All of those have had some sonic or functional problems for example, the E-Z Cast models all sound dull, unclear/veiled, and undynamic compared to the CDs, as well as having occasional connection and drop-out issues.
![audirvana plus airport express stream audirvana plus airport express stream](https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1141988948_10.jpg)
I've also owned and used a number of other inexpensive streaming receivers, including several models from E-Z Cast. The Airport Express does not upsample/resample Internet audio, but puts out a bit-perfect signal of the same bit depth and sampling rate of the original Internet audio stream it is receiving.
![audirvana plus airport express stream audirvana plus airport express stream](https://img.macg.co/2014/5/macgpic-1401176032-71728622367699-op.jpg)
The Airport Express stream, on the other hand, sounds instantly extremely like the CD of the same material. Nothing really obnoxious, but the difference is very clearly audible. But, while some might prefer the subjective quality of its sound output to other audio streamers, what I hear is added brightness and brittleness compared to CD playback.
#Audirvana plus airport express stream tv#
You might think that the resampling and/or upsampling done by the Apple TV would be beneficial since both the bit depth and sampling rate are increased. That's no problem for audio systems with HDMI inputs and my Oppo has one. The most recent Apple TVs only output their signals via HDMI. For whatever reason, Apple chose to make the Apple TV convert all audio streams to 24/48 before output. I'm thus not sure how much more there is to gain from those sophisticated and expensive streamers out there since the CD playback quality of this modified Oppo is the best I've experienced.Īnd it's not as though I don't hear differences in streaming sound quality. I also know that that same Tidal program material played from my iPhone via AirPlay and through the Airport Express also matches the CD and the Oppo's own streaming sound quality very closely. However, I also know that with CD quality streaming, the sound of Tidal streamed from the USB dongle of my EVS-modified Oppo BDP-105D very closely matches the same program material played from the CD in the disc drawer of that Oppo. Now, I know there are a lot of more recent and seemingly very sophisticated and expensive audio streamers out there these days. (I am not yet equipped to listen to Tidal Master MQA streams.) I get the same results listening through my Audeze LCD-4 headphones driven either via the Benchmark or via my SimAudio Moon Neo 430HA headphone amplifier. The subjective audio quality of playing back Internet audio via my iPhone 6 connected by AirPlay to the Airport Express and then by Blue Jeans Cable toslink (with Blue Jeans optical miniplug adapter at the Airport Express end) into a Toslink input of my Benchmark DAC3 DX, then via balanced Blue Jeans starquad cables to my Janszen Valentina Active speakers very closely matches the best I can get from any other Internet streaming method for streams up to and including Tidal's CD-quality 16/44 streaming. If you can access it and play it back on the crummy little speaker in your Apple mobile device, you can get bit-perfect 16/44 digital stereo sound into your audio system from your iPhone using the Airport Express.
![audirvana plus airport express stream audirvana plus airport express stream](https://img.macg.co/2017/3/macgpic-1489695035-54987142478775-sc-jpt.jpg)
My reason for bringing up the Airport Express is to alert everyone to the fact that, if you use a fairly recent iPhone or iPad, any of those capable of AirPlay, the $100 Airport Express is basically all you need to stream any audio from the Internet into your audio system. The Apple TV functions fine as an internet streaming receiver for both video and audio, but more about the audio quality of that unit in a minute. The Apple TV is much more powerful in terms of the types of Internet streaming it can handle. The Airport Extreme is a more recent and supposedly better performing router, but, try as I might, I could never get the Extreme to work at all with my Comcast service, so I abandoned it, went with a Netgear Nighthawk X8, and have yet to look back. Even within Apple's stable of products, it would seem to have been superseded. The Apple Airport Express is not much talked about these days.