2 x Airport Express - One for left speaker, one for the right speaker. What to expect?

[Bukem]

Hi,

 

I was wondering if this has been attempted before and wether both speakers are properly in sync. Two expresses' with 2x a Toslink to RCA DAC is what I am thinking of. Need good quality though but since the Express is bit perfect it could work out ok.

 

Rgds,

 

Bukem

[alexwgoody]

Why? What would be the point of that? The airport is already bit perfect. Assuming you could send the same signal to 2 AE's, which I'm not sure you can, the benefit I assume you are going for- reduced jitter (I guess) - would be any different, right? Assuming you could sync, I can't imagine any benefit and do not know why you would expect any positive changes.

[Bukem]

The idea would be to give each active speaker its own airport and dac such that you effectively end up with a speaker requiring just a power cable.

[Audio_ELF]

Why? What would be the point of that? The airport is already bit perfect. Assuming you could send the same signal to 2 AE's, which I'm not sure you can, the benefit I assume you are going for- reduced jitter (I guess) - would be any different, right? Assuming you could sync, I can't imagine any benefit and do not know why you would expect any positive changes.

I don't know the answer to the OP... But I assume the thought is one AE to each (active) speaker to offer a completely wireless (except for power) system.

 

Quite an interesting idea actually...

 

Eloise

[alexwgoody]

I see- so you could place the speakers freely without having them connected. That's clever. Have you planned a way to get all three devices (Active speaker, Airport & DAC) all running on 1 power supply? That might be a tricky power issue to overcome- you probably don't want 3 power cables for each speaker.

 

As far as iTunes is concerned- I found this thread on apple forums

https://discussions.apple.com/message/19159268#19159268

Some people have gotten iTunes to stream to multiple sources at once- what I cannot comment on (and what you many not be able to determine without buying both AE's) is whether you will have any lag or delay. If you found a delay, I doubt it would be consistent, and therefore hard to compensate for.

 

You could maybe find a way to do this with bluetooth, but I do not know of any out of the box systems that can do this.

 

Good luck, let me know how it goes if you proceed forward.

[Bukem]

Indeed. I will build my own active speakers so integrating the DAC and ancillaries will be the least of my worries. I know iTunes allows streaming to multiple airplay devices at once but I have only one Airport Express at the moment so can't test it myself until I decide to purchase a second one.

[Cebolla]

Depending on your source device, there are some applications out there that will allow you to stream to multiple AirPlay supporting devices, in sync - eg Airfoil & Porthole.

[WINDIANRECORDS]

As an Airfoil user with a strong wifi connection, I can vouch for it being able to stream to two AEs with minimal lag; i.e. walking from my studio room to my den the tracks sound lined up; I would question the ability to have 0ms lag, though... only way to find out is to try!

 

(Note that Airfoil will require a very strong wifi signal, and even with that, after extended playing it tends to increase latency from one AE to another, this may bother you if you are listening to music for awhile in said room)...

[Bukem]

If that is the case then I will most likely not pursue this route and use longer balanced interconnects instead.

[WINDIANRECORDS]

Sorry to burst your bubble so to speak, but I thought I'd share. If you already have the equipment it sounds like an intriguing experiment, but from your post it seems you're actually in the process of building this so better to know the risks up front.

 

Airfoil is still a great software for multi-room setups when you have a solid wi-fi connection, and I've never had a drop-out with the AEs (versus some occasional drops with PC->PC streaming).

[realhifi]

Hi,

 

I was wondering if this has been attempted before and wether both speakers are properly in sync. Two expresses' with 2x a Toslink to RCA DAC is what I am thinking of. Need good quality though but since the Express is bit perfect it could work out ok.

 

Rgds,

 

Bukem

 

They don't synch perfectly. Very annoying if you are streaming AirPlay in seperate adjacent rooms so from one speaker to another it would be maddening.

[Audio_ELF]

Does Sonos sync better perhaps?

[Cebolla]

Sonos is known for its sync capability, but isn't the OP just wanting to achieve a similar thing via AirPlay, ie without using something like Sonos?

 

Airfoil is supposed to have a sync adjustment setting, where you get a slider for each connected AirPlay supporting device to individually fine tune the audio delay. These settings are remembered permanently, but of course it won't account for changes caused by wild fluctuations in a poor WiFi setup, for example.

 

Part of the strength of the Sonos system is its proprietary meshed wireless network which mitigates these sorts of problems.

[realhifi]

Does Sonos sync better perhaps?

 

Sonos does. Not sure of other low cost variants that do also. Of course all the Linn, Naim, Cambridge products do but that doesn't really make sense in this instance.