Yamaha WCX-50 vs standalone DAC and Apple TV ?

[yurka77]

so i have both and im having a hard time deciding what to keep for audio only purposes lets say. Are there any advantages of having the streamer Yamaha wcx-50 vs apple tv connected to my TEAC UD-501 dac while streaming audio from my phone? seems to me that they both do the same thing

 

[gvl]

Perhaps a non-issue but I'd be somewhat concerned about Apple TV's ability to allow bit-perfect output to the DAC, something for you to investigate. The Yamaha has a COAX digital output which is better (less jitter) than optical which is the only digital output available on the Apple TV but it seems the TEAC has a built-in jitter eliminator through sampling rate up-conversion, so potentially higher jitter with Apple TV shouldn't be an issue at least when the upconvert is enabled on the TEAC. The Yamaha probably integrates better with DLNA-based media servers/NAS devices and also hi-res material if that's something you might be interested later on. None of your devices support DoP over SPDIF therefore if you ever decide to play DSD content you'd have to do it from a computer connected to the TEAC over USB anyway.

The Yamaha actually has a fairly decent DAC in it, so unless you have other uses for your TEAC you may want to consider to just keep the Yamaha and sell the TEAC if you find they sound more or less equivalent for your purposes. One device eliminated and more cash in your pocket, can't be bad, right?

 

[Velocityboat]

so i have both and im having a hard time deciding what to keep for audio only purposes lets say. Are there any advantages of having the streamer Yamaha wcx-50 vs apple tv connected to my TEAC UD-501 dac while streaming audio from my phone? seems to me that they both do the same thing

What services are you streaming from the apple TV and what versiion of apple TV? If iTunes you are better off with apple TV since it will stream apple lossless. It will sound more detailed than doing phone wifi which gives you compressed MP3 when you mirror your iphone using airplay. Apple lossless to DAC via tosolink optical off apple tv3 beats airplay.

If you have Apple TV4 download pandora app. The premium Pandora service is 24 bit 192 KHz streamed. Probably also through Yamaha box if it has Pandora. Sound is much better than itunes streamed lossless. Your DAC needs to accept HDMI or buy a splitter box to take digital audio off the HDMI signal and feed to DAC by fiber or SPDIF if DAC has no HDMI input.

Apple TV4 also lets you use iphone as a wifi remote.

I would check bit quality higher is better that DAC is receiving from each streaming app. Use box that gives highest bit rate.

 

[gvl]

Huh? Stream Apple lossless from where? There was no lossless downloads from iTunes last time I checked. Pandora premium is a mere lossy 192kbps stream only which is not even CD-like quality, 192kHz/24bit is hi-res, no one offers this format for streaming. I apologize but you clearly have no idea what you're talking about.

 

[yurka77]

So when i use Apple TV 3, i get music from the "internet radio" icon on apple tv, whatever that means. This is option is only avail on apple TVs not on iphone. My apple TV in this case is hooked up via optical cable to either the Yamaha WCX-50 as a DAC or my Teac UD-501 DAC. One of those in turn feed the preamp via RCA cables.

But when i use my phone, I stream Spotify or Pandora wireless via apple play straight to Yamaha WCX-50 or I stream wireless to Apple TV which than sends signal via optical to Teac DAC, than to preamp.

So my question was is there any difference in those 2 options while streaming from the phone and/or is there any reasons to keep one device over the other.

Also, is the audio straight from Apple TVs "Internet Radio" app to DAC higher quality than streaming Sporify/Pandora from phone to Apple TV or to WCX-50 and than to DAC ?

 

[gvl]

Ok, you don't have to use Airplay when using the Yamaha, in fact you shouldn't. Get the official Yamaha MusicCast app and play your streaming services from there, this way the stream will arrive directly to the WXC-50 and not through your phone which in theory may improve SQ as playing through AirPlay may cause some additional processing of the signal. Being able to bypass the AirPlay is probably the biggest benefit of the Yamaha, it may improve sound quality and even if not you can turn of the phone and the music will continue.

 

[MakingWaves]

Hello All,
I have the Yamaha WCX-50. I also had the Definitive W adapt. I bought both for a shoot out and although neither was better than the other at all things I settled for the Yamaha.

The MusicCast app is a bit low featured, I hope that once the popularity of these devices takes off Yamaha will pay for additionally functionality. How? well, I use Tidal for streaming HighRes MQA streaming of audio files. The sound is excellent but the interface with MusicCast (MC) is poor. MC does not support the full features that Tidal does offer. (yet?) FF, RR, Liner Notes...

Additionally, I have just purchased the Onkyo DPX1A to interface with the WCX-50....so far, No Go. It's not that it can't be done. I think it's that it can't be done by me.
Time to read the manual.
It's all new so I'm going easy and learning as I go.

As far as sound...Beautiful. The WCX does sing. Which is why I chose it over the Definitive.

 

[gvl]

I don't think the WXC-50 supports MQA, only Tidal Hifi, which is CD quality. You could use a PC with the Tidal app and connect the Yamaha with a Toslink cable, then you can play up to 96/24kHz with Tidal Masters titles.

 

[uofmtiger]

Wow! So much incorrect information in this thread.

1. Airplay has been proven to be Bit Perfect with CD quality files (16/44.1). You aren't going to get a better signal than Bit Perfect. The actual playback device could be jittery, but that is typically handled by the DAC if you feed it a digital signal.

2. The Yamaha WCX-50 does have some several on board audio sources available, but it is limited when compared to Airplay and an iPhone. I have had my WXC-50 for quite a while and have played Hi Res, DSD, Airplay, Bluetooth, on board apps like Tidal, internet radio, SiriusXM. Airplay with similar bitrates sounds as good as any other source in my opinion.

3. AppleTV vs WXC-50 - The AppleTV does not put out Bit Perfect audio for your typical CD quality file. It upsamples to 48khz from 44.1. That being said, I doubt that most people would notice. However, most audiophiles don't like the idea of resampling their files.

If I wasn't going to use the video features of the AppleTV I think the WXC-50 does a lot more for audio (including support for DSD and Hi Res files). If you want video, obviously, the AppleTV is the better option.

 

[yurka77]

Thanks UOFMTIGER, that clears things up for me. How do you rate WCX-50 as a DAC only lets say. If i was using Apple TV as video and audio and had it hooked up to a standalone dac like Teac UD-501 vs using WCX-50 as a DAC in the same scenario ?