Airplay Sound Quality-does a wireless transport make any difference if you are not using a dac?

In my experience wireless falls short of wired.  I use Airport Express where you use Apple TV and Arcam rDAC where you use the DACmagic.  When iMac and Airport Express are working wirelessly sound quality is poor.  So I have turned off WiFi on iMac and Airport Express and connected them via Ethernet and Devolo HomePlugs.  The result is excellent.

It's not music being transmitted over the (wireless) network, it's packets of data transmistted using well known network protocols.  If so many packets are lost such the original data cannot be reconstructed, you'll get a silence or click, not more treble or a less tight bass.

 

One obvious things to check is to make sure you haven't got any EQ set when using the mac. Failing that, the apple tv does resample everything to 48KHz.  This is generally considered to be inaudible, but you never know.

 

 

 

Points well made by WinterRacer.  I should have made it clear that my sound quality issue when wireless were dropouts rather than sound quality issues.

When I first started streaming from the iMac I had it set to adjust volume so that it was equal regardless of the recording volume.  Bad mistake!!  Presumably this would affect wired as well as wireless.

Thank you for your suggestion, I am not (thankfully) being affected by dropouts so I think I can avoid the hassle of having a wired connection. I don't know how to turn off Apple Tv resampling everything to 

48khz, according to the dacmagic's display it is playing at 48khz now.....any idea how to do this? All I can see is the 16 bit option on the Apple Tv

You can't turn it off, that's what the Apple TV does.  I'd be amazed if it's causing any problems though.  I use an Apple TV 3 and have no problems with sound quality with it.

 

Just to rule it out, have you tried a blind test to make sure the differences are real? It's easy to imagine differences, especially when we have the idea that absolutely everything affects sound quality pushed by various communities.

I know what you mean about the placebo effect. However, it was a shock to me how the sound signature of my entire system changed through the ATV, hard to fathom why, I haven't experienced the same change via airport express and airplay. I think that it might be the optical cable I use to connect my ATV, as its different from the one I use for my mac. I don't believe in digital cables making a difference boohah, but I think I'll give it a try and see if it changes things.

I've just had to return to using my ATVII. I bought the newest model whose only difference is supposed to be 1080p HD video instead of 720p. I'm hoping that the new one is faulty 'cos I'm getting serious dropouts on audio over WiFi & will be returning it to the Apple shop I bought it from soon.

That aside, my ATV works very well - I usually use it via a PC connected to my router via Ethernet that then gets streamed to my ATV over WiFi. The ATV is connected to my M-DAC through a cheap 0.5m optical lead. Although I haven't done a recent comparison, the difference of streaming Apple lossless, 256k & 320k files versus my Rotel CDP (1m coax) was good enough for me not to worry. A good friend who's ears I trust felt the same - streaming over WiFi sounded no worse. He is 60 & I'm fast approaching the same so our ears are probably poorer than they used to be. I mention this because I recently tried the ABX MP3 comparison test here:

http://mp3ornot.com/

and failed badly! I'm not a huge fan of such short tests of music I'm not familar with anyhow but many see such tests as conclusive - I'm less convinced. iTunes sounds marginally better from my laptop through synchronous USB but close enough to be my imagination (as long as it runs on battery power!). I also use iTunes Match that streams at no higher than 256k when my PC is switched off in my bedroom - can't say I noticed any difference but neither am I particularly searching for one - I prefer to just enjoy music & fix any problems when I notice them.

Thank you for your opinion busb, I would not have been worried if it was a tiny difference as I really like the convenience of the Apple Tv. However, the difference is striking and as streaming music is my main source I think its far too important not to get wrong. I'm trying out different cables atm to see what can bring it 90% of a wired connection to my mac. Wish me luck

I do indeed wish you luck

As you don't know me you can conclude that either I've got cloth ears or that the ATV works fine for some people so it's just a matter of sorting out why it isn't for you. No surprises that I go with the latter!

Hi Shafin

 

Hope you got to the bottom of the ATV sound quality issues. I've been using my ATV2 for over a year now and I’m really happy with the sound quality. I can't tell the difference between the ATV wirelessly streamed music and a cable straight from my mac into the amp. 

 

I mainly use Spotify premium streaming 320kbps into the ATV plugged directly into a Denon AVR-1906 (no separate DAC) with B&W 684 speakers.

Currently using Spotify Premium over wireless into the ATV3.  I can't fault the sound quality, it's as good as the wired version and as good as the CD player.

Hey Karl, if you have the Denon then you can use a spdif cable to connect the ATV to your Denon, it will then use your Denon's dac and will considerably improve sound quality.

Thank you Karl and TRS for sharing your opinions. I have managed to sort out the problem, I was using a really cheapo spdif cable, I switched to a better built one and the lack of solidity disappeared. I don't think I can tell the difference between the ATV and a direct spdif connection to my mac anymore since last night. I'm not gonna open a can of worms and say digital cables make a difference but I rest my case. 

Best Regards,

Shafin

Hi Shafin

 

What's the difference between a spdif and "normal" optical cable and why would using a spdfi bypass the ATV DAC and use the Denon one? Or am I missing the point entirely?

I'm pretty new to all this so please forgive my ignorance!

 

Thanks,

Karl

Spdif is the stubby square head optical connection, whereas the normal connector has the same shape as a 3.5mn jack.  You can get adapters between the two.