Streaming Apple Lossless Music via Aiport Express

I'd like to rip my cd collection to my desktop and then stream it to another room via the Airport Express. I'd like to store the music in Apple Lossless. My question is does the streamed music get compressed lower than Apple Lossless in order to stream to the Airport Express that will be attatched to my stereo?

Jazzman (that's funny since I am a professional Jazz
musician...:-)),
since I use iTunes and AirPort Express I have
upgraded my stereo system way up. I'm using a DENON
AV Receiver and Klipsch Reference RF-7 loudspeakers.
The AAC 128 kb/s file sound is awesome!! As a
by-product of the psycho-acoustic compression the
sound is warmer and wider than the original; a little
like vinyl albums (if you have a good turntable). I
have made a lot of blindfold tests among friends
playing iTunes over AE with optical cable connected,
an average CD player and a very good DVD player (just
using it as an audio player). iTunes always sounded
best - with AAC 128 kb/s streaming!
I would even go so far and recommend the compression,
since it gives you a more natural sound than the
original. I know it sounds odd, but that's the way it
is. AAC compression is invented by Dolby
Laboratories, one of the most renowned professional
studio suppliers.
Best regards
Roman
Roman, I'm old enough to remember the great sound of LP's on an AR turntable using Shure III cartridge and Koss Pro4a headphones driven by a Pioneer Integrated Amp. I have to give it a try again with the ACC 128 as opposed to lossless.
I'll add one more thing the iPod does sound great with a headphone amplifier driving Sennheiser 600/650's. I'm using a Emmeline SR-71, and a Headroom Headcase Bag by Headroom. No, I don't work for these companies. I just thought those seeking the ultimate in mobile sound might be interested.
Thanks for your help!

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Streaming apple lossless

I have an Airport Extreme base station, 2 years old (n), with three Airport Expresses of the same vintage. Can this system stream Apple Lossless format or do I need a Sonos system to get the better quality?

Surya K. wrote:
The Apple TV is due for another update very soon now. I sure hope it includes 24bit / 96kHz audio this time around.
I wouldn't bet on it.....they could have added this to AppleTV1 if they'd wanted to.
The problem with AppleTVs is that Apple push design/interface and so forth over quality considerations that might appeal to audiophiles or videophiles.
Surya K. wrote:
.... And they should add an option for Apple Lossless downloads to the iTunes store while they're at it. This is 2013.
I quite agree.
This is my biggest annoyance with iTunes Store - I do not want to buy physical CDs, rip and physically store them but that's the only way I can get lossless CD quality audio into iTunes. Again, most people don't care, and I'm no particular fan of CD to begin with to be honest but I'll buy a CD and rip lossless when it's about the same price as the compressed download - amazon's Autorip is a great feature in my view > buy CD and get immediate access to an MP3 version of the album before the CD arrives at your door - best of both worlds.
It seems to me Apple have a golden opportunity to offer 24/96 lossless audio downloads via itunes store - an album might be 2-3GB but that's nothing compared when we are downloading 5-8GB movies in 1080p from them (actually I'd rather be able to download better quality video but that's another story).
I would be quite happy for there to be DRM on lossless audio, especially for better than CD quality lossless.
AC

Control Button not working for Apple Lossless Music

I have a brand new black iPod shuffle and the control button in the middle has been problematic, at best, with my Apple Lossless music that I had on my PC.
When I push the control button, I get nothing. Only the female voice telling me what that track name is. I've attempted different "button pushing" methods such as once, twice, three times, as well as durations, 250 ms, 500 ms, 1 second. Nothing seems to work, I don't have any 128 kbps (garbage in my opinion) to try it out on.
Suggestions?

Thanks for the response, couple of questions...
1. Do you have the "Manual Music Manage" or similar button checked on your 3G shuffle?
2. Did you put the lossless CD tracks in a playlist, or just "heap" them in a giant list (like I have, I don't do playlists)?
3. Did you use iTunes (8.1.x) to do the ripping, or an older version. These lossless tracks are quite old, I don't even think that I had v8 when I originally did them.
Message was edited by: NKS Guy

Hi, Is there a minimum bandwidth needed to decently stream CD quality music over Airport Express and / or Apple TV.

I'm living in Paris but planning to use my devices in Sri Lanka during vacation where Internet bandwidth is not exceedingly high. So wonder if the system will work properly.

For streaming audio via AirPlay/AirTunes to an AirPort Express Base Station (AX), from a iTunes host on the local network, 802.11g-level bandwidth (54 Mbps) should be fine. iTunes, uses QuickTime to encode any audio source to Apple Lossless before streaming to the AX.

