Have your say & ask the experts

I was in the Mac store in Regent street today just about to buy the express when it occurred to me should i get the express or rdock,surely i dont need both or do i,or maybe even the Gotham cable from Pod to Amp.

Many thanks 

The Airport Express only works with iTunes installed on your PC / Mac (at the moment anyway) so if you're looking for something for your iPod, it won't be any good to you.

Thanks for the reply

I have got i tunes on my Mac and what i have on itunes is on my ipod so what i am getting at is i have the same thing on mac and ipod but wish to be able to play on my hifi,unless i,m missing something can i can stream from mac to hifi then i dont really need rdock or am i missing something.

Thanks 

Ah okay, sorry, I was assuming you were just looking at your iPod. In which case, yes, you can either stream tunes from your Mac to your Hi-Fi using Airport Express or you can buy an rDock, hook it up to your amp and use your iPod to play the tunes - whichever is easier for you, but you're correct you don't need both.

thanks for the reply professorhat.

got to be one of these Airport express or rdock

You decide 

The rdock or Airport express

you decide 

I don't understand...

which one shall i buy (folk on here are more knowledgeable than i)

Thanks 

Really depends on your circumstances I think. Are you happy that you will have to have your Mac on when you want to play music? Is the Mac even in the same room as your hi-fi, otherwise you'll have to go into another room to change the song. If these are issues, the rDock is definitely a better choice as it's more practical.

Not heard sound through the rDock so can't comment on sound quality - John Duncan has a big thread where he's tested the Airport Express though which you can read here. However, do you store all your music at lossless / high bitrate formats? If not, I'm not sure this will really be an issue either. I'd go for whichever makes more sense to you.

Cheers for the reply

The Mac is always on.Dont tell the green brigade. If i set an album on the mac presumably the whole album will play on the hifi without me having to select each track. The music i copy from cds are lossless but the stuff i download from (sites i probably shouldnt mention here are in mp3 format usually,should mention that i have bought an immense amount of music on the back of being able to download  other than 30 sec snipitts.

Thanks 

blackcabmal:

If i set an album on the mac presumably the whole album will play on the hifi without me having to select each track.

No probs - just so you know, iTunes will play through the Airport Express to your hi-fi the same as it does through speakers hooked directly up to your Mac i.e. start playing an album, it will play the whole album, start playing your entire Library on shuffle mode, it'll do that with no stops etc.

Oh, and also, the line out on the Airport Express is also an optical digital out, meaning you can hook it up to an external DAC (like the Beresford one) which should improve the sound substantially. Haven't tried it but I think John intends to so worth following that thread above! I'm pretty sure this isn't an option with the rDock / iPod lead.

I think it all comes down to whether you want the hassle of needing to have your iPod available in order to hear stored music on your stereo - Airport Express does away with all that, and if you add airfoil, you can stream any audio from your computer to your hifi (BBC Radio, for example). Unless you have an iPod Touch or iPhone, though, there's no remote control - you have to manage it from the computer.

Note however that after initial favourable impressions, I have found audio quality of the AE to be lacking compared to CD, even with lossless and a better cable - hence my search for a DAC. You may find it worth spending the extra and getting a squeezebox.