Does "Play-Fi" increase sound quality?

[willhub]

I've got an Onkyo amp and when I run Spotify through the DTS Play-Fi as far as I can tell it sounds clearer compared to the spotify tv app or just using the PC? Is it a placebo or is there something behind it?

 

[jpaul]

I'd have thought spotify on PC would send cd quality pcm 44.1/16 via hdmi, so should sound as good, (if, you have exclusive mode on the pc, too)
as, play-fi, casting a spotify stream url to the Onkyo

for higher resolution stuff, if you had a local media server,
it looks like play-fi might need a wired connection https://play-fi.com/news/true-lossless-hi-res-audio-comes-to-dts-play-fi
but, I'd expect that to challenge any, congested, wifi link.

The following Play-Fi KB article suggest to use a wired connection for critical listening mode: https://play-fi.com/faq/entry/critical-listening-mode

My question: Is there a Play-Fi client that supports critical listening mode with a hardwired network connection?

I am currently streaming from a media server via an Android Play-Fi client (cell phone) to an Anthem AVM-60. The media server and AVM-60 are hardwired to the home network, and the Android device is connected via Wi-Fi. Critical listening mode generally works over Wi-Fi, and is streaming 24/96k. However, Play-Fi loses the connection fairly regularly to the media server.

I tried hard wiring the phone to the same network using a network adaptor card. Web pages load significantly quicker and I can see other devices on the home network. However, when I then launch the Android Play-Fi app, the app complains the phone is not connected to the Wi-Fi.