Apple Music Streamer/DAC for Apple Music

[phrehdd]

With various sites offering up HD and higher bitrate music, dedicated streamers seem to have become quite popular.

Does anyone have recommendations for streamers to work with Apple's music to have a good playback of lossless?

 

[Crunchynut]

What do you mean by good playback? Are you referring to producing good quality audio, or are you referring to the ease of use and feature set of the music app?

Bottom line is that most reasonably priced DACs will reproduce with great transparency, with any distortion beneath the audible spectrum. Some may not be able to cope with the higher sample or bit rates, but that depends whether we can hear any difference with those high sample rate tracks anyway. You would need to have a very high quality system to stand a chance of doing so, and even then it is debatable whether the difference is audible. Science says it isn’t. So I would concentrate on normal cd quality as good enough (16 bit 44.1khz).

 

[phrehdd]

What do you mean by good playback? Are you referring to producing good quality audio, or are you referring to the ease of use and feature set of the music app?

Bottom line is that most reasonably priced DACs will reproduce with great transparency, with any distortion beneath the audible spectrum. Some may not be able to cope with the higher sample or bit rates, but that depends whether we can hear any difference with those high sample rate tracks anyway. You would need to have a very high quality system to stand a chance of doing so, and even then it is debatable whether the difference is audible. Science says it isn’t. So I would concentrate on normal cd quality as good enough (16 bit 44.1khz).

Thanks for the response and suggestions.

Aside from a regular "entertainment" setup with AVR or a pre and amp, I had wanted to find a simple way to play back both Amazon Music HD / UHD and Apple lossless. For now, I am using a mid quality set of speakers on the desktop that includes its own DAC for bitrates up to 24/96. The speaker pair has multiple input choices and does a decent job when up and close (as should any desktop speakers) - Peachtree M24. Presently, I use Amazon's and Apple Music apps along with Audirvana app for all local music that is not "iTunes." (Mostly flac 16/44.1 up to 24/96). I am aware my speakers wont add value to much above CD quality but always nice to play files at their given bitrate.

I was hoping to maybe consider a streamer with the idea it would later be added to an entertainment center and move away from using my Mac for playback.

 

[Crunchynut]

I used to use a Mac-mini with Audirvana but I found it all got too convoluted and messy, to the point I didn’t know quite what I was listening to in terms of bit depth/sample rate after the signal had gone through various steps in the chain. Now i use my iPad or iPhone, either wired to an RME ADI-DAC-FS2 to get full resolution, or if i want the convenience of wireless then i use airplay to an old Apple TV (3rd gen I think) that has a Toslink output on it, which I also connect into the RME. The latter is only good for 16bit 44.1KHz, but honestly I can’t tell the difference between red book and higher bit depth / sample rate tracks, but I agree with you that it’s comforting to play it as presented rather than re-sampling etc.

I used to try and link my ripped music with the streamed world, but again it got so messy. So since I have no prescious rips, I just ditched that world and exclusively stream now. It has been a game changer in terms of broadening the music I now listen to.

My music chain is now really direct - Apple Music > DAC > Power Amp > Speakers.