gdgt

I've had very good luck with it. I've used it at parties for hours with not so much as a second of buffering or pause. I would make sure your wi-fi isn't hanging up for some reason.

I bought a refurb Airport Express and the Airplay would sound awesome for about 40 seconds, cut out for 5 seconds and then play again, repeating the process. It worked fine for Airprint, but sucked as a router so I brought it to the Apple store and was able to switch it out for a new AE.

The new one still works great for wireless printing and Airplay, but still sucks as a router. I ended up buying a better router and that helped me connect multiple devices at once to my wifi. I agree with mbairhead in that your router could be a limiting factor, but the position of it could be an issue too. I have mine positioned a few feet away from my stereo and router, on the floor and have no interference. Reading through the setup guide informed me that having the AE near a receiver can cause issues.

I mainly use it for streaming from my iTunes on my iPhone and streaming Pandora. I don't use Spotify or Slacker, but I wouldn't imagine those programs to have issues separate from general interference that it seems like you're experiencing.

My suggestion would be to find longer ethernet cables and try moving it around. If that doesn't solve the issue after you've reset it multiple times take it to the store and try to get a new one. I didn't have to show a receipt or proof of purchase when I did my exchanged.