I'm more of the opinion that a digital stream will be determined more in the unit with the dac, much like optical disc transports. Features and convenience and aesthetics may dictate what people pay for, tho. I've never used the "established" method much, prefer wireless, which I do not find to be lacking outside of perhaps router issues. I just changed ISP/modem/router setup and yet to run into a glitch as I did with my previous setup on occasion (but not a sound quality issue per se, rather a consistent connection).