the jitter caused upstream as well?
 
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Hi Sachin, its been a long time since i have looked up jitter .
SPDIf contains 2 signals a Clock which provides the timing for the signal and the signal (0/1). Jitter is when there are problems in the time domain and is usually due to the quality of cable ( where the threshold of a 1 is lower and may be counted as a 0 etc) OR usually do the the clock in the transmission itself.

In the AE both the clock and the usually available toslink cable ( apple toslink to regular toslink) were suspect.

JItter can be solved by PLL (Phase locked loop) devices which take the signal remove the clock and reclock it. more than 10 years back there were lots of issues since this was not that known as an issue. and hence we did have external PLL devices. these days i believe its already taken care of in most sources hence not sure if these devices are still available. I had sold off mine many years back as well.

Many DACs have PLLs inbuilt as well so do check if yours has.
 
Hi Sachin, its been a long time since i have looked up jitter .
SPDIf contains 2 signals a Clock which provides the timing for the signal and the signal (0/1). Jitter is when there are problems in the time domain and is usually due to the quality of cable ( where the threshold of a 1 is lower and may be counted as a 0 etc) OR usually do the the clock in the transmission itself.

In the AE both the clock and the usually available toslink cable ( apple toslink to regular toslink) were suspect.

JItter can be solved by PLL (Phase locked loop) devices which take the signal remove the clock and reclock it. more than 10 years back there were lots of issues since this was not that known as an issue. and hence we did have external PLL devices. these days i believe its already taken care of in most sources hence not sure if these devices are still available. I had sold off mine many years back as well.

Many DACs have PLLs inbuilt as well so do check if yours has.
Thanks @arj. I don’t know if the Cambridge CXN DAC has PLL built in. Do you know of any DIPs available today?

P.S. I found these on the net about the CXN DAC’s jitter reduction:

The $1099 CXN V2 is the second generation of Cambridge’s very well received streamer and DAC. It is based on the dual 24-bit Wolfson WM8740 DAC with a “bit-perfect signal path” and jitter suppression.”

“Anagram Technologies Adapted Time Filtering 2 (ATF2) 24-bit/384kHz audio up-sampling with jitter reduction for resolving fine detail”

“asynchronous USB technology for reduced timing jitter and better sound“
 
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I presume its built in then. So that takes care of the Poor clock in the AE. the jitter due to cable cannot really be fixed hence do make sure you get a good one.
If you want to, the best VFM optical cable is the Lifatec ..
 
Guys - I have this Airport Express :
https://support.apple.com/kb/sp651?locale=en_GB

AirPort Express 802.11n (2nd Generation) - Technical Specifications​

It has a 3.5 mm jack output too.
How do I use it to stream lossless audio to my amplifier please?
Thank you!
The test link posted earlier in this thread has this to say about AirPort Express 2nd generation:

”Apple's Music App, lossless streaming content, AirPlay 2 to AirPort Express 2nd Gen - NOT bit perfect 44.1
 
Hi guys,

As must be obvious from my posts that I am hugely into streaming music. The Cambridge CXN 2, purchased over four years ago (and extensively reviewed by me in a thread) was a big step in this journey. It opened up many possibilities, the best of which were native play and internet radio.

Over the years our appetite for resolution has been rising and though Spotify and YT satisfy most of my listening needs, the urge to stream lossless remained. A couple of years ago I’d tried Tidal and Qobuz lossless, and knew it’s the way ahead. Alas Tidal, Qobuz and Amazon don’t seem to be interested in launching lossless in the big market that is India.

But meanwhile Apple took the initiative and launched lossless at Rs 99 pm. Now, I am quite invested in the Apple ecosystem even otherwise and this was a godsend. However, as we all know, Apple’s Airplay didn’t allow streaming lossless from handheld devices to your streamer/DAC. You needed a wire connection. An alternative was to play Apple Music from your MacBook and airplay to your streamer from the universal setting (and not the app). But I don’t want to either tether my phone/tablet to the DAC, nor do I want to go to a computer to play music on my stereo system. So, while lossless music was available for almost two years, I couldn’t benefit from it.

