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AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes

Bad reviews are true! DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!

Written by OO from Evergem

Nov 29, 2009

I decided to buy this product after reading some bad reviews (huge mistake) because I though they were not representing the real quality of the brand. However, it is true that this is not a good product. I bought it to combine it with my time capsule for the only purpose of streaming music wirelessly. Unfortunately for me, this product is a joke since music constantly cut off for no reasons. No matter how close or far the airport express is from the source of your wireless internet, the music suddenly interrupts. And it is also unbelievable that every time I start the microwave in the kitchen the music starts to cut off as well. This product is simply a joke with this problem being well documented by several other reviewers. Please note that I have not use the airport express to create a wireless network or to setup a printer, I only used it for the wireless music capability. I bought this product 3 weeks ago and it is back at the customer service department from where I bought it since I live in Europe and you cannot just return the product and get a refund as it happens in the US. Stay away, save a bit more money and get yourself a descent wireless music bridge system from other brands that have excellent reviews (i.e. logitech, etc).

16 of 28 people found this useful

AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes

Rarely Works

Written by DA from Henderson

Nov 28, 2009

One of the things I love about Apple is that their products just work, but not in this case. Bought this to add speakers to my computer. Works every once in a great while. I even moved it right next to my Apple Airport Wireless Router but it can't ever locate it. (everything else wireless around my house works fine, so it's not the wireless connection) Even attempted to reinstall, but it only comes back with "unable to locate wireless device". Big waste of money.

11 of 24 people found this useful

AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes

iTunes dropouts

Written by MV from Coupeville

Nov 15, 2009

Works OK as a compact router. But I bought it because it also supposedly could receive streamed music from iTunes. And it does. Some of the time.

Search Apple discussions for iTunes dropouts. It is a problem that has affected hundreds of Express users for a long time, and Apple has done nothing about it. Ridiculous. If I am going to by an overpriced piece of technology because it has extra features, those extra features better work.

42 of 54 people found this useful

AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes

Discouraged over set-up

Written by KO from calgary

Nov 14, 2009

I read the reviews on how easy this was to set-up and after 3 hours I gave up.

The installation also buggered up my existing wireless internet through my wireless modem. I have resorted to plugging my MacBookPro with a ethernet cord. The first time in a few years.

The amber light keeps blinking. Referenced the booklet, but it went as far as to say follow onscreen instructions. Pretty vague! Tried it closer to the wireless modem. Didn't work. Tried new network and existing network all failed, not that the booklet referenced what a new network or existing network means.

Who knows it could be defective.

4 of 15 people found this useful

AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes

Not working after 2 weeks

Written by TW from Winnipeg

Nov 7, 2009

I bought it, worked flawless for 2 weeks and then kaputt!

4 of 12 people found this useful

AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes

**Very** Poor Music Streaming

Written by JO from seattle

Nov 2, 2009

Music keeps cutting out when streaming over wireless. There are hundreds of people having this problem.

19 of 27 people found this useful

AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes

Equally as bad as the "extreme"

Written by KL from Boston

Oct 29, 2009

Well, after returning the Extreme Base Station because it was totally unreliable, I foolishly "settled" for this model. It has proved equally as bad as the extreme. Your computer will rarely, if ever, detect that this unit is out there (even if it's plugged in directly next to the computer). Don't waste your money. As much as I don't like other operating systems, I'm reluctant to trust Apple.

5 of 20 people found this useful

AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes

Good out of the box... not so great after that.

Written by MC from Waterloo

Oct 28, 2009

Purchased 2 years ago. Died within a year. Was replaced on warranty. Died again within a year. No longer under warranty (Warranty on replacements is only 90 days).

Main problem - doesn't hold an IP address. (strange, but true)

Only one ethernet connection (What if you have an Xbox? Or other device that needs ethernet?)

Sound quality is horrible.

Only Apple product that I have come to regret buying.

18 of 30 people found this useful

AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes

AirTunes not functionning properly with Snow Leopard

Written by FG from Aix en provence

Oct 12, 2009

Since I upgraded to Snow Leopard, I am not able to use Airtunes for more than a couple of minutes before dropout. Have to restart AE every time. This is a basic feature that was not supposed to dissapear. Tons of feedback on this issue in all forums, no feedback from Apple.

26 of 31 people found this useful

AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes

Went dead before completing a year!

Written by KA from new york

Oct 10, 2009

This product needs to have an extensive quality of control work, it went dead before completing its first year, not to mention dropouts of signal when transmitting music through AirTunes.

