New version airport express and music drop-outs

Does the new version of Airport Express (802.11n) solve the problem of AirTunes audio stream drop-outs? My existing Express suffered so badly, I stopped using it!

Can report back that the new Express is fantastic. No more dropouts. Gand set it to work on N only and it is great having the same music in the kitchen as in the living room. have now sold my 2 old units. Next purchase Timecapsule.

Similar Messages

Airport Express Frequent Music Drop-out

Looks like this is a standard, mostly unfixable feature with this. Great.
Anyway - laptop inside on wireless, hooked via AUX to stereo receiver, sending to AE outside hooked to other receiver.
Music plays, but drops out (volume down) frequently. We have cordless phones, no base stations that near. Microwave wasn't on.
Any ideas for troubleshooting?
DC

Ok, thanks for clarifying your current network configuration for me. What is important is to understand the path the audio stream must take to get to the AirPort Express.
Basically, it will be: Laptop >>> AirPort Extreme >>> AirPort Express > Audio Receiver, where ">>>" represents a wireless connection, and ">" represents a wired one.
For the wireless connections, distance, other (non-audio streaming) network traffic, & Wi-Fi interference (cordless phones, walls, other Wi-Fis broadcasting nearby, etc.) will play a toll on the overall bandwidth available left for streaming.
I would suspect the bandwidth will be the least between the two AirPorts. One simple test would be to calculate the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) at the location of the Express. SNR (in dB) = Signal (in dBm) - Noise (in dBm). You will want SNR to be 25+ dB. You will want to take the measurements with the Express powered-off so that you will be calculating the SNR for the Extreme only at this location.
You can easily obtain the Signal & Noise values (if your laptop is a Mac) from System Profiler.
Click the Apple icon in the menubar
About This Mac
More Info ...
Contents > Network > AirPort > Interfaces > en1 > Current Network Information > Choose your Wi-Fi network > Signal / Noise
While your here, note the following values as well:
PHY Mode
Security
Transmit Rate
Please post back your results.

Airport Express and Extreme drop out

Hi,
I have a Airport express that is wired to my router. This is downstairs.
Upstairs i have a Airport Extreme which is wirelessly connected to the airport downstairs.
The Express is set to create a new wireless and the extreme is set to extend.
For some reason or another when im upstairs, which means i'll probably be connected to the extreme, i sometimes find that i cannon connect to the internet. When i go into Airport Utility it can only see the Extreme that's up stairs.
If i go downstairs it then allows me to connect to the internet.
Then go back upstairs and cannot get back on the net.
So i have to disconnect the power to the express and then the connection between the two airports is established.
Both are running the latest firmware, 7.6.
Can anyone help?
Thanks

I have Sunrocket and the same situation. However the last week has had about 90% use... no problems.
I was having people completely unable to understand me. All of a sudden the stuff started working but it still isn't perfect. I can only guess that the AEBS is not liking the setup or otherwise being interfered with. I DO have 2.4GHz phones but the brand was checked out as working fine with AEBS.
My setup Comcast Cable Internet>AEBS>Sunrocket's Gizmo.
I'd love to hear form other Mac/AEBS users and Sunrocket.

TS3212 ITunes worked fine on my Windows 7 machine. Had to rebuild the machine but all the data remains. Downloaded a new version of iTunes and cannot figure out how to load all of my music currently on my hard drive. Tried moving Library file. Did not

ITunes worked fine on my Windows 7 machine. Had to rebuild the machine but all the data remains. Downloaded a new version of iTunes and cannot figure out how to load all of my music currently on my hard drive. Tried moving "iTunes Library" file. Did not work. Never had trouble like this before.

Many thanks for your post. I've been trying for days to get this sorted and was getting well fed up with I-Tunes. Really thought i'd never get it working again. Tried un-installing it, loading older versions and they still wouldn't work.
Came across your suggestion by chance and top man - it worked..!!!!
How you even knew what to do is beyond me - but thanks so much. I really was pulling my hair out.
You need to put your post over the Web as there seem to be loads of people having the same trouble.
Thanks again.

Using Airport Express and music sounds distorted.....

I just hooked up my airport express to my whole house stereo and the music sounds distorted. I've adjusted the volume on the amplifier, the room volume control and the computer volume control.....and it still sounds distorted. Any ideas on what I can do?

