Airport Express wireless audio streaming keeps skipping

Question

Hi all
I'm new to the forums, so hope you're going to be able to help me!
We have 2 airport express's in our apartment. One downstairs and one upstairs. Our main router is downstairs. Our living area is upstairs.
We have all of our music loaded onto our iPad 2 and we stream it to the upstairs airport express (which is usually connected no less than 10ft away). The iPad is connected via Wifi to the airport express upstairs.
The upstairs airport express connects via cable to our surround sound amplifier system.
Whilst playing music, it constantly cuts out, sometimes for many seconds at a time, making music impossible to listen to.
We also have the latest apple tv, and we've tried streaming the music from the iPad to that, but it does the same thing again. The apple tv is also connected to the amplifier.
I hope I've explained the situation well enough - any information you can provide would be appreciated.
Many thanks,
Scott

Answer 1

Sure, no problem.
You are going to take Signal & Noise measurements, and then, calculate the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). Not to worry, it sounds more difficult than actually doing it. Note: When taking these measurements, you will only want the AEBS to be broadcasting a wireless network as it is this network that we want to measure at the location of the AX. So, you just need to leave the AX disconnected from power and connect your Mac to the AEBS's wireless network while located near the AX. You, of course, are free (and encouraged) to take measurements at other point, like near the AEBS, a location between the AEBS and AX, and other areas upstairs where you can plug the AX into to see the differences.
SNR (in dB) = Signal (in dBm) - Noise (in dBm)
You can easily find the Signal and Noise values using System Profiler on your Mac laptop.
ref: Click on the Apple icon on the menu bar > About This Mac > More Info... > Contents > Network > AirPort > Interfaces > en1 > Current Network Information > Find your wireless network > Signal / Noise
While your still in the System Profiler, note the value for Transmit Rate.
These values should be negative numbers. For example, mine currently read: -67 dBm / -95 dBm, with a transmit rate of 27 (Mbps). Plugging in these numbers yield: SNR = -67 - (-95) = 28. My Mac Mini is about four rooms away from my AEBS with about five walls between them. As you can see, the signal is still quite useable ... but the bandwidth is minimal, especially for streaming.
SNR Guideline
40dB+ SNR = Excellent signal
25dB to 40dB SNR = Very good signal
15dB to 25dB SNR = Low signal
10dB to 15dB SNR = Very low signal
5dB to 10dB SNR = No signal
Please post back your results.