AirPlay vs. BT LDAC?

[trl]

Late to the conversation but I have both the first generation and 2nd generation Airport Expresses. I compared them via the 3.5mm audio connection a couple of days ago and I heard a difference. The earlier one didn't quite have the clarity of the newer one, especially in the midrange. The 2nd gen is really quite a decent sound. I might add an external DAC for this one in time but it doesn't feel urgent. I'm using vintage gear - a Quad 33/303 amp and B&W DM601 S3 speakers.

Can you please record the same audio file played on each Airport Express and compare them via DeltaWave? It would be nice to analyse the graphs and numbers, otherwise your subjective comparison might be not very appealing to most ASR readers. Thank you!

 

[DavidM1]

Can you please record the same audio file played on each Airport Express and compare them via DeltaWave? It would be nice to analyse the graphs and numbers, otherwise your subjective comparison might be not very appealing to most ASR readers. Thank you!

Heck! No, I don’t think I’ll do that. My opinion is subjective and a mere single data point, but I’m sure that was obvious. Just throwin’ it out there.

 

[Kijanki]

According to Stereophile review of AE it outputs small 80ps jitter on S/Pdif, but very high jitter artifacts on analog output (lack of jitter = better clarity). I've used 1 and 2 generation with optical out and couldn't hear any difference between them. In addition 1st generation AE doesn't work well with newer OSX. In order to set it up I had to bring Ethernet cable, otherwise computer doesn't see it. No problem with second generation.