[erimille]

I'm not quite getting the sound I was expecting from my airtunes office system and wondering if the problem might be my Toslink to miniplug cable. Has anyone experimented with different cables and found any significant difference in quality?

The  OPTOCOUPLER Mk II  seems like an interesting option, but i'm not quite ready to blindly jump yet without any sort of reviews
- http://www.vandenhul.com/p_B42.aspx

The notion of buying toslink cables and then toslink-mini adapters isn't one i'm particularly fond, but if folks have found something that works on this front, I'd be interested hearing that as well.

My current cable is from STSI
- http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370045067214

I have nothing to compare this cable to, but i'll admit the STSI folks were quick, friendly and professional.

thanks in advance,

--e

[Crimson]

I've only tried the Monster kit for the AEx which includes a mini-to-toslink cable. Overall it seems fine, but I've never tried anything else. More info here.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Here is the one I use. There are two different sizes of Toslink to mini-optical.

http://www.shopallmonster.com/nav/monster/productdetails.aspx?pin=790&pid=21634

[erimille]

Here is the one I use. There are two different sizes of Toslink to mini-optical.

Are you referring to cable length or (gasp) there are actually different sizes of toslink and / or mini-optical inputs?

http://www.shopallmonster.com/nav/monster/productdetails.aspx?pin=790&pid=21634

Thanks for the pointer. Curious if you've had the chance to compare the monster one to any others?

--e

[Andrew JC]

How about looking here http://www.sysconcept.ca/product_info.php?cPath=25_29&products_id=219 They have adapters too.

[Christof]

I have the OPTOCOUPLER Mk II and am very happy with it.  Like you mentioned, I could not bring myself to use an adapter so I sprung for 2 of them a few years ago.  I have only used one of the two but have no idea where the second one has ended up    I'd make you a very good deal otherwise.....I'll look about a little more but even at retail price it's a very nice cable.

[erimille]

I have the OPTOCOUPLER Mk II and am very happy with it.  Like you mentioned, I could not bring myself to use an adapter so I sprung for 2 of them a few years ago.  I have only used one of the two but have no idea where the second one has ended up    I'd make you a very good deal otherwise.....I'll look about a little more but even at retail price it's a very nice cable.

If you can find it, i'd be interested. you have email.

--e

[texendo]

I'm not quite getting the sound I was expecting from my airtunes office system and wondering if the problem might be my Toslink to miniplug cable.

I wasn't dissatisfied with mine until I tried plugging the toslink directly into my laptop instead of going through the wireless Airtunes route.  The difference isn't subtle; Airtunes degrades the sound.  I am using an Altmann Attraction DAC with the JISCO jitter function.

[erimille]

I'm not quite getting the sound I was expecting from my airtunes office system and wondering if the problem might be my Toslink to miniplug cable.

I wasn't dissatisfied with mine until I tried plugging the toslink directly into my laptop instead of going through the wireless Airtunes route.  The difference isn't subtle; Airtunes degrades the sound.  I am using an Altmann Attraction DAC with the JISCO jitter function.

I'm not convinced my problem is with the optical cable, but rather trying to minimize any / all problem areas and this seems like a prime candidate. My current office gear is *far* more responsive in terms of cables for example than I care for I hadn't quite thought that airtunes might in fact be the (or at least 'a') problem to factor in as well. Can you elaborate on how Airtunes degrades the sound? This seems counter to what I would have thought. Is there anything that can be done to improve on this?

--e

ps: the Altmann Attraction DAC w/ JISCO jitter sounds like a very nice set-up and one I would have thought would have been an excellent match with airtunes.

[erimille]

How about looking here http://www.sysconcept.ca/product_info.php?cPath=25_29&products_id=219 They have adapters too.

Thanks Andrew JC for the pointer. I recall running across this site when I was first looking for a cable just to get things up and running. I suspected the quality of these on par with the STSI cable I ultimately went with. My suspicions were based simply on a similar price point.

I'll admit thats not the best criteria for comparison by any means, so if anyone has any feedback on sysconcept's toslink line I (and I suspect others) would be interested.

--e

[erimille]

I wasn't dissatisfied with mine until I tried plugging the toslink directly into my laptop instead of going through the wireless Airtunes route.  The difference isn't subtle; Airtunes degrades the sound.  I am using an Altmann Attraction DAC with the JISCO jitter function.

As a quick follow-up, I too was not happy with Airtunes until I set the correct sample-rate and set word-length to 24 bit. Since then, I've been much happier.

Also, ITune 6 is *horrible* compared to ITunes 7 regarding high(er) quality playback.

