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AirPlay vs. DLNA Streaming - Which is better?
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Posted on July 5, 2015 at 07:04:34 | ||
Is there a reason one of these protocols would sound better than the other when streaming from the same Windows 7 PC using ALAC files? (1) JRiver streaming via DLNA (2) iTunes streaming via AirPlay I have two receivers that have both AirPlay and DLNA capabilities - a Marantz NR-1603 and a Yamaha RN301 - and I would swear one of these protocols sounds a lot better than the other on both receivers, which have wired ethernet connections. The streaming PC is also connected via wired ethernet. |
RE: AirPlay vs. DLNA Streaming - Which is better?, posted on July 5, 2015 at 12:18:07 | |
Posts: 1845
Joined: March 31, 2008 |
If I remember correctly, in the past JRiver downsampled everything to MP3 to save band width. I wonder if ALAC is supported by DLNA as it has been a proprietary protocol for long. If not, it is probably converted by JRiver to MP3 You might check JRivers DLNA settings. The Well Tempered Computer |
RE: AirPlay vs. DLNA Streaming - Which is better?, posted on July 5, 2015 at 15:02:28 | |
Posts: 1845
Joined: March 31, 2008 |
If this is the case, DSP like format conversion can't explain the perceived differences.
The Well Tempered Computer |
RE: I would love to ditch JRiver..., posted on July 7, 2015 at 18:31:05 | |
Posts: 2667
Location: NY Joined: July 31, 2000 |
Runs on almost any platform. |
RE: AirPlay vs. DLNA Streaming - Which is better?, posted on July 7, 2015 at 19:09:27 | |
Posts: 2667
Location: NY Joined: July 31, 2000 |
Were you dropped on your head as an infant??? |
RE: AirPlay vs. DLNA Streaming - Which is better?, posted on July 7, 2015 at 19:32:33 | |
Posts: 2667
Location: NY Joined: July 31, 2000 |
Posting to ones self is a sign of early onset dementia. |
RE: DLNA implementations not bit perfect?, posted on July 8, 2015 at 05:10:03 | |
Posts: 1845
Joined: March 31, 2008 |
The transport used for DLNA audio streaming is plain old http-get, which uses TCP and is bit perfect. Correct but this doesn't guaranteed bit perfect audio as the server or the renderer might do transcoding. When DLNA devices discover each other on the network, they exchange their properties (indeed pretty much like USB device enumeration). If these properties don't match, the server is supposed to do the transcoding to a format the renderer does understand. Part of the DLNA standard is that all should be able to handle raw PCM. This is probably ones best bet. Configure the server to output raw PCM only (must be done anyway to feed a DAC) and probably most renders will play it. Of course it might be that a renderer don't support 24 bit or is limited in sample rate. A nice tool is the Media Renderer Analyser by Whitebear Anyway DLNA servers like Minim or Asset UPnP allows you to configure them. With a lot of DLNA servers you are completely in the dark what they are doing and no way to configure them. DLNA is a great concept, all kind of devices communicating with each other without any user interference needed. Say USB style connectivity over the network. Practice is not as bad imho as some are suggesting. A couple of years ago it was a disaster, indeed very bad implementations. Today it is reasonable mature. My feeling is that for high quality audio over the network a AES67 style protocol like e.g. Ravenna is a better choice. The Well Tempered Computer |
RE: AES67/Revenna, posted on July 8, 2015 at 10:45:07 | |
Posts: 1845
Joined: March 31, 2008 |
Good points Back to DLNA :) The Well Tempered Computer |