Temporarily, plug a pair of headphones into the AirPort Express and check the sound quality. It is OK, you know that everything is working through the AirPort Express.
Often the audio plug will make poor contact with the audio jack on the Express which can cause a hum or intermiitent audio signal. Wiggle the plug around to see if this might be the case. You may need to try another audio cable.
Make sure that you are not plugging into a PHONO input on the amplifier. You would want to use AUX or CD or even TAPE would work if you have an older amplifier/receiver.

Airport Express/Multiple Speakers/Drop Outs

Question -- I have a wireless network at home -- a Linksys wireless router which I use to connect my Dell laptop and my powerbook to the internet. I have two airport express stations ... one for my living room stereo, and one for kitchen speakers. Streaming itunes to one set of speakers works fine, but when I stream to both sets of speakers I get constant hiccups and sound drops during the playback. Any thoughts/suggestions how to fix this problem?

I had this problem. It was because I had interference (ie poor reception to ONE of the airport express units). When the one would cut out they BOTH would cut out. It was really annoying. You can check if this is your problem by placing both of the airport express right near your router (ie in the same room) and see if you get the dropping out (you shouldn't).
My solution was finally only solved by buying a new router and setting up a WDS network. I got a linksys WRT54GL and use the DD-WRT firmware. There are lots of instructions on the net on how to set this up. Then each airport express acts as a repeater. They seem to support each other, and the result for me was that I got wireless coverage EVERYWHERE in my house, and the music stream stopped dropping out.
Also with the DD-WRT firmware you can change the xmit power of the router (and increase it!) to improve coverage.
Hope this helps.
Mike

Airport express streaming audion drop out is unacceptable

The only reason I bought the airport express is because apple discontinued the old Apple TV mk1 - which had an analogue audio out port.
The comments on this group seem to always suggest the following (1) Don't extend a wireless group (2) Don't join a WDS (3) Upgrade firmware (4) choose a less congested channel (4) swing a dead cat around 12 times at midnight.
So the configuratioon
MAC BOOK PRO Snow leopard 10.6.4 -- 2.6Ghx INTEL Core 2 Duo, 4GB 667 Mhz DDR SDRAM
2 Airport Extremes [7.4.2]
1 Airport Express [7.4.2]
1 Time Capsule [7.5.1] (making a total of 3 Airport Extremes)
iTunes 10.0.1 (22)
MAC BOOK PRO disk checks out perfectly - format structure, file structure and hard disk sectors.
All Airport devices are at the latest firmware revision.
no WDS - each Airport Extreme "Creates A Wireless Network" - but uses the Time Capsule for DNS.
THE AIRPORT EXPRESS IS SET TO "NO WIRELESS"
The connection to the Airport Express is 100BaseTX via an intelligent router.
So - basically - NO WIRELESS CONNECTION to the Airport Express from the MAC BOOK.
MAC BOOK PRO -> (100BaseTX) Intelligent Cisco Router -> (100BaseTX) Airport Express
Every 4 or 5 minutes the sound will drop out for a second or so - right in the middle of a song.
The Airport Express has even been configured for NO WIRELESS.
Streaming Netflix to the TV makes no difference to the time between audio drop out - which suggest that the network is more than capable of handling the traffic.
Netflix also streams perfectly to the iPad (Wireless)
Network utilization is negligible. Network reliability seems excellent : 90M Sent packets, 70M Recv Packets ZERO errors ZERO collisions.
I noticed that when I use the iPad for remote control (V2) of iTunes on the MAC BOOK PRO - the drop out is worse (even when the iPad is not doing anything other than, I suppose answering a few "are you still there" inquiries). Interestingly, even with the iPad connected - but - control of iTunes from the Keyboard - the interval between drop outs is significantly greater.
I have not yet tried streaming the AppleTV Mk1 to the Airport Express - my bet is that it will stream perfectly.
It amazing that Netflix can stream perfect video and sound over a 20Mb internet connection (using the same Extreme as the primary DNS ie attached to the Time-Warner modem) and yet Apple cant even get consistent audio in a hard wired 100Mb intranet.
At the low data rates for streaming Audio - finding way to configure the Airport Express to effectively improve its response time hint at a significantly larger issue ie (a) iTunes not running at a sufficiently high priority (b) Small Internal buffer in the Airport Express (c) my guess both (a) and (b)
iTunes is set to "Large Buffer".
I have not yet tried 'nice'ing up the priority of any iTunes processes - as I've gone back to having the house Audio driven by my old reliable Apple TV Mk1.
If Apple cant even get Audio Streaming working properly - I don't hold out much hope for the AppleTV Mk2 (hopefully it has a seriously large buffer to compensate for the pre-emptive scheduling of MAC OS) - This may be one example of Windows being a better streaming Audio Platform that MAC OS.
Given all this information - other than "kill all the processes running on the MAC" - which completely defeats the purpose - that is to say - I had a perfectly great Streaming Audio "Appliance" (the Mk1 AppleTV) - now I'm being forced to use a GP Computer with all the inherent problems of reliability.
Any suggestions ?

