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New Apple TV & Airport Express

Today, I got both an Airport Express hooked up to my Audioengine A5+ speakers and an Apple TV connected to my home theater setup. I've been sitting on the couch for the past few minutes doing a quick comparison between a CD playing via HDMI from my Sony blu-ray player and the same album playing from Apple Lossless files through the Apple TV via HDMI.

Am I correct in assuming that in both cases the A/D conversion would be in my receiver which, should in theory, be virtually identical? They sure should nearly identical, but if I had to pick a winner it would be the CD. Obviously, the PC to Apple TV adds a few more links in the chain so one would expect there to be more degredation introduced to the final result.

My biggest reason for the comparison was to see if I should get interested in a stand alone D/A unit for my tube amplifier. At this point, I think I'll stick to CDs for the critical listening and use the Apple stuff to replace the 6-disk CD player for whole house background listening. I'm not sure why I didn't get these before, they are sweet!

My wife already loves being able to stream music from her iPhone to the Audioengine speakers. I also already love the mirror feature on the Apple TV, I can already see many ways for this to be useful and fun.
mceljo
mceljo OP
1,357 posts
 
I don't think I am interested in a DAC for my AE with Audioengine speakers simply because of how they are used.

I may have to get another AE and DAC to connect to my tube integrated. Would it be reasonable for PC iTunes to AE to DAC using Apple Lossless files to equal the quality of CDs through my Elite SACD player?
mceljo OP
1,357 posts
 
I will be picking up a used Maverick TubeMagic D2 DAC tonight for a nice price. I made an inquiry with one of the local hi fi shops and discovered it. The tube option just adds to the fun. It has the NOS tube and an upgraded chip, I don't know much about either. I think they are upgrades, but might just be upgrades compared to the D1.
mceljo OP
1,357 posts
 
After picking up the unit and doing a little more online research, what I have is a Maverick Audio TubeMagic D2 DAC w/ OPA627 OpAmp Upgrade & GE5670W tube. I don't even have the necessary cables to hook it up so it will be on the shelf for now.
mceljo OP
1,357 posts
 
I found my toslink cable today along with a pair of SPDIF cables to use temporarily for my stereo RCA cables and the sound from Apple Lossless files on my iPhone via the Apple TV to tube DAC to tube amplifier resulted in a great sound that at first listen appears to at least match what I get from my SACD player.

Very happy with my initial results, but have to wonder if I just passed judgement on my ears, SACD player, or my entire system with this new gateway. I wasn't anticipating that it would sound this good.
mceljo OP
1,357 posts
 
Last night I had the opportunity to turn up the music and do a more careful comparison of my SACD player and the new DAC. In an A/B comparison I could tell a small difference, but am positive that I would be pretty much guessing if I were forced to identify one without a direct comparison. I noticed the sound becoming slightly more clear switching from the tube DAC to the SACD player, but didn't always notice the reverse effect when switching back.

Today I switched to the DACs solid state output and really cannot distinguish any difference. I had to turn the volume down on my computer to match levels (which isn't ideal) and there is no chance that I could tell a difference in sources in my system.

My paradigm is shifting slowly as my expectation of my SACD player being superior appears to be incorrect.

I am comparing the SACD layer on the disks to Apple Lossless files in most cases and the Redbook CD when that is the only option.
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