Apple TV Streaming Sound Quality vs Streamer?

Sorry if this a bit off topic, but out of curiosity, how do you stream Tidal through the Apple TV box and what connection and how do you mange/view the Tidal music content?

On most MQA contents my DAC shows 96 and sometimes 192 rates. And they do sound better than the same music when played using my CD player through the same DAC. The rest of the system is a constant.
So streaming can sound better than CD and in my system does most of the time.

I tried the Apple TV for the first time for music streaming from Tidal in my bedroom system and I think my Chromecast Audio ($35) is a better option as a budget streamer. I think it sounds a little better through the same DAC, is more compact, is cheaper, and is just a bit easier to select on the phone/tablet. Of course its audio only. It does need a mini-optical to optical cable which may not be as useful in other systems.

I have no experience with the DAC in the Oppo but I’ve found streaming Tidal through Chromecast Audio ($35) had better sound quality as compared to the AppleTV. My comparison was running both through a Schiit Modi Multibit ($250). I used the optical connection in both cases. I also tried the same comparison with my Bluesound Node2 from my other system and Node2 was better than the Chromecast Audio but not by an order of magnitude. However, the user interface and the access to options from the Node2 are significantly better and much more robust. You may want to try the optical port since HDMI connection to got audio content is less ideal than coax/optical.

"Does anyone know if the node2i will bypass it’s own dac and serve to my Benchmark dac?"

Yes, except you'll not get the MQA treatment through Benchmark.