Dead Airport Express, replace with Apple TV?
December 23rd, 2010, 1:40pm by MikeOver the past couple of days, I’ve lost 2 Airport Express base stations (one of which was formerly Jake’s), probably due to some weird electrical stuff in my house. These were the older model (no 802.11n networking), so I’ve gotten my use out of them over the 4-5 years I’ve owned them. However, their loss cripples my music streaming ability. What to do?
I took the units by the Apple Store to have them verify that they were dead — I had hoped that they’d have some more sophisticated diagnostics than I did, but no luck. Since I want to stream music, I need a new Airport Express, right?
Or I could get an Apple TV! They’re the same price ($99), both can receive audio over wifi for AirTunes, and of course the Apple TV has all sorts of cool new features like Netflix streaming and AirPlay compatibility. There’s only one problem: the format of the audio out:
The Apple TV has great connectors if you have a relatively high-end home theater system (i.e., you’re connecting to the LCD TV or receiver via HDMI, or using optical audio).
The Airport Express’s mini jack handles both optical (Mini TOSlink) and analog outputs (3.5mm), so you can hook it up to cheap speakers, like a clock radio or computer speakers.
So what I would need for the Apple TV is an optical-to-3.5mm conversion, which also involves digital to analog conversion. There are boxes out there to do this, but the $65 sort of kills the same-price argument. There are cheaper ones, too (like this one), with very mixed reviews.
Doesn’t really affect me, but the upside to the Airport Express is that it is a fully-contained router, which is nice, for example, if you’re traveling and want to set up a wifi network in your room to share the one wired internet connection. I’ve done this a lot, and it works, but is a pain because you have to have Airport Utility to change the settings (no web interface), and there’s no Airport Utility for iOS. I’m currently using one of these.
What do you guys think? Have any of you ever done any D-to-A conversion from this sort of audio connector?
December 23rd, 2010 at 3:16 pm
No idea about your DAC question– seems like a lot of trouble. It does seem like you get a lot more out of AppleTV than Airport express as far as slinging media around the house, but depends on your application. How well does a headless (screenless) apple TV work? if you initiate the stream for the server side (or from a connected iOS device), than it would seem to not matter that the AppleTV has no display, as long as what you are streaming is audio. Then again, if that’s the extent of your usage (connecting it to audio speakers), there’s no additional benefit that AppleTV brings over a dedicated iTunes receiver like the AE. But can the AE receive streams directly from an iOS device (is it fully “Airplay” compliant?)
December 23rd, 2010 at 5:25 pm
The AE can receive AirPlay streams, too (audio only, of course). The Apple TV can be moved every once in a while if needed for Netflix streaming, but honestly, I’m considering cancelling Netflix again because their streaming selection is pretty bad.
So, I don’t know. If I could get the extra capabilities of the Apple TV for a $20 premium, seems worth it. But not worth more than that, I don’t think.
December 23rd, 2010 at 7:08 pm
Yeah, I agree on setting the premium kinda low, especially since all the extra capabilities of the Apple TV require a display. Future proofing, I guess. For what you want primarily, the AE seems like a better fit. Then again, a second TV is so cheap these days. I saw a 42-in Sony Bravia for $500 the other day.
December 23rd, 2010 at 10:25 pm
Just realized that the cheap option that I posted above is for converting optical to digital coax, which doesn’t help me out at all. And brings me back to the $65 price point for the Apple TV which is pretty crazy. It’s not like the Apple TV is going anywhere, it’ll still be there down the road if needed.
Airport Express for me this time.