Airport Express, iTunes and streaming Apple Lossless format

I'm currently streaming my music wirelessly from iTunes to the Airport Express. Most of my music is in MP3/AAC format but I'm going to do through the tedious process of ripping it into Lossless format
What I want to know though is when iTunes streams it to the Airport Express does it re-encode it on the fly or does it stream the Lossless format? The reason I ask is that I have a monitoring tool that monitors my upload speed from my laptop over the wireless connection - when I stream a lossless file it's showing an upload rate of approx 150 kb/s, when I stream an mp3 it shows an upload rate of approx 140 kb/s - very similar. The mp3 is encoded at 192kbps and the lossless file is ~1000kbps.
I was expecting a huge difference in the strain on the wireless network but it doesn't seem to show any difference. Strange?? Comments/explanations please!
Dell Inspiron 700m Windows XP

One of my friends did a similar thing and found out
afterwards that his media streamer couldn't cope with
the Windows Media lossless format and would keep
dropping out. Naturally he only discovered this
after ripping his entire collection - whoops!
It is possible with iTunes to convert an entire collection from Lossless to ACC (or mp3 for example).
I recently did this, as my ripped collection on my desktop is in Lossless format, whilst I wanted it in mp3 format on my laptop as I needed to save disk space and the speakers on the laptop aren't much cop anyhow.
Change your iTunes importing preferences to mp3.
Select all the songs and convert selection to mp3.
Your music library will then consist of all the tracks in both lossless and mp3 format.
I then deleted the lossless format version.

Stream from my iMac via airport express to my Harmann Kardon AVR360

I want to stream music from my iMac via airport express to my Harmann Kardon AVR360, but without success. I'm using a mini jack -> optical adapter. Any recommendations on how to make this work?

The issue may be the adapter or cable that you are using. Since both your AirPort Express and Harman Kardon support digital audio optical connections, the simplest connection between them would be to use a cable with a 3.5 mm minijack to TOSlink optical connector on one side and a TOSlink optical connector on the other side.
I also have had scenarios where I had the right cable/connector but either the cable or connector was faulty.

Will new ATV stream apple lossless?

I put all my CDs in itunes in the Apple Lossless format which synced to my old AppleTV because I wanted my music in the highest quality. The specs say the new ATV supports Apple Lossless, but my question is: does that mean it will stream in that high quality format or support it? Are they synonymous? I like the idea of digitizing my music and having assess to any musical tracks but don't want to sacrifice the music quality.

I am in a similar situation as the original poster--I have my entire library in apple lossless. Part of this library was created in apple lossless from CDS directly in iTunes, but some of it was converted to apple lossless from a previous FLAC library. I read a different thread from 2008 that apple lossless files that were created using a conversion may not stream on ATV, even though they work on iPod, iTunes, etc. Is this still the case with the new ATV? If not, I'm off to buy one tomorrow!
As an aside, I wonder will consumers ever be able to download music from the iTunes store in lossless format? I am still buying CDs and ripping because this is not available....
Thanks for the help!

Can't play music via Airport Express

I've successfully played music through Airport Express before, but for some reason I keep getting this error message now: There are no speakers connected to the Aiport Device "Living Room".
I have connected Harman Kardon speakers and subwoofer connected to the Airport, but it must not be recognizing the connection. I believe I have it correctly set up on the computer end...any thoughts?

Are these speakers USB or are they connected with the 1/8" audio jack? What is your setup from pluging the audio speakers and the subwoofer?

When will Apple Lossless Music be Available from the iTunes Store?

I have recently rediscovered the wonders of uncompressed music. I bought my first CD player in 1984. The best vinyl records were better then than the best CDs, and still are, but the average CD was a lot better than the average vinyl. The CD average has probably gotten better since then. At some point, I imported the CDs I listened to into my Mac, initially as 128K AAC, and later as 256K AAC, and thought I was still getting good quality. A couple of months ago, I bought an external USB DAC (NuForce Icon µDAC) and some better-than-the-usual-computer-speakers powered monitors (M-Audio AV40). And I reimported my CDs in Apple Lossless format. Oh! Sweet new music!
The difference between 256K AAC and Apple Lossless is subtle, but through good equipment it's still very noticeable. I have lots of music I bought from the iTunes Store over the years, in 128K and 256K AAC. Some of those I've replaced with CD rips, but I don't have all those CDs. I sure would like to be able to upgrade to Apple Lossless through the iTunes Store. I'd be happy to pay the HDTracks.com prices of $12/album or $1.49/track for the privilege, but it isn't available. The best Apple will sell me is 256K AAC. So now I'm getting all my new music from HDTracks.com, who have wonderful recordings, but a small selection, or as CDs from Amazon.
Apple, when are you going to step up to the plate for the audiophiles in your market and sell us Apple Lossless (or FLAC) music? I realize that we aren't nearly as big a market as the teeny-bopper iPod users out there, but we ARE a market, and I for one would happily return to the iTunes Store if I could buy full-resolution music there.

