Review: Apple Airport Express for Music Broadcast Over WiFi

If you haven’t already read our article on Apple’s latest set of gadgets that work together to broadcast music throughout your house, do that now. This review makes much more sense in that context.

One of the key components to Apple’s audio broadcast setup is the Airport Express, a simple device that plugs into the wall and boasts the following capabilities:

• Create a wireless network (it has an ethernet port).
• Extend an existing wireless network using a bridging capability.  This is nice if you want to make your wireless network work in a part of your house that has weak signal.
• Host a USB printer from the network (instead of connected directly to a computer).
• And our personal favorite (and the reason for the review): receive iTunes over your WiFi network using AirTunes, and output the signal to a 1/8″ headphone jack connected that will output both analog and fiber-optic digital.

We are currently using an Airport Express to receive broadcasted iTunes from Kim’s laptop to a receiver located in our master bedroom closet. The receiver powers Klipsch speakers on our deck. When I first heard about Apple’s capability, I was skeptical about the performance, particularly streaming music over WiFi. Here’s our experience with the device for those interested in giving it a try:

Apple Airport Express Review

Setup Review

Setting up the Airport Express should be pretty simple and straightforward. Unfortunately, we ran into a compatibility issue with our Verizon FIOS router and the default WEP encryption. We had to change our entire wireless setup to use WPA security.  After the switch, the router ran great. If you happen to find yourself in this situation, Apple’s support forums have a great article on Verizon’s Actiontec Router and the Airport Express.

Other than that hitch, the instructions Apple provided were very adequate. If you aren’t a techie, it might be useful to invite over that special someone in your life who can make gadgets dance.

Music Performance Review

We had three concerns going into the Airport Express purchase:

• The WiFi network wouldn’t keep up with the data rate required for streaming music.
• The iPhone Remote’s interaction with iTunes would interupt the music or make it skip.  This was happening on the laptop itself when the remote was in use.
• The quality of the sound would be degraded due to the number of “hops” in the system / bandwidth issues.

I’m happy to report that none of these fears came to fruition.  The Airport Express broadcasts music flawlessly from our iTunes setup.  There’s a minor 2-second delay that affects response times from the remote, but facilitates the streaming audio.

Printing, Creating and Extending a Wireless Network

We briefly used the airport express to create a wireless network.  It works well, but the broadcast range is shorter than our Actiontec Router. We didn’t try the extending a network feature or the printing capability, but would expect both to work well.

Where to Buy an Airport Express?

You can learn more about the Airport Express at Apple’s Airport Express Official Site.  If the device is right for you, you can save 5% off the retail price ($99) by picking up the airport express at Amazon.  Amazon ships the unit for free and you can avoid sales tax in some locations.

What do you think?  Do you own the airport express? Add your own experiences in the comments…

by: Fred | May 28, 2009 | filed in: Reviews
Related Tags: airport express, Apple

share this article: stumble digg

• 

Possibly Related Articles on this Site:

• Print Wirelessly with Airport Express
• Klipsch Outdoor Speaker Review (Model KHO-7)
• Multi-room Audio and Ultra-Cool Remote with an iPhone o
• Valspar One Coat Primer Review