Music from external HD- iMac- Airport Express- stereo receiver- speakers?

Question

Can I stream my music from my external HD to my iMac (current set-up, which works) to a new Airport Express which will be connected to a stereo receiver and speakers, and avoid going through my older D-Link router? In other words, will my (fairly new) iMac talk wirelessly to a new AE?
Reading all the posts about various ways to set this up is giving me a headache ....
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

The default "out-of-the-box" mode of the AX is a wireless router. That means that the AX will broadcast its own wireless network when powered-up. Since you already have a wireless router you, in effect, will have two wireless networks operating at the same time if you leave the AX in its default configuration ... and why you would have to change to the wireless network created by the AX in order to stream iTunes.
The inconvenience of this, of course, is that you would have to switch to the D-Link's wireless network when you want Internet access and to the AX's when streaming. To overcome this problem, the AX would need to be configured to "join a wireless network"; in this case, that would be the network created by the D-Link. Once the AX is joined, you will be able to access the Internet & stream iTunes simultaneously.
To reconfigure the AX to do so, I suggest that you first access the AX's wireless network from your iMac's built-in AirPort (on the menubar). (Note: The default network name of the AX would be something like AirPort Network xxxxxx, where the x's are the last six digits of the AX's AirPort ID (printed on the label attached to the AX).) Then use the AirPort Utility, in "Assist Me" mode, and follow the directions to join a wireless network.