Apple Music to SU - MacBook optical out vs Apple Express

Posted by: ChrisByrd on 05 April 2017

At the moment I play Apple Music using a QED Performance Graphite cable to connect the optical out on a MacBook Pro to my SU. Sound quality is actually not bad - I slightly prefer it to Spotify (using Spotify Connect) as it sound slightly warmer to my ageing ears.

I see some people use an Airport Express connected to their Naim Streamers, but how would the sound compare to the Macbook optical out route? At the moment, the only really drawback in terms of usage is that I have to use my Macbook to select the music to be played - Apple Remote on the iPad does then give limited control over playback.

Has anybody compared SQ?

Any advice welcome

Posted on: 05 April 2017 by ChrisSU

I haven't tried my MacBook via optical direct into a streamer, so I can't answer your question exactly, but I have in the past used an AE optical into a Superuniti. The sound quality was kind of OK, but no match for UPnP streaming over the network. I used it as a convenience feature for lossy streams, and for that it was perfectly adequate, but for best sound quality, I wouldn't use it.

Posted on: 05 April 2017 by ChrisByrd

Thanks Chris. Yes I use UPnP for the bulk of my listening, which is mostly classical these days. I only really stream for casual listening and to audition albums to see if I want to buy them or not. The attraction of Apple Music for me is that it integrates with my old iTunes library - mostly rock, jazz, etc., which I'll probably get round to re-ripping to CD quality one day.

I don't particularly want to get another box, so will probably stick with the optical out route.