WiFi System Upgrades

Well, 1st and foremost the ATV resamples everything to 16/48 before it even hits your DAC. Then the DAC Magic does it's thing (more oversampling). So, if you want to keep wifi in the mix you might be better off using an AirPort Express instead of the ATV or perhaps a streamer like the Bluesound Node 2 or the Auralic Aries Mini. Of course a new computer would be another choice as you mentioned. Good Luck.

Love my Bifrost Multibit too.

Yes, I've heard that - but is the resampling audibly bad?  Up sampling is often touted as improving sound quality...

I thought Roon was a subscription service?  I dislike paying monthly fees...

Roon costs $120.00/yr. (Not exactly free but a good value compared to the cost of a decent DAC)

When I installed Roon during my free trial, I had it playing over my Apple TVs within ten minutes of the download. It doesn’t modify your system or your iTunes library or metadata at all and, when you’re done, delete the app and you’re back at square one. Also, Roon reminds you when the trial is about to expire so you can cancel.

Upsampling can be beneficial in some cases but a chain of multiple upsampling/resampling seems like inviting opportunities for quantization errors. Whether I can actually hear/detect such errors I can’t say.

+1 to Airport Express. Has a Toslink out. Plays like Airplay. I am pretty sure it Airplay doesn’t upsample 44k samples to 48k when transmitting to Airport Express.

Yesterday, I purchased a Bluesound powernode 2, mainly so my wife can access our music library easily.

My streaming system often fails and the reasons vary, but most are related to iMac OS upgrades. Fixing problems can be tricky and way beyond my wife's skillset.

Bluesound has got it right...top marks for...
- easy setup - mine uses ethernet
- intuitive control interface, mine is android based
- excellent sound quality
- basic manual controls on top of case - very nice feature
- clean design

This unit has left me wanting a Node 2 for my audio system.

It's  not prerfect, but by comparison to my imac, it's bloody marvelous

Instant access to tons of free radio stations and many popular streaming services

The Node 2 will replace my iMac and v-link192, but will still work with my Bifrost 😊

I'm a convert 😃

Regards
 

@williewonka 

I've had my Node 2 for about three months. You are correct in your assessment of Bluesound. The Node 2 is the main source of my system. The whole family loves it. I use its DAC and it sounds fantastic. I've felt no need to use my external DAC (Arcam rDAC), although I'm sure down the line I will do a comparison, which is always interesting and sometimes fun to do. 

The BluOS ap is very good and a pleasure to use, build quality is great and customer service is outstanding. I do hope you try the Node 2; I would love to hear your impressions of it in your system. If you have the time or inclination report your thoughts on a comparison of the Node 2 DAC and your Bifrost, please.

Cheers,

Scott