Will the MM-1 work with the USB on an airport express ? Is the DAC on a airport express as good as the MM-1 DAC ?

The Airport Express USB port is only for USB printing. All audio data is either decoded by the Airport Express on-board Burr-Brown DAC or fed via digital optical mini-Toslink cable to another DAC-equiped device (i.e. audio/video receiver, Apple Hi-Fi). Therefore, you cannot connect the MM-1 to the Airport Express via USB.

Since the MM-1 does not have an digital optical input, you would have to rely on the Airport Express Burr-Brown DAC to decode then pass the audio to the MM-1 via analog cable, which bypasses the MM-1's on-board DAC.

The highest quality connection for these speakers is directly to computer via USB.

I could not find what DAC chip the MM-1 (or Zeppelins) use, so I can't factually answer which device has the superior DAC. I do know that the Burr-Brown PCM2705 used in the Airport Express is NOT low quality. Measured tests have shown it to be a very capable DAC.

Given my fondness for B&W speakers, I would expect that B&W also uses a good quality DAC chip.

• Answered by Kyra S from Leona Valley
• Aug 23, 2010
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If you use the auxillary input you can use them with airport express. Hope this helps

• Answered by Sean N
• Apr 26, 2010
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I'm not sure about the technical part of the answer, but I use mine with my airport express connected with a USB cable, and it works just fine.

• Answered by Nancy W from New York
• Oct 30, 2012
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