airtunes after two weeks

I've had the Airport Express/AirTunes combination for about two weeks and it seems like a good time to comment.

The operation of the unit is straightforward. We have an airport that link our two iBooks and Ti Powerbook to the house wired net. The Airport Express lives on a powerstrip about two meters from the living room stereo. Installation was trivial. Run the installer and it just worked. We have seen a couple of dropouts associated with nearby lightning strikes, but otherwise it seems solid.

What I didn't expect was how thoroughly it changed my listening habits. The portables have terrible speakers - sometimes I plug headphones in to use iTunes and we have a usb link to the stereo, but the convenience wasn't there. That has changed - now the portables are powerful remotes that give access to the full digital library that is distributed among the Macs in the house (Rendezvous is very useful in iTunes). Access is much easier than going through the physical stacks and I tend to think in terms of playlists these days.

To some extent I share some tastes with Jessica, Fernando, Tom and some Oberlin folks. When they recommend music I have a strong tendency to acquire it or dust off the old CDs or LPs and digitize them. This creates another set of playlists from musically vetted friends.

I had all of this in my iPod, but I have to manage the libraries as the iPod is very small compared to our digital library and I see the iPod as a mobile device anyway. Now I have it, with a more than good enough interface, on the home stereo with speakers I love.

The other huge bonus is online streaming radio. I frequent about two dozen mp3 streaming stations from around the world (check publicradiofan,sorting on mp3s). Believe it or not the WNYC-FM stream sounds better than their FM feed fifty kilometers from their transmitter. Now I have a great radio receiver that I can script.

I also use a Griffin PowerMate - a programmable knob that feels as good as the knob on my Drake SW receiver or any $10,000 preamp. You need one of these - it makes your Mac feel luxurious.

And finally there is Audio Hijack Pro 2.0 from Rogue Amoeba. Any audio that can be played on our OS X Macs can be captured as AAC for later playback ... any audio (think about that). TiVO radio and more. It is highly programable so you can get Fresh Air, Quirks and Quarks and other important programs while you are away.

We had most of the pieces for some time. AirTunes supplied the critical functionality to make it all really work. I have tried some audiophile prototype and production units that claim to do the same thing - some of them cost more than a loaded PowerBook and all of them provide an inferior experience.

A remote control for this is irrelevant and unwanted in our situation.

What I need to focus on is the social aspect of music - we worked on that a few years ago and made some progress. Apple and the other players are still in the dark ages. This is where the next level of experience lurks. I've spent too much time at Oberlin to miss that point.

There are a few minor issues, but I'm very happy camper. Not only is this better than anything I've used, it is clear that there is much to be done to make it even better.

Comments

[Tom S]

I bought my second AirPort Express over the weekend. They extend the range of wifi in our 3500 sq ft home and we have two stereo zones.

They work well.