Apple TV vs Dedicated Streamer

[chaz91]

I went in to a hifi shop today and explained my system (Roksan Kandy K2, V90 DAC, Klipsch KLF20 and apple TV). The owner grimaced as soon as I said apple TV and he said that he thought it would be bottlenecking my system.

I've seen many people using apple TVs on here (and I love it) but wondered if he was right - could it be bottlenecking? Has anyone made the conversion to a streamer and noticed a major difference?

I know there's the arguement about 48khz upsampling etc, but would it make as big a difference as he let me to believe?

Thanks in advance for the help

 

[chebby]

You said you love it. Some twonk in a shop screwing up his face shouldn't change that.

 

[the record spot]

What he said.

 

[ifor]

I've just put together a Raspberry Pi - HiFiBerry Digi - Volumio streamer (about £50). I haven't managed to enable all it's functionality yet, but it's working fine with wired AirPlay. I've not listened to it much yet, but first impressions are that it's as good as the ATV through the same DAC, but I don't know it it's better. It's a fun and cheap project though.

 

[chaz91]

That was my first reaction - don't like to be told something's broke when it clearly isn't so they can get a sucker-sale. However, it left me thinking (and I still am), even if it's a purely academic question, do you think streamers do a better job than an Apple TV would?

 

[John Duncan]

Borrow one and decide. My StreamMagic sounds fantastic but I am hard pushed to tell the difference between an airport express plugged into the DAC section and it streaming natively. I'd be inclined to look at functionality and UI rather than bragging rights, especially since you have a good DAC already.

 

[MrReaper182]

You said you love it. Some twonk in a shop screwing up his face shouldn't change that.

I agree with that.

 

[unsleepable]

That was my first reaction - don't like to be told something's broke when it clearly isn't so they can get a sucker-sale. However, it left me thinking (and I still am), even if it's a purely academic question, do you think streamers do a better job than an Apple TV would?

I take it for granted that DLNA is a better protocol than AirPlay. It's much more flexible for home set-ups—having server, player and controller separately—, and it simply allows to do more stuff than AirPlay—like browsing your music collection. On the other hand, AirPlay already transmits bit-perfect audio and it is well supported by Apple devices. So if you want to play music from a Mac, an iPhone or an iPad, or from iTunes, AirPlay is just too easy to ignore, and gives top-noch quality up to the resolution supported by the receiver. On the other hand, if you are investing in a new Hi-Fi streaming device to play music from a NAS, for example, maybe it would worth it to take a look at DLNA solutions.

As for quality, just to play for example audio CDs, I believe that AirPlay and DLNA both provide the very same quality.

So in my opinion, unless you want to change the way you play music, and start playing it from a NAS; or would like to move to higher-resolution audio, I don't think there would be any reason to replace your Apple TV.

 

[chaz91]

That's excellent - thanks for the helpful responses!