DLNA audio quality test with 3 different media renderers same speakers

This may or may not be of any interest but I'll share it in case it is. I have been playing with various ways to stream my digital audio library across the house using JRiver. As long as I have a media renderer at the end point I am set with the digital music served. I am playing thru some KEF LS50 wireless speakers but have three media renderers handy at that location. I was curious what difference if any I would hear as all the audio is digital and the DAC conversion is taking place in the LS50s. I've yet to step into a full fledged streamer as it seems like so much can be easily handled with other means if the user is reasonable tech savvy. Maybe that is incorrect. 

When going direct to the KEFs (wireless) the audio is super clear and very well defined. I then connected to a Sony Blueray player which is DLNA compatible. The cabling from the Sony Blueray (BDP 3500) is via HDMI output to the TV and then TV optical output into the KEFs optical input. Here after adjusting for volume differences I'm not sure I could hear much difference and the sound was still quite good. I'd give the edge to the KEFs in wireless mode but did not listen for super long.

Then I was curious to try the 6 yr old Samsung TV as the DLNA device as pretty much all TVs have this option. Easy enough to get working and again the TV optical output goes directly to the KEFs. Here the sound became relatively muddy and lacking in the same definition. Even weirder is that the right and left channels were now reversed. Yes reversed from the above two tests. I tested this like 3 times as I always suspect user (i.e. me) error.  I'm really not sure why the TV based media rendering sounds relatively poor and certainly no clue how the channels are reversed. 

So my simple lesson is that yes the actual media renderer does matter to a decent degree in the digital domain. I know to most this is probably obvious but I am a "show me" kind of guy. Maybe someone else has tried something like this or understands why the differences are so dramatic.