Wonderful question, would be nice if Apple was not so hush-hush about new developments, but alas, that is what they must do to stay on top of the game. I cannot wait for the day when I will open iTunes and see the phrase, "All Downloads now in Full CD Quality Apple Lossless!" Woohoo, what a momentus occasion that will be. Fortunately, we can hope that they will allow upgrades to Apple Lossless just like they did for iTunes Plus (and why wouldn't they, it's a money maker).
I too have only been purchasing cds mostly from amazon to rip in Lossless, and just came across an album of interest to me that is unfortunately only available through iTunes and Amazon. The hard copies of Steve Jablonsky's Transformers Score are only found in highly marked-up quantities on amazon and ebay, so i am left to bite the bullet and purchase the adequate 256kbps AAC version from the iTunes store. At least I don't have to buy Amazon's MP3 coded versions(typed with a smirk).
With the capacity of most iPods ranging between 8 and 160 GBs, I think it is safe to assume that storage space is not really an issue anymore. Let us cross our fingers for Apple Lossless soon(or use those fingers to raise typed awareness).

Stream music via Airport Express vs. Apple TV

I purchased some Vanatoo Powered Speakers (amazing speakers) with Digital Audio in and was planning on streaming music from my iphones, iPad, mac, etc... via Airplay. I purchased an Airport Express and plugged it to the Speakers with an optical cable.
I have a network with an Airport Extreme and good signal, however, whatever the channel I selected, the music keeps dropping out every now and then during playback. I wanted to see if the problem would also occur with my Apple TV. I plugged it to the speakers and the problem was GONE! The Apple TV works much better and no dropped signal! Now I need to replace my Airport Express with an Apple TV! I don't understand why Apple cannot fix the problem of Airplay playback on Airport Express!

I have a same problem using the Airport Express to my DAC, but Apple TV is doing without any drop out.
I don't know the reason, but there is a suggestion in audiophile to install a 3rd party software, e.g. Audiravana plus, which allows the music to go to memory (RAM) and a slightly delay to play.
You can download for a free trail, only purchase if it helps.

HT3291 Streaming Music via Airport Express vs Apple TV

I currently use Airport Express to play my music from my mac to by stereo (receiver is connected to Airport Express). Can I do the same thing w/ Apple TV - play music from my mac via Air Tunes to my stereo?

I have a same problem using the Airport Express to my DAC, but Apple TV is doing without any drop out.
I don't know the reason, but there is a suggestion in audiophile to install a 3rd party software, e.g. Audiravana plus, which allows the music to go to memory (RAM) and a slightly delay to play.
You can download for a free trail, only purchase if it helps.

Is it possible to stream music from iphone via aiport express without itunes

Its works with the remote app but i have to use itunes and start up my pc.

but how do i do it? Could it be that my aiport is not correct installed? I have a connection with my network but if i play the sounds comes out of my phone. I could do it with the remote app but than i need to start up my pc and itunes. the speakers are plugged in with the airport. But i find no butoom to select themor i found no aiport button when i use the music app on the iphone

Itunes 8.2.23 upgrade, now won't stream music via airport express

i (mistakenly) installed yesterday's upgrade to itunes and now when i stream music to my airport express it will play a couple of songs and then i won't get any sound. the song is still "playing" in itunes but it isn't being streamed to my digital receiver. if i pause the song and start it again i'll hear it but after a bit a new song will do the same thing.
i seem to remember having this problem after the last update but can't remember what i did to remedy it. i think i reverted back to the previous version but i'm hearing that i can't do that from this version.

Hey I'm on the phone with the Apple Rep now ( who will remain nameless ) here are the steps:
1. System Prefs
2. Go into SECURITY
3. Click on FIREWALL
4. Select SET ACCESS FOR SPECIFIC SERVICES AND APPLICATIONS
5. Click the "+" Button to "Add" iTunes
6. Restart iTunes
You may need to "Add" Other Stuff that you normally use like Skype, Or Logmein.com, etc...
I believe that in the the future Apple may have a better fix for this... the rep is saying he will escalate it...
Seems to be working fine... we'll see who it goes long term and after some restarts... I'm not sure if it's because of the work we did re-installing and changing setting but I'm getting the soccer ball of death right now... be curious to see what others find out.
Message was edited by: Spitta9999
Message was edited by: Spitta9999

Cannot stream music via airport express with iOS7

i just upgrade my ipad and iphone to the iOS7
i try to stream music with my airport express but when i open the music app in my ipad
or iphone the icon to send the music does not show.
any ideas

Thank you so, so, much - you've made my day!

Streaming music via airport express not working anymore

since i installed Lion software on my imac, sometimes streaming audio from my itunes works or does not work. If not working i receive the follwing message:
Er heeft zich een fout voorgedaan tijdens de verbinding met het AirPlay-apparaat 'LIVING'. De netwerkverbinding is mislukt.
In english translated: there is a fault during transmission with the airplay equipment " LIVING". The network connetion failed.
Via my Ipad all working normal.
Can somebody help me?

since i installed Lion software on my imac, sometimes streaming audio from my itunes works or does not work. If not working i receive the follwing message:
Er heeft zich een fout voorgedaan tijdens de verbinding met het AirPlay-apparaat 'LIVING'. De netwerkverbinding is mislukt.
In english translated: there is a fault during transmission with the airplay equipment " LIVING". The network connetion failed.
Via my Ipad and my Macbook Pro which is also using Lion software all working normal. Only my imac is doeing strange?????
Can somebody help me?

Streaming Apple Lossless Music via Aiport Express

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