Cut to a fortnight ago, when a discussion on one of the threads reminded me something that I already knew - that there is one way still to stream lossless wirelessly from handheld Apple device to the stereo system. And it’s accidental, in the form of a product that is obsolete for almost a decade now!

The AirPort Express (AE) 1st gen, which was phased out in 2014 still uses AirPlay 1 over which you can stream lossless to it from any Apple device. I’d read it earlier, but never given it a serious thought. It helped checking with Manavendra (@mbhangui) who uses AE to confirm. So, I looked for a pre-owned AE 1st gen. and bought this from OLX:

View attachment 76955


It took me a while to get it set up (not straightforward, you need to do it through AirPort Utility from MacBook) and to work. I bought a mini toslink to toslink adapter for my existing optical cable to connect the AE to the CXN. Once all was set, I could start streaming lossless Apple Music from my phone/iPad wirelessly to my stereo system. And am happy with the result!

Yes, there’s of course an additional device (the AE) which could deteriorate the signal as compared to streaming (lossless) directly to CXN (which isn’t an option). However, as compared to even Spotify Connect (played natively on the CXN, without even the phone in the sound chain), AM lossless sounded far more satisfying and engaging. Not surprisingly, as I am listening to the full song without any compression. Over the last three days it’s been so enjoyable that I might not renew my Spotify subscription again.

Any of you using AE for AM, do add your experience.

(Note: I have not checked if the music played the way above is bit perfect. The CXN doesn’t show anything beyond ‘44.1 kHz PCM’. But guys have tested this out (checking for bit perfection upto 16 bit / 44.1 kHz with original files) and links to those articles have been posted in other threads. Of course higher res files will get compressed to CD quality as the AE can’t handle more than that. Manavendra is also our resident authority on this who could be explain the technicals in a way I can’t. I can hear the difference though, especially in the richness and bass. AE 1st gen, if you can get it, isn’t costly. So if you are an enthusiast, you can experiment with it, test and share the results).
have you try or compare with Rpi based stremer through its support airplay also. I am using RPI4 and apple music through airplay and sound fantastic in my ears. also few days back compare with WIIM pro stremer with RPI4 also they are very close to the sound. never experience with Aiport express 1st gen.
 
have you try or compare with Rpi based stremer through its support airplay also. I am using RPI4 and apple music through airplay and sound fantastic in my ears. also few days back compare with WIIM pro stremer with RPI4 also they are very close to the sound. never experience with Aiport express 1st gen.
No Sandip. I already have the CXN streamer. Are you sure the AirPlay to the RPI streamer is lossless?
 
No Sandip. I already have the CXN streamer. Are you sure the AirPlay to the RPI streamer is lossless?
AFAIK, It isn't. But I will confirm this tomorrow.

EDIT: It is lossless as long as the source is CD quality. Also shairport-sync uses airplay1 which is the same thing the the first generation AE uses. This has been confirmed by Mike Brady the author of shairport-sync which every tom, dick and harry uses on linux
Shairport Sync uses the AirPlay 1 protocol. In my experience, the AirPlay 1 protocol uses a fixed format: 44,100 frames per second, 16 bit linear PCM, interleaved stereo, losslessly compressed in ALAC -- let's call it "CD quality ALAC" . It doesn't matter what it's being sent from or what it's being sent to, the format remains the same. If the source material is encoded in a different form, it is transcoded to this format before transmission. This accords with your experience. If the source material is actually CD quality, stored losslessly, then AFAIR it used to be the case that it was transmitted bit-perfectly over AirPlay 1 by iTunes. I don't know if that is still the case, but I presume it is.

It follows that there is no scope for, and no need for, adjustments to Shairport Sync to control how audio is encoded -- it's always sent in CD-quality ALAC.
 
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