Apple TV 3

[stevebrock]

Well as my Mac Mini has died, I was pondering on what to do.... another used Mac Mini or NAS

On the spare of the moment was browsing in John Lewis and decided to pick up an Apple TV.

All connected to my Rega DAC via optical streaming ALAC files from my Mac Book Pro - well I know the Apple TV upsamples to 48k, so in effect not bit perfect, so I always had my reservations - Surprisingly it sounds identical to my Mac Mini outputting bit-perfect into my DAC.

Right Im of to play the Lordes new album on vinyl

Happy days

 

[craig84]

Brilliant, I love it when people are actually happy with purchases instead of moaning lol. Lordes album is stunning don't you think!?

Craig

 

[TnA200]

I have to say that out of all my AV gadgets, I love the ATV the most as it covers so many bases, good audio (ALAC), HD video, podcasts, etc...

So have fun with your new purchase!

TnA200

 

[stevebrock]

Brilliant, I love it when people are actually happy with purchases instead of moaning lol. Lordes album is stunning don't you think!?

Craig

Stunning isn't the word fella - Immaculate production, and on vinyl....what more can I say!

PS Well happy with my system at the minute!

 

[stevebrock]

I do not fooking believe it my 2 day old Apple TV has frozen and now I need to buy a micro-usb cable to connect it to a computer to allow it to reset, utter utter rubbish imo

I am going back to a cd player I tthink - had enough now!

 

[davedotco]

I do not fooking believe it my 2 day old Apple TV has frozen and now I need to buy a micro-usb cable to connect it to a computer to allow it to reset, utter utter rubbish imo

I am going back to a cd player I tthink - had enough now!

First world problems, don't you just love 'em........

Generally for an Apple TV or AEX to lockup in this way there is often a setup error. Get the cable and check that it is set up as per the manual or if, like me you want a customised setup, make absolutely sure get your setup correct.

It took me two or three goes to get my AEX setup exactly as I wanted it, but since then it has been rock solid for several years.

 

[d_a_n1979]

I love my ATV3 as my source via a DAC into my system

Mac Mini > ATV3 (via AirPlay) > Spitfire MkII DAC > Cyrus 8XP amp > KEF R100's =

It's plugged into a Spitfire MkII DAC via an optical cable and I cant fault it. Never had any issues with it and it sounds just as good as my Rega Apollo CDP did and takes up hell of a lot less room which I'm happier about

 

[wilro15]

Does your music get compressed (i.e. AAC) in order for it to be streamed to Apple TV? I always assumed it was as I guessed CD quality wouldn't stream fast enough.

 

[davedotco]

Does your music get compressed (i.e. AAC) in order for it to be streamed to Apple TV? I always assumed it was as I guessed CD quality wouldn't stream fast enough.

Apple Airplay converts all files to ALAC, then 'packages' them for airplay transmission which has significant levels of redundancy.

Set up correctly the AEX or ATV can output a 'bit perfect' signal, providing the original file is 16/44.1. Files encoded at a higher resolution will be downsampled to this standard before being compressed with ALAC.

 

[wilro15]

Interesting (genuinely) - I always assumed it made them lossy.

 

[stevebrock]

All my music ripped in ALAC, I read somewhere that ATV3 outputs 48k not 44.1k

Still sounds good when its working lol

 

[Paul.]

I have wondered If ATVs 48k up sampling makes a difference. I have tried searching (albeit a short search, I got bored) for any online results suggesting it caused noticeable differences. I have found nothing conclusive either way, only that people on the internet are generally not very nice. My new amp will have Airplay built in, so when father christmas shows up it should be relatively easy to do a comparison between 44.1 and 48k.

 

[Craig M.]

I have wondered If ATVs 48k up sampling makes a difference. I have tried searching (albeit a short search, I got bored) for any online results suggesting it caused noticeable differences. I have found nothing conclusive either way, only that people on the internet are generally not very nice. My new amp will have Airplay built in, so when father christmas shows up it should be relatively easