AirPlay, Airport Express and DACs

[Sevenfeet]

I would agree with the assessment that a DAC would make an Airport Express sound better.

 

The AEs (all versions) only accepted music by a 44.1 khz stream over the Airplay protocol.  This led too some frustrating times in the 802.11b/g days when early AEs were prone to music drops every time Wifi bandwidth got ugly.  And because iTunes transcoded everything to 44.1 regardless of what trashy MP3 file from Napster you were streaming back then, the data payload was always been high.

 

These days things are usually better for bandwidth but Airplay is still 44.1 PCM.  And if your music library isn't any higher bandwidth that Redbook CD, the AE is still a good transport but the internal DAC isn't anything to stand up and scream about.  But every AE can do Toslink with a special cable.  So in theory a simple connection to any DAC with Toslink is a good idea.

 

The potential problem is that AEs aren't known for their ability to manage jitter so if you're DAC is especially fussy about this, you may have problems.  I think I read somewhere that the current AEs still on sale are a little worse for jitter than the previous generation ones.  But regardless, if you have an AE and a capable DAC, it's a good thing to try.

[Sevenfeet]

1 hour ago, Ralf11 said:

Two related questions:

 

1. Is the Apple TV3 similar (in terms of audio processing issues, such as jitter, etc.) to the Airport Express(es)?

 

2. What are good DACs to use with these devices?  e.g. for me how is an Oppo Sonica or the version of it in an OPPO-205 disc player?

 

for the OP, what DAC is he using now?

 

I'm not sure I'd use an Apple TV v3 with a DAC.  The Apple TV is notorious for resampling everything to 48 khz, even if the source material coming over Airplay is 44.1.  So I think you'd even up with an unwanted resample out to the DAC.  An Airport Express won't do this.

 

ted_b has told me that the Sonica is basically the Oppo 205 without the disc player and headphone amp.  Similar platform.

[Sevenfeet]

It might be easier to find a DAC that has good jitter reclocking.