AirPort Express Base Station w/ AirTunes
Posted by Notcot on Mar 28, 2010 in PCs & Laptops |
Product Description
Easily create a wireless network at home. Enjoy your iTunes music library in virtually any room of your house. Share a USB printer without obtrusive cables. And do it all with the latest wireless technology.
- AirPort Express Base Station 802.11n &
- AirPort Express Base Station 802.11n & AirTunes
This is a clever multifunctional device. It can be used to extend your existing ‘n’ network, it can be connected via a USB port to allow wireless printing from all your computers around the house, and it can stream music from i-tunes when connected to powered speakers.
Unlike other reviewers, I had no problems setting this up, or updating the hardware. In my installation it’s wirelessly linked to an Apple Time Capsule which is used the the ‘n’ base station – linked by cable to a router. The AP Express is by my printer and provides access to network printing. It’s also linked to a stereo system and will play i-tunes tracks from any computer on my normal stereo.
If you travel this an excellent piece of kit. If your hotel has broadband but no wireless network you can easily take the AP Express with you and set up a network. I do this a lot and because the AP Express is so small it’s not a problem taking it.
The downside – well like at Apple wireless solutions there’s no modem built in so you need two boxes rather than one. With the Express I can forgive this – it is just so small. I’m feel more strongly that Time Capsule and AirPort Extreme should feature in built modems.
At £65 this device is good value and getting it to work – in the fairly complex way I’ve set it up – was easy.
Rating: 5 / 5
What I am impressed with is that the audio playback does not have any kind of delay over the network. You can verify this as is possible to play itunes through multiple speakers, so if you have the computer speakers and airport express both sending out sound, the output is perfectly in sync. I’m surprised since most digital equipment tends to have some inherent delay, so well done Apple!
If you’ve bought yours second hand like I did, make sure you update the firmware (7.4.1 at time of writing) as I did have a few problems when it was on 7.3.2. Also you may want to use the Manual setup option to set the IP address as it tried to grab the same IP my PC was using, so caused a conflict on the network.
One other thing, if you plan having this in the kitchen next to the microwave, when the microwave is on it will interrupt the signal enough to lose connectivity. So if you can place it a good distance away.
Rating: 5 / 5
Just got one and had no probs setting it up with vista. Hardwired it with ethernet cable first to do the set up then unplugged the cable. Just using it for airtunes and it sounds great. Very impressed, might well get another to add sound to another room too. Have tried it in my attic room and it found the network and started streaming within 60 seconds!!!
Rating: 5 / 5
This is a brilliant concept with a well executed product design. However, there are some problems.
I love being able to play my music wirelessly around the house, it’s both novel and incredibly practical. Whilst this should be a simple install and play job, it isn’t. Whilst the configuration is harmless, the provided documentation is inadequate and a basic knowledge of wireless networking is required. Not a problem for me.
The idea behind the product is that I should be able to listen to my music wirelessly around the home without interruption. Not the case. The status light reliably starts flashing orange to highlight connectivity issues during regular use. This requires the simple turning off and on of the device to reboot, but when the idea is that you can install this behind a dresser or desk then forget about it, then the concept fails. You shouldn’t have to constantly attend to it whilst in use.
No other wi-fi devices in the house have these issues, so it’s not the home network.
Rating: 3 / 5
After reading other reviews concerning problems setting up, I’d been put off buying this for a while, but when I found one going cheap in PC World I couldn’t resist. Following the simple instructions I was set up and listening to music in 5 minutes, I’m amazed how good it sounds too especially when ripped in apple lossless. There’s also a video tutorial on Apple’s website if you really do get stuck.
Rating: 5 / 5