Apple Airport Express

[Hawkeye83]

Hi,
I have an Airport Express that I've used for the past 3 months or so. Was using analog output (red and white into 3.5mm headphone cable). I want to switch to digital out. IDEALLY I need to go from that 3.5mm output to digital coaxial. I bought this cable, but it's not working:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01AF98IY0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Is it possible to get "digital coaxial" out of an Airport Express? Or are the only options analog output or 3.5mm to optical output?

Thanks!

 

[uofmtiger]

Hi,
I have an Airport Express that I've used for the past 3 months or so. Was using analog output (red and white into 3.5mm headphone cable). I want to switch to digital out. IDEALLY I need to go from that 3.5mm output to digital coaxial. I bought this cable, but it's not working:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01AF98IY0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Is it possible to get "digital coaxial" out of an Airport Express? Or are the only options analog output or 3.5mm to optical output?

Thanks!

I am not aware of a way to get coax out from it directly.

 

[KevinJS]

The Airport Express has a built in miniTosLink. AFAIK, the router will recognize the digital cable. The cable you show will be recognized as analogue by the look of it.

It’s not possible to plug a coaxial cable into the Express.

 

[KevinJS]

BTW, most Macs, not including the latest MacBookPro, also have the digital optical output built into the headphone socket.

 

[Yamaki]

What will the digital cable be plugged into? A DAC?

 

[Hawkeye83]

Yeah I have a Bel Canto 3.3VB...it has one USB, one optical, two coaxial (also AES but I don't even know what that is at this point, lol...never used it).

There are a few different ways I could go about this.

Right now my optical input is coming from my TV...so I get audio from my digital antenna, NVIDIA Shield, and DVD player, all coming from the TV, through the optical, into the DAC. That's really the only source I have going into the DAC right now.

I will in the near future be getting a CD player which will occupy one of the coaxial inputs.

Option 1:
The other coaxial input, I could get an HDMI switch. I could feed my DVD player and NVIDIA Shield into the switch, then coaxial out of the switch to the DAC.
This frees up the Toslink for the Airport Express.
USB would not be used.
I actually already have an HDMI switch. I had it hooked up. But it does not support 4k, and I'm not willing to lose my 4k video. It's an older switch. I would buy a newer one that supports 4k in this set-up.

Option 2:
Airport Express using the Toslink
DVD player direct to DAC, using coaxial 1
CD player direct to DAC using coaxial 2
NVIDIA Shield direct to DAC using USB.
I like this set-up because everything is direct.
The problem so far is I haven't managed to get the NVIDIA Shield USB audio output to work. I haven't tried direct to the DAC yet, but I hear the USB audio in this DAC is not great. I do also have an accessory "m-Link" by Bel Canto, which takes the USB to SPDIF, but this requires a driver...it's meant for a PC...I'm not sure if I can get the Shield to work with this "m-Link" plus then I have to give up my coax 1 and the DVD player has no way to be hooked up then. I guess I could just try the NVIDIA Shield direct to the DAC without the m-Link and see how it sounds.

Likely I'm just going to bite the bullet and go with option 1 and buy a new HDMI switch that supports 4k. I don't really like sending my audio through a switch box or a TV if I don't have to, but as long as my "critical listening" set-up goes straight to the DAC, I won't go all "audio nervosa" about it, lol. The Airport Express would be how I do most of my listening. I may eventually get a MAC Mini and experiment more with USB Audio and see if I can get that "m-Link" to work.

Hope all of this makes sense!