# Airtunes without Airport Express



## Gizmo (Nov 18, 2003)

I have a Mini and an Airport Express connected to my TV/Stereo. I normally stream iTunes from a G5 in another room to the Airport Express when I want to hear the same music in both rooms.

This seems kinda redundant because I have a perfectly good Mini sitting there that should be able to do the same thing...then I could use my airport express somewhere else.

Anyone know how I could do that....is there an "Airtunes simulator" for a Mac????

Basically I just want to stream iTunes from one Mac to another and hear music from both of them at the same time (in synch like Airport Express).

Sounds like something that should be easy.


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## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

Enable Sharing under iTunes preferences. You can do this with or without a password. Then start up iTunes on the other mac, and the iTunes catalogue of the first one will show up at left (near Playlists). It's that easy.


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## darkscot (Nov 13, 2003)

Wouldn't be in synch that way tho


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## rgray (Feb 15, 2005)

Gizmo said:


> Basically I just want to stream iTunes from one Mac to another and hear music from both of them at the same time (in synch like Airport Express).
> Sounds like something that should be easy.


I think you will be stuck with an inescapable lag with the connection you describe. The audio-out will be going direct to one set of speakers/sound system, but through a second processor (Mini) to the other.....

Although not the same netTunes might get you close.


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## Gizmo (Nov 18, 2003)

darkscot said:


> Wouldn't be in synch that way tho


Right, and I'd have to start it independently. Sharing doesn't play music, just allows you to get it from somewhere. I already share music between the G5 and the Mini and that is totally different to what I'm after.

Airtunes allows playing of iTunes music on the local machine and to an AE perfectly in synch. What does the Airport Express have that my Mini doesn't except for some firmware? It has a wirelss connection, some smarts, an audio out. Why can't it replicate the function of the AE?


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## Gizmo (Nov 18, 2003)

rgray said:


> I think you will be stuck with an inescapable lag with the connection you describe. The audio-out will be going direct to one set of speakers/sound system, but through a second processor (Mini) to the other.....
> 
> Although not the same netTunes might get you close.


Airtunes had the same problem at first.

I guess it now must use some routines to measure the lag and compensate...it works just fine now...why can't another Mac do the same thing with the right s/w?


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## rgray (Feb 15, 2005)

Gizmo said:


> What does the Airport Express have that my Mini doesn't except for some firmware? It has a wirelss connection, some smarts, an audio out. Why can't it replicate the function of the AE?


It isn't so much what the AE has that the Mini doesn't, it is more the other way around - your Mini is 'burdened with a CPU that processes everything that passes thru it. This processing takes finite time.


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## Gizmo (Nov 18, 2003)

rgray said:


> It isn't so much what the AE has that the Mini doesn't, it is more the other way around - your Mini is 'burdened with a CPU that processes everything that passes thru it. This processing takes finite time.


Fair enough, but regardless of that, there is still some lag within the AE and there is an even greater lag in the wireless connection that Airtunes can now compensate for. It probably logs the time it sends audio from the host and then to the A2D on the AE and uses that to calculate delays. It may then use this to delay the audio output from the host machine to keep them in synch...just a guess.

When you stop playing iTunes, you can hear the AE playing for a fraction of a second afterwards. I bet it should be possible to do this with appropriate s/w on another Mac too


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## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

After I turn my stereos off, you can still hear sound for a few seconds. Even from the ones that don't have tubes.


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## Gizmo (Nov 18, 2003)

HowEver said:


> After I turn my stereos off, you can still hear sound for a few seconds. Even from the ones that don't have tubes.


That's not the same...The delay I'm referring to is because of the buffer in the communication, not the residual energy remaing in an amps power supply.


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## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

Just imagine this after all of my posts : ).




Gizmo said:


> That's not the same...The delay I'm referring to is because of the buffer in the communication, not the residual energy remaing in an amps power supply.


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## Gizmo (Nov 18, 2003)

HowEver said:


> Just imagine this after all of my posts : ).


Well I've taken a week to see if I could figure out exactly what you meant here. No luck I'm afraid...I think I need it explaining...please!


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## warzauwynn (Aug 30, 2008)

*I'm also looking for this.*

It seems like a simple thing to accomplish, and like other people here I'm amazed Apple hasn't included it with iTunes, especially since auNetSend and auNetReceive are in the dev tool examples.

Somewhat fortunately, Rogue Amoeba implemented this feature in AirFoil. The problem here is that the listener that you install on each computer that you want to use as remote speakers only listens to their application and doesn't simple show up in iTunes. That means you have to buy their $25 app to get the functionality. The app is kinda neat, but not for people who only want to stream music to remote computers.

On top of that, new flavors of Linux like Ubuntu 8.04 have PulseAudio which has networked sound built in. This works on other OSes too, but judging by its very kludgy linux screenshot it's not exactly an elegant solution.


The solution I'm looking for is a simple one. I want a piece of software that I install onto a Mac that makes that Mac show up to iTunes as if it were an Airport Express, and act as such. I've been looking for a while and haven't found anything so I may end up just buying AirFoil since it has listeners for Linux and Windows too. That would be great in the office. ;-)


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