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M-Audio replied to a product inquiry this way...
Why are you using a Transit? Which Mac do you have?
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So it seems you can stream AC3/DD/DTS bit perfect, but not PCM?
In the case of an Intel Mac, aTV or an Airport Express, as long as you're going optical out, and have verified with the DTS wav test that you're getting bit perfect, any Apple lossless files that you play back/stream with iTunes and Airtunes will be received just as cleanly by that next device in your chain, like an AVR, pre-amp, etc. as well.
I wouldn't read too much into that M-Audio response--if the "PCM" you're talking about is redbook CD content ripped as ALAC there's no resampling going on by "the CoreAudio kernel" as long as you haven't messed within AudioMIDI. CoreAudio takes it's marching orders from AudioMIDI, 16/44.1 will stay 16/44.1, ALAC will remain ALAC, and there's no resampling or analog conversion going on as it is streamed to an Airport Express (or aTV) and out its optical port. As long as you're not ALSO playing back higher rez audio content with that instance of iTunes, you shouldn't change anything within AudioMIDI and CoreAudio won't resample any of your iTunes ALAC files.
Now, if you do start experimenting with high rez audio files as well as ALAC, and switch back and forth, that changes things--then you create situations where CoreAudio will resample a file after an app like iTunes has handed it off to it...either up or down, depending, which you might be able to hear...if this is the case, then are some easy rules about how to do it properly, but this doesn't really apply to you since you're concerned with ALAC streaming.
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My personal interest was in streaming Apple Lossless files ripped from my CDs at the best possible quality, but this seems elusive...
It's not elusive at all. Why don't you be more clear about what you're trying to achieve and what hardware you're using? Many of us here have already been dealing with Apple, iTunes and digital audio for years...
A question, though, as you've been reading and experimenting, are you also backing up any of these suspicions by actually listening to your music? That's important, listen to it all along the way in your various hardware setups, because if you don't, if you're just Googling, reading this link and that link, you risk getting more confused. I guess what I mean is asking questions is good, but don't stay in the theoretical. Make sure you're getting hands dirty, and enjoying your music all along the way, so you can better figure out for yourself what differences you can perceive.