Apple TV Streaming Sound Quality vs Streamer?

AppleTV resampling to 48k makes highs sound tizzy. It doesn’t sound good. Do yourself a favor and get a decent streamer, like a Blusound Node 2/2i as others have suggested. If you’re going to use an external DAC and don’t need the enhanced wifi of the 2i, save a few bucks and get the Node 2. Node 2i DAC section sounds better than the older Node 2, and the wifi is faster.

I'm using ethernet connect my Node 2, and also using an external DAC so only need the streaming features. Don't need the enhanced wifi and don't plan on using the internal DAC so I went with the older Node 2 and saved $175.

I would get the Node 2 used. If you decide you want to upgrade you'll pretty much make your money back when you sell it. The next step up price wise if the Auralic Aries, but it is limited to Apple devices for remote control and from what I've read it only sounds better than the Node 2/2i if you splurge for the better power supply which significantly increases the price to ~4x that of a used Node 2.

No idea regarding DSD capabilities. I've never heard a single piece of music that was DSD encoded. I have a Job Integrated amp that can decode DSD128, but I do not have any DSD encoded music to give it a try.

audioengr | steve

Why do you say FLAC will never sound as good as WAV? My understanding is FLAC is 100% lossless. If a device were to decompress the FLAC input and place into a memory buffer which then feeds a DAC, shouldn't FLAC sound as good?

And regarding ethernet, it would seem the fix to all of this crap with sync/async would be to standardize on a protocol for audio that is similar to TCP/IP in that it features error correction built-in which feeds into a memory buffer (memory is cheap nowadays) which would then feed the DAC section. I have no idea why the audio community hasn't figured this out already.

Benchmark DACs are known to be razor sharp. You're better off replacing it with something else, such as a NAD M51, or something from Chord.