--e

[chrisby]

How much of the degradation heard via AiriTunes is the quality of DAC in the little white box?  Apple is not primarily an "audiophile" company, and while they continue to do an amazing job of packaging 15lbs of performance in a 10lb box, sooner or later something's gotta give.

I keep procrastinating myself in trying one of the small optical input DACs ( the AudioMagus DAC707SE looks like a safe cheap date) 

[erimille]

How much of the degradation heard via AiriTunes is the quality of DAC in the little white box?  Apple is not primarily an "audiophile" company, and while they continue to do an amazing job of packaging 15lbs of performance in a 10lb box, sooner or later something's gotta give.

I'm bypassing the the Airport Express DAC via optical out (still looking for Toslink to miniplug cable thats the basis of this thread) and into a Channel Island VDA-1 + VAC-1. I found the quality of the Airport Express DAC poor. It works for me in a pinch, but not for any serious listening.

I assumed from texendo post, he was referring to something else about the wireless nature of ITunes / AirTunes that would be degrading the signal but not sure.

I keep procrastinating myself in trying one of the small optical input DACs ( the AudioMagus DAC707SE looks like a safe cheap date) 

I compared a friend's AudioMagus DAC707 to a home-brew solution [1] when I started testing the waters in this space (since then I've found I liked it and upgraded considerably).  In short, if you have the time, solder and tools the home-brew solution trumped the DAC707 hands down. That said, the DAC707 was surprisingly good and in hind-sight I suspect I would have been better off simply going with that black box to get a sense of what AirTunes has to offer.

In short, I've found AirTunes to be the basis of a *very* listenable office set-up. It's not replacing my reference system (yet), but its far more enjoyable than I would have thought.

--e

[1] http://www.audiophiletalk.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1204065355

[chrisby]

I'm bypassing the the Airport Express DAC via optical out (still looking for Toslink to miniplug cable thats the basis of this thread) and into a Channel Island VDA-1 + VAC-1. I found the quality of the Airport Express DAC poor. It works for me in a pinch, but not for any serious listening.

I assumed from texendo post, he was referring to something else about the wireless nature of ITunes / AirTunes that would be degrading the signal but not sure.

I keep procrastinating myself in trying one of the small optical input DACs ( the AudioMagus DAC707SE looks like a safe cheap date) 

I compared a friend's AudioMagus DAC707 to a home-brew solution [1] when I started testing the waters in this space (since then I've found I liked it and upgraded considerably).  In short, if you have the time, solder and tools the home-brew solution trumped the DAC707 hands down. That said, the DAC707 was surprisingly good and in hind-sight I suspect I would have been better off simply going with that black box to get a sense of what AirTunes has to offer.

In short, I've found AirTunes to be the basis of a *very* listenable office set-up. It's not replacing my reference system (yet), but its far more enjoyable than I would have thought.

--e

[1] http://www.audiophiletalk.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1204065355

OK, now if vaguely remember the above conversation - it sounds like you may have made some changes to the "home-brew" solution. Can you confirm what those would be? 

 

[erimille]

OK, now if vaguely remember the above conversation - it sounds like you may have made some changes to the "home-brew" solution. Can you confirm what those would be? 

The home-brew solution was more of an experiment. I was considering building an office system around AirTunes and wanted to know if it was worth it. The Airport Express DAC didn't cut it for me, so I was looking for the "best" < 100$ DAC I could find to get a sense of what the Airport Express as a transport could do. After a bit of research, this is what I think is a great deal for < 100$.

-  DAC KIT (basically I believe these are the guts of the Zero)
  - http://cgi.ebay.com/24bit-192KHz-DAC-DIY-KIT-FULL-ASSEMBLED-KIT_W0QQitemZ230261770203QQihZ013QQcategoryZ14978QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

- A Burr Brown OPA2604AP chip (significant upgrade to stock one)

- the cheapest Digital Audio Toslink to MINI OPTICAL cable you can find (the one from STSI works well)

I simply mounted this to a board via offsets (not safe, and not recommended), just to get a sense of what this had to offer.  After listening to this for a couple weeks, I was convinced I could assemble a very enjoyable system around AirTunes.

Since then I've upgraded my office speakers, amp and DAC to something that is starting to really work for me. I just wasn't willing to invest in this system, until I had a better sense of what AirTunes had to offer.

The DAC KIT has been grafted into an old Sony STR-G3 amplifier and is now driving my Walsh2's in a bedroom setup. The DAC was too good to simply not be used.

I've been sketching out how one could build a decent low cost Decco-like clone around an airport express, gainclone and this DAC KIT, but thats a different thread

--e