No, in fact I abandoned it. Then I tried it again today, (hoping the various iTunes updates would help) it was better ... But after 15 minutes the audio dropped out again. However, my concerns about the apple tv2 were unfounded.

Airport Express Connection Randomly Dropping Out

I've got a rather bizarre situation here. I'm using an AirPort Express with a 1.33 GHz PowerPC G4 laptop running on OS X 10.4.5. I've had it for slightly more than half a year, and it's always worked perfectly. Yesterday, without any apparent provocation of any kind, it randomly started malfunctioning. AirPort would find it and connect me to it, but then the AirPort menu icon (the four bars showing the strength of the connection) would randomly start flashing on and off at a very quick speed.
I've tried all of the different reset flavors (soft reset, factory default reset, and the one in between), and all of them have been equally ineffective. After one of the two more powerful resets, the signal will stay consistent for a couple of minutes and then begin to rapidly fade in and out again. I've tried to figure out if there are any new sources of interference in my room (going as far as to move the AE from the power strip with the other appliances to its own outlet across the room), but haven't been able to think of any. I haven't installed any new hardware for a couple of months, so I don't believe it's a hardware problem; the same goes for software. AirPort itself seems to be working fine, as does my ethernet cable; I really think that there's something going on with the AE itself. The bizarre thing is that even though the connection is rapidly flickering in and out, the unit's light remains a steady green all the way through.
If anyone has any insights or further questions about this predicament, please let me know.
Many thanks,
Matt
1.33 GHz PowerPC G4 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

If you connection signal strength bars start "flashing" it appears as if the AE may be going bad.
Do you have any issues connecting to other wireless networks? If not, it appears as if it's your AE.
Sorry I don't have better news for you.

AirPort Express-es clients drop out after idling for 5mn... Green light on

Hi,
Just bought a couple of AEBS' (and upgraded them both to latest firmware v6.3) to stream audio to different rooms in my house (actually bought 3 of them but one was DOA.)
I got a Verizon/D-Link VDI-624 (latest firmware from Verizon) and configured the AirPort Express' as clients thereof, since the D-Link does not support WDS (anyway WDS would consume some bandwidth I do not need to give away) I am using static addresses for anything but the client laptops (which get pre-allocated addresses from the D-Link router DHCP server.) I use WPA-PSK TKIP for security.
This all seems to work good, at least for a little while...
My issue is that after just about 5mn of idle time (after I stop streaming audio, basically) the 2 AirPorts seem to vanish from the network. Green lights still on. But I cannot ping them anymore neither from the laptops nor from the D-Link router. AirPort Admin utility loses track of them as well (could see them for a while, then after stopping audio and coffee break, poof... no more AirPorts in the list!) The kicker is that they won't come back until I power cycle **one of them**. Then more often than not, both seem to come back. Sometimes only the one that was power-cycled. Sometimes, I have to do it again...
Switched the D-Link for a NetGear WNR-854T and the same problem occurred, so I'd be careful to blame the base router here... I'd rather believe the Apple's devices aren't playing ball with the outer world. Particularly since some other threads around here mention similar issues, albeit with earlier firmware versions...
Any ideas/sympathetic comments/suggestions/... ?
Thanks for listening... (sigh!)
-- Wirelessly over-frustrated OHM.

