Bye, Bye Bluetooth Streaming—Hello AirPlay! Need DAC Suggestions

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wdlvwdlv

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 62
Hello,

I recently decided I needed to make some improvements to my system, note, I primarily listen to music in vinyl format as a personal preference, however, I also to a lesser degree listen to digital music on Apple Music or streaming from BBC Sounds. I also do not have any Hi Res Audio files or resources so cannot comment on that.

So, why am I writing this, well I am considering adding a DAC to the system. In the process I began questioning why am I using Bluetooth to transmit the audio, yes it's convenient but is it killing my sound? Ok, once that was decided it could be a culprit, I thought should I introduce a Raspberry Pi streamer and then thought to myself, why? That's when I remembered that I had an Apple TV Gen 3 with Toslink optical out. I connected this to the system and wow, there was quite a difference compared to Bluetooth. The audio was much clearer, more noticeable highs and midrange, tighter more responsive bass. I continued A/B testing and will not go back to Bluetooth unless necessary. Bluetooth by comparison sounded muffled and distant, clearly less concise (likely due to the lossy compression in BT).

Other considerations:
  • Airplay is lossless streaming via WiFi up to 16bit/44.1KHz anything above that gets downsampled
  • Noticed occasional jitter on my receiver with it's older internal DAC (Pioneer Elite VSX-32) - 10yr old technology
  • A DAC within the range of $200-250 may be in order (considering Schiit Modius or Topping DX3 Pro or other)
  • Apple TV Gen 3 is limited in its native apps, but can stream anything from new apps running on an iPhone
  • Home Sharing enables to see audio files on my MacBook Pro

I'm set on using AirPlay for now as it's clearly an upgrade but a DAC could be in order as well and should help with the jitter I experienced. I'd love to hear feedback and your own experiences with streaming.

TIP: For anyone with an Apple TV 4 or 4K, Apple has unfortunately deleted a Toslink optical out, however all is not lost, apparently you can stream the audio from there to an Apple TV Gen 3 (if you have one). This is a more elegant way of doing it than getting an HDMI audio extractor or god forbid going Bluetooth out. This is a great tip from Darko Audio, link below.

Apple TV 4
Settings > Audio and Video > Audio Output

https://darko.audio/2016/03/connect-the-4th-gen-apple-tv-to-a-dac-without-hdmi/

So, clearly in terms of audio out the Apple TV Gen 3 is a winner.
« Last Edit: 9 Nov 2020, 10:35 pm by wdlvwdlv »

Digitalnomad

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 8
If you can find one, I had great luck with the Arcam Rplay which supports AirPlay 2

dangerdawg

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 5
Since the new Bluesound Node has been released, people have been selling their old Node 2i's in the low $300 range, might get lucky and find one in your budget.

Nsm1979

I have an Arcam RPlay in mint condition I would be willing to sell.  Contact me if interested.

tomoy

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 6
With Apple Music going to Lossless and High-rez, I too am tempted to move to a DAC.  Research led me to similar: Schitt seems to be a top contender. I currently have an Audio Engine D1 for my headphone setup. A 4th gen Apple TV, so no optical out.  Was thinking of upgrading to a 4K, but my Marantz A/V receiver’s DAC isn’t great.  The AudioEngine fed by an iPad sounds better.  May have to look into your 3rd gen Apple TV solution.  Dang, I sold mine over eBay when I upgraded :-P



mahadragon

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 4
I am using Apple Airport Express A1392. It has a great DAC built in for streaming from the iPhone. Ken Rockwell did a glowing review on it: https://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/airport-express-audio-quality-2014.htm

Pretty good for what I consider ancient tech. I have been using Apple Airport Express 2nd gen since I was living in Seattle back in 2012. I generally use the iPad to stream from Spotify. I am able to stream to all 3 of my Airport Express units and control the volume independently from the iPad. This is a feature that didn't exist back in 2012. I had to buy a special app just to do this.