Airport Express Question

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I'm looking to buy an Airport Express Basestation so that I can listen to music in another room away from the Mac but can't find any information about connectivity.

1) Does the Basestation come with any audio leads? All the information I've found so far either states that they don't know or that it mentions that leads are needed but doesnt mention if they are supplied.

2) Assuming leads are not supplied, what lead would I need to buy? Looking at pictures of the bottom of the basestation there is a socket labeled analogue/optical. It looks to be the size of a 3mm mini jack which would explain the analogue bit (stereo mini jack to 2x phono) but how could you get optical from the same socket, isn't optical fibre optic??

3) Following on from the last question my amp has both analogue phono and digital (PCM/AC3) phono inputs (it's an old Pioneer VSA-E06 home cinema amp). Could I connect the Basestation to the amp via one of these digital inputs (obviously not the AC3 one but possibly the PCM?)?

As a separate question to those that have Airport Express, what do you think of it, does it work well, do you have any problems with the signal dropping out?
 
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1) No.

2) Mine might be different to the new ones and this isn't very technical - one end is like the end of my headphones, the other has two bigger jacks, one red and one white that I stick in my stereo.

3) No idea...

I never had any problems at all with mine until it broke a month ago. It was two years old though so I'm not complaining. I loved that little thing. Had it just stuck in the wall by the stereo and the cable modem - worked a treat, gave me no fuss, and I could shove it in my bag and take it with me places!
 
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in response to your little question at the end im very pleased with mine. i have it set up in the loft room and can pick it up all round the garden garage and field near my house!!
 
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Cheers for that guys. I'll be picking up an Airport Express + Cables in a couple of hours!
 
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In answer to no.2:
It's a standard stereo 3.5mm jack but at the end of that (where the very tip of the jack goes) is a digital optical connection. Just the same as macbooks et al.

The optical cable that it takes is a standard 3.5mm size but has a clear tip to allow the optical signal down the fibre optic cable.

To benefit from the digital output you'll need to connect it to an optical input on your amp or into an optical input on a converter that can change the optical signal into another form of digital signal your can use e.g. digital coaxial etc.

HTH
mrplow
 
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Well, I bought it!

Soooo simple to set-up, but you'd expect that with Apple
Soooo simple to use, but you'd expect that with Apple
Soooo enjoyable to use, but you'd expect that with Apple

The only thing I've noticed is that the analogue signal (haven't checked digital yet) is lower level than plugging a CD player directly into the amp but that's no biggie as my amp has plenty of power to spare and so it just means turning it up to 11 </Spinal Tap> Sound quality is very good, no different really than playing the CD directly into the amp (thanks to decent MP3's of course).

Well worth the money!
 
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How many computers can connect at once to the AP Express? I will probably be getting one soon. Thanks
 

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