Ohm62,
I am a mac newby. I have a imac 24 inch and I also have the airport. I experienced the same problem for the first couple of days. What I found out is that my cable modem needed resetting. Once I did this my network is up an running fine. Now here is one small catch, when I am away for a while or using bootcamp (to switch over to Vista), it does take a couple of extra seconds for my system to aquire the signal from the network. Hope this helps.
Tins

Two Airport Expresses•one only drops out.

My setup:
Cable Modem
One Intel iMac G5 one metre from AE.
One Power PC G5 twenty metres from AE.
Both running 10.5.5
Intel is fine whilst Power PC is offline, but as soon as it goes online, Intel connection drops out and will not stay connected.
No dropouts by Power PC.
Why is it so?

Following what I have said above, if I boot in Safe Mode, I have no dropouts .
What is it that doesn't load in Safe Mode, that appears to be causing the problem?

I have bought a new airport express and using it with my macbook (iTunes 10.2.2). I have joined an existing network for internet in my home and with that i am trying to play the music via itunes but there is audio dropouts every 60 secs or so. any soln ?

I have bought a new airport express and using it with my macbook (iTunes 10.2.2). I have joined an existing wireless network for internet in my home and with that i am trying to play the music via itunes but there is audio dropouts every 60 secs or so. I am using a set of speakers from kenwood connected to the airport express. The operating system on my macbook is mac os X 10.5.8. i am sure it is not a problem of streaming music online because i have even tried playing music which are stored in my macbook.
Is there any problem with the setting in itunes or quicktime ? Kindly reply...... I am waiting for your valuable suggestion.
Thank you a lot in advance.

I am shocked to have found this same AX audio dropout problem starting TODAY, every few seconds the audio just drops for a couple seconds and then resumes: Latest software versions of everything. No iPad, iPhone or Touch. Internet hardwired to D-Link DES1105 (1000baseT Switch) hardwired to new 80211N AX, AX optical to stereo, AX Wi-Fi internet to basic 1st-gen MacBook operating at 80211G, and an older 'G' AX extender at the far end of the house, away from all this. The MacBook streaming iTunes is usually 12 feet from AX. I've used this setup for years of trouble-free AirTunes / Airplay until today. Today I also found 2 very reliable fixes and 1 way to force a dropout, but first, I read some posts and tried ALL following settings one-at-a-time and restored them ALL because NONE of them helped: Turned off IPV6. Streamed to multiple speakers 'Computer' and 'AX' (restored to just AX). Turned off 'Ask to Join new (WiFi) Networks'. Turned off Bluetooth (can't live without Magic Trackpad, so glad that wasn't it). Here's my discoveries: Lo and behold, each time I click the Airport icon in the Menu (you know it shows you've got 4 bars from AX) when the status switches to 'Looking for Networks' for a second it CAUSES the AX audio to drop out for a couple seconds (it never did that before today.) iTunes still playing, streaming, AX laser still lit, but the 'PCM' light on stereo and the sound GOES OUT EVERY time I click the Airport icon in the menubar, just like the regular, annoying dropouts. So, to reduce traffic I quit Safari (3 tabs, no streaming, just Gmail, Google, and Netflix browsing). Lo and behold, the dropouts stopped altogether. No other Web apps going (not iTunes Store, Genius, Ping, nothing), so I launched Chrome to the same 3 tabs and the dropouts HAVE NOT RETURNED. That's right, not only did simply QUITTING SAFARI cure it, and Chrome doesn't contribute to it, but I can demonstrate it just by forcing my Airport to re-scan. Works for me, written using Chrome. The other reliable fix is to hardwire MacBook to the Switch. This is obviously not ideal, but Airplay audio doesn't drop out over Ethernet. Also, in all my tests, it made no difference whether iTunes did the streaming, or Airfoil did.

