AirPlay for high quality music playback?

[Shangri-La]

 

I’ve been looking for the highest possible quality way to play/stream music from my MacBook, wired or wirelessly. So far my discovery is that AirPlay has about 90% sound quality of Audirvana (using UPNP/DLNA). USB is not feasible as I sit 6+ ft away from the DAC.

Here’s my setup:

MAC ~~~~Airplay or UPNP/DLNA~~~~ Raspberry Pi Volumio --- Parasound Halo Integrated --- Akitika GT-102 AMP --- GoldenEar Triton Reference

The Parasound Halo Int (currently only using its DAC/Pre-amp part) will soon be replaced by Benchmark DAC3. Amp may be upgraded to Benchmark AHB2 when it’s back in stock. 

Scenario 1 – AirPlay: I use a third-party music streaming app and cast the MAC system audio to Volumio using AirPlay.

Scenario 2 – Audirvana (UPNP/DLNA): I find the same song in TIDAL/Qobuz and play through Audirvana using UPNP/DLNA.

Since the third-party app (Kuwo) is not integrated in Audirvana so can only be played via AirPlay system audio out. From my observation Scenario 1 AirPlay sound quality is about 90% of Scenario 2 Audirvana. I can use Audirvana if I need to play my local ripped music file.

There are 2 variables here: the streaming app and the wireless playback. I think it’s reasonable to believe the apps provide same sound quality (Kuwo vs TIDAL/Qobuz). I suspect the difference I heard is due to sound quality between AirPlay and UPNP/DLNA.

So what is the general consensus of AirPlay as a mean of high quality music playback, and how it compares to UPNP/DLNA? I wouldn’t mind wired connection if it provides higher sound quality but I really doubt it.