How to "Upgrade/Replace" Ethernet Apple Airport Express Airplay Connection from Mac to DAC/Receiver?

[Artifex]

Hi folks,

 

Firstly, wishing everyone here a very Happy New Year's Eve tonight!

 

I've only recently started posting here, and am really grateful for the expert advice so far. This new "problem" is one that's been bugging me for a while, and I'm sure I'm missing a simple solution!

 

 

THE BACKGROUND

I currently have my main "Hifi" (Macbook/Audirvana/Hugo/Amp/Speakers) setup in my Living Room, have my music housed on my home server (Mac Mini/RAID) in my Study Room, and sometimes also listen to music at my Home Theater setup (Mac Mini/Plex or iTunes/Bose LifeStyle 535), which also serves to pipe music throughout my home in ceiling speakers.

 

Everything is connected via Gigabit Ethernet.

 

My home theater setup is a simple one, just a TV and a Bose LifeStyle 535 V35 receiver connected to both a local 5.1 surround sound speaker set and also to my home-wide speakers (ceiling speakers). In addition to the Mac Mini running Plex or iTunes mentioned above, sources for this also include my Blu-Ray player, Cable TV, Satellite TV, etc, and a: Toslink Optical from an Airport Express, which in turn gets its input from my main Hifi setup in my Living Room via AirPlay from Audirvana Plus 2.0 (in standalone mode).

 

 

THE ISSUES

 

The music coming through my home-wide speakers via the above last setup (Living Room Hifi Audirvana -> Airplay -> Ethernet -> Airport Express -> Toslink Optical -> Bose V35 Receiver -> Homewide amps and speakers) is pretty crappy at the moment (very muddy across the entire range).

Just to be clear, I control the music via the Living Room Hifi Audirvana, i.e., I set the Bose V35 Receiver to channel the Airport Express source in "passive mode" (that is to say I turn the Bose on, set the source, and then go back to the Living Room).

 

While the Bose V35 and the home speakers aren't fantastic by any means, the "normal" quality (e.g. from the local sources - Blu-Ray or even the local Mac Mini running Plex/iTunes) is still much better than what I am getting from the above path from my main Hifi.

 

 

POSSIBLE CAUSES

 

1. Lack of a discrete DAC in the above path?

2. Downsampling by AirPlay/Airport Express of all files to 44/16?

3. Ethernet cabling quality (the contractor was supposed to have used Cat 6 GigE cabling but I haven't been able to verify...)?

 

 

POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS CONSIDERED

 

1. At the Home Theater setup: Insert a DAC between the Airport Express and the Bose Receiver

 

- But will not fix the AirPlay/Airport Express downsampling issue.

 

2. At the Living Room Hifi setup: change the source of the music going to the Home Theater, from Audirvana/Airplay, to Audirvana/USD/DAC (I'm currently using a Hugo)

 

- But how to get the signal from the Hugo to the Home Theater system?

 

3. At the Home Theater setup: Get something like an Auralic Aries, with input via Ethernet and output via Toslink optical to the Bose Receiver

 

- But from what I understand, I won't be able to simply "play" my music from the Living Room Hifi Macbook/Audirvana (where I have all my playlists etc set up, and control via Parallels on my iPad), i.e., I am guessing that the Aries would only allow me to control it via its own specialized (Lightning) App, to connect to music on my Study Room/Mac Mini/RAID.

 

Or am I mistaken here? Can the Aries be set up to simply act as a passive conduit between my Living Room/Macbook/Audirvana and the Home Theater/Bose Receiver - in essence an "upgrade" to my existing Airport Express/Airplay connection?

 

 

YOUR ADVICE REQUESTED

My apologies for the long question! However I would really appreciate any advice, as to which of the above 3 solutions would be best - or if there is another fix that I haven't considered!

 

Many, many thanks in advance!

 

 

Art

 

____________________________________________

 

 

SETUP DETAILS

 

Study Room (Home Server Setup)

 

LaCie 5big Thunderbolt 2 RAID -> 2014 Mac Mini 8GB RAM OS X Server (Music Files stored here) -> Gigabit Ethernet -> Cisco Switch

 

Living Room (Main Hifi Setup)

 

Cisco Switch -> Gigabit Ethernet -> 2014 Macbook Air 13" 8GB RAM -> Audirvana Plus 2.0 in standalone mode ->

 

a) Hugo -> Woo Audio WA5 SET Class A -> Audeze LCD-XC / KEF Speakers

b) Airplay -> Gigabit Ethernet

 

Home Theater

TV and Bose LifeStyle 535 Receiver, with inputs from:

 

a) Gigabit Ethernet -> Airplay -> Airport Express -> Toslink optical

b) 2014 Mac Mini 8GB RAM -> iTunes / Plex

c) Blu-Ray / Satellite / Cable etc

 

The Bose Receive outputs through local 5.1 surround speakers and also to the home-wide speakers.

 

NOTES

 

- All Macs running OS X 10.10.1 (Yosemite).

- Assume I can't run RCA cables from my Main Hifi system DAC to the Home Theater (2 rooms away).

[blueixus]

My guess is your problem exsists between the airport express > toslink optical > bose.

 

I run my kitchen system from an airport express that connects me to itunes in the sitting room via ethernet. I run a toslink optical connection from the airport express to a NAD 3020 and the sound is OK but like yours a bit muddy, in fact running bluetooth from my phone/ipad to the NAD 3020 produces a notably better sound.

 

The NAD 3020 is a well rated very modern device so I have concluded the airport express is the probably weak link. The only route is therefore is your route 3 but there may be better streaming options with analogue out (thus eliminating the toslink optical & DAC in the Bose) such as a Marantz NA8005 but like you say you will need to use a different app to control the music. I would look at this as I don't think the airport express toslink optical can deliver at the level you wish...

[johann]

IIRC, Airport Express using digital out measured quite decent in Stereophile some 8 & 9 years ago so the should sound still sound okish even with todays standard.

 

I would try with the AE in your living room hooked up to your Hugo to get a baseline. If that also sounds bad, look for some better netwrok player. If it sounds good enough for your standards, then I would start with trying to eliminate the network as a source of error, you can test by copying some large files from your HT Mac Mini. In a Gbit Ethernet you should in theory be able to copy close to 125 MB/s if the soruce and receiver can handle that but even if you see something like 25 MB/s or even down to 10 MB/s, that us by a magnitude more than 44.1/16 needs so it should be fine.

 

Following that, I would continue with testing using your Macbook Air hooked up to the Bose Receiver using same TOSLINK input, playing 44.1/16. Now you should have an idea if it is the Airplay with Bose that is the problem or the Bose or some settings in the Bose.

 

Or if you just want to get some new player, you could also start with that.

 

Cheers

Johan

[Artifex]

Many thanks for the detailed responses so far!!!

 

As far as you guys know - is there anything that can do what Airplay/Airport Express does, but without the down sampling?

[Artifex]

Hi all,

 

Apologies in advance if I'm being ignorant here, but would a Sonore Signature Rendu be what I'm looking for here? I just read about it here: Computer Audiophile - Sonore Signature Series Rendu Review