Apple AirPort Express - Streaming Music on iTunes - Frequent Music Drop out

*Apple AirPort Express - Streaming Music on iTunes - Frequent Music Drop outs*
I have just purchased an Apple AirPort Express for the sole use of streaming music from my laptop to my home cinema system.
My system has bundles of power (Core 2 Duo, 3gb RAM, 320gb hard disk, Intel-N WiFi) and is running Windows Vista Premium. I am using the latest version of iTunes (version 8) and have it setup to play through remote speakers. I have my AirPort Express connected to my home cinema system.
When I play music on iTunes through ONLY my computer speakers I have no problem with drop outs.
However, when I play music through either (1) my AirPort Express or (2) multiple speakers (i.e. the AirPort Express and my computer speakers together) I experience frequent and unbelievably annoying drop outs in the music stream.
I have determined this has nothing to do with interference with the wireless signal and believe this is something to do with iTunes - the reason being the drop outs occur in BOTH the computer speakers AND the AirPort Express speakers (when I select multiple speakers) but does not occur when I select ONLY the computer speakers.
Please could you provide some advice on this as I am unable to use the AirPort!
Many thanks
Elliot

You don't say which Airport Express you are using and what its settings are.
There are two Airport Express models. The original model works on 802.11b/g on 2.4 GHz. The later model can do 802.11n on 2.4 GHz or 5.0 GHz. My experience is that interference when using the 2.4 GHz band creates drop-outs when sending audio from iTunes to an Airport Express. I now have an 802.11n network on 5.0 GHz and no longer have drop-outs. I also have a 2.4 GHz 802.11g network for my iPhone and other devices that can't do 802.11n. They are connected to each other by ethernet.
Interference on 2.4 GHz occurs because a lot of people nearby have wireless networks too. You may not notice the interference when doing other network activity that is not time dependant but it shows when streaming music. Using a utility like iStumbler or AirRadar I can see I am the only one using the 5.0 GHz band in range of my computer.

I have an Airport Express connected via optical toslink to a dac/amp in turn connected to speakers. When using iTunes I get message "no speakers connected to Airport Express" and audio sound has drop outs.

I have an Airport Express connected via optical toslink to a dac/amp in turn connected to speakers. When using iTunes I get message "no speakers connected to Airport Express" and audio sound has drop outs.

Ok, if you are connecting the AirPort Express Base Station (AX) to the existing wireless network, then the DSL in the next room is most likely a combination DSL modem and wireless router. Thanks for clarifying that for me.
Although they may only be separated by a single wall, the building material used in that wall may be enough to prevent the AX from receving a "good" signal from the DSL router.
Since I don't know what computing equipment you have available, please check out this AirPort User Tip: AirPort - Optimal Base Station Placement to see if you can get some SNR measurements at the location of your AX. To do this properly, you will want to power-off the AX and only get these measurements for the DSL router.

Airport Express and Apple TV not seen by new computer

I have two airport expresses (both A1084 wireless g) and an Apple TV (a couple years old). I have the latest version of iTunes and the latest version of Airport Utility. My new computer is a PC running Windows 8. Everything worked fine until last week when my old computer failed (it was a PC running Vista). I got the new machine up and running and for a little while the computer could see the airport expresses but never did see the apple tv. Then it stopped and that was that. I shut everything down, restarted everything, uninstalled and reinstalled Airport Utility, uninstalled Airport Utility again and reinstalled an older version, that didn't work, upgraded to the new version of Aiport Utility and that still didn't work. My wireless network is fine, my iPad can connect, the new computer can access the internet fine. My old windows xp computer that is on its last legs can see the two airport expresses and the apple tv. But this new computer which is the one that is supposed to take care of all this for me can't. Any suggestions because I'm at my wits end.

i'm assuming that the Airport Utility app for your ipad sees them? I wonder if Win8 has a firewall active that is blocking the ports.

I have the airport express as router can I buy the new airport express and use my old airport to extend my net?

I have the airport express as router can I buy the new airport express and extend my net?

Things can get confusing pretty quickly since there are 3 different versions of the AirPort Express.
If by "old", you mean you have Model No A1084 or A1088 AirPort Express (look at the label on the side of the device for the Model No), it cannot be used with the "Extend a wireless network" feature of other newer Apple routers.
If your AirPort Extreme is "square" shaped with rounded corners, then the "old" AirPort Express will not work with your AirPort Extreme using the "Extend a wireless network" settings.
You could use a "previous version" AirPort Express, Model No A1264 to "Extend", or the "new" AirPort Express, Model No A1392, for that purpose.
If your AirPort Extreme is a simultaneous dual band product, then the "new" Express would be able to "extend" both bands. The "previous" AirPort Express (Model A1264) would be able to extend only one band, since it is not a dual band device.

New version airport express and music drop-outs

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