One sentence, stay away from this, at least until it gets better.

ps: I'm a AEBS (ndraft) (the bigger model) user and its heaven! best WiFi router I've ever purchased.

11 of 14 people found this useful

AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes

wireless connection

Written by JH from Mount Pleasant

Oct 4, 2009

Do not buy if there are more than one wireless network within range of dwelling. I can't setup a wireless network in my house because my MacBook notices too many other wireless networks to connect to. The signal isn't strong enough from Airport Express. I have even tried to change channels to 5Mhz and to change to a different room. I have had no luck with either method. Worked great in my last home. I have had nothing buy problems in my new house.

36 of 56 people found this useful

AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes

Connection problems and dropouts...

Written by ZH

Oct 4, 2009

As all the other users I did find this product a great thing until I installed it. There are far too many drop outs and connection problems. The funny part is that it seems that nobody have had any response from Apple on this subject, thus thousands of complains on the Internet and on Apples official forum sites. Could a good guess be that Apple has discovered it to be a hardware problem that of course is unfixable unless replacing all sold airports!? My recommendation on this product: don't by it until Apple has made a statement on the issue and a fix for it. You wouldn’t run on a bike with at flat tire either!?
Fix the problem and the product would be worth all 5 stars!

Sorry for my bad English.

29 of 41 people found this useful

AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes

Stay away from this if you love music

Written by EP from Richmond Hill

Oct 3, 2009

This is pure garbage, music drops all the time, tried everything, everything! If you are buying this to wireless stream music then do yourself a favor and wait for a new device cause this will drive you insane when your favorite songs drop every 20 seconds. Don't listen to all the hype here they are apple sheep, there are thousands of complaints of music dropping on this device, call tech support and they are very familiar with this problem, they will tell you it's interference, well DUH don't you idiots think in this modern day of technology the neighbors also have wireless devices at home, what a stupid excuse for a poor design.

14 of 22 people found this useful

AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes

worst mac accesory ever!

Written by DV from Miami

Oct 2, 2009

Airport Express base station is the worst accessory ever. The reach in very limited, so temperamental (only works when he wants), so unstable that after a year of having it whit me, I’m so tired of trying to make it work. If you are having a party in your house, it would make you angry. Continuously it will stop, because of the floor vibrations, because of some one moving the laptop… and so on.

7 of 11 people found this useful

AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes

DO NOT BUY IF YOU'RE LOOKING TO STREAM MUSIC

Written by DA from Granada Hills

Oct 1, 2009

I have two of these, the old 802.11g model, and this new 802.11n version. I bought the new one because the experience with the old one was so wonderful. I bought it for its one advertised purpose that interested me: a cheap and easy way to extend my iTunes music and podcasts to remote speakers in another room. With iTunes version 7 and earlier, it worked wonderfully, so I had no reason not to get a second one when the n model came out. Sadly, ever since iTunes version 8 and 9 came out, you cannot stream music to these things without constant stuttering of the music. Every three to four minutes, you'll get a 3-5 second drop-out of the audio. Extremely annoying. There are hundreds (or more) complaints of this in the Apple forums for over year, but no fix yet.

27 of 34 people found this useful

AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes

Don't buy it for the AirTunes feature

Written by MC from Toronto

Sep 30, 2009

I bought it because of the airtunes feature... very, very disappointed!!

Don't believe only in what I'm saying here, go and Google "airtunes dropouts" or "itunes dropouts" and you will see how many people are unhappy about this.

The worst, is an old problem that Apple is not able to fix.

About the "mobile" wireless network function, I don't know, I don't use it like that.

Very disappointed!! I miss my 100 bucks!

13 of 17 people found this useful

AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes

Frustrating

Written by PD from Pembroke Pines

Sep 30, 2009

This worked beautifully the first day, day two, Internet goes on and off all the time, I called apple tech support 1000 times and there is something about interference, I relocated it everywhere and I changed the channels many times but the problem persisted. Its a good idea, easy set up, a good concept, but doesn't work. I kept it for the speakers but i think its to expensive to be used just for that.

7 of 11 people found this useful

AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes

Lots of potential

Written by JG from Savannah

Sep 29, 2009

Music streaming has short stutters every minute or so when using the latest itunes. Works great with itunes 7, but the latest itunes are required to sync iphones. Would be a great product if Apple fixed the microstutters. Stutters possibly originate due to itunes not syncing the music stream to the soundcard clock...

6 of 11 people found this useful