I use an Apple TV in my system and I can't tell the difference between it and an Airport Express, which does not resample my signal. When I plug in my laptop directly to the DAC it still sounds the same to me. Of course, I am limited to 16/44.1, but unless I am using headphones I can't really tell the difference between the set ups. So I leave the Apple TV in the system and have moved on to other things.
As far as hi-res, I struggle to find a difference between it and 16/44.1. Now I CAN hear the difference in mastering, and a lot of the hi-res music out there has been re-mastered, and it does sound better, but the same remastered hi-res files sound just as good (to me) when downsampled in my system to 16/44.1.
As far as jitter goes, I have yet to figure out what that sounds like. I've run directly from my MacBook Pro into a Benchmark DAC 3, and it sounds the same to me as when I run the same DAC using an Airport Express (didn't have the Apple TV for comparison). Still using 16/44.1 files, maybe it is a hi-res thing. I dunno. I figure if I can't hear it, it's not worth going down that rabbit hole. I probably need better equipment if I really want to hear jitter.
Apple TV>Schiit BiFrost MB>Odyssey Candela>Odyssey Khartego>Harbeth P3esr. Groneberg interconnects, Kimber 4TC speaker cables.
AEX>Schiit Modi MB>Schiit Vali>Sennheiser 650 headphones. Also run Grado 325e headphones with Little Dot 1+ (that combo is a blast)!
As far as hi-res, I struggle to find a difference between it and 16/44.1. Now I CAN hear the difference in mastering, and a lot of the hi-res music out there has been re-mastered, and it does sound better, but the same remastered hi-res files sound just as good (to me) when downsampled in my system to 16/44.1.
As far as jitter goes, I have yet to figure out what that sounds like. I've run directly from my MacBook Pro into a Benchmark DAC 3, and it sounds the same to me as when I run the same DAC using an Airport Express (didn't have the Apple TV for comparison). Still using 16/44.1 files, maybe it is a hi-res thing. I dunno. I figure if I can't hear it, it's not worth going down that rabbit hole. I probably need better equipment if I really want to hear jitter.
Apple TV>Schiit BiFrost MB>Odyssey Candela>Odyssey Khartego>Harbeth P3esr. Groneberg interconnects, Kimber 4TC speaker cables.
AEX>Schiit Modi MB>Schiit Vali>Sennheiser 650 headphones. Also run Grado 325e headphones with Little Dot 1+ (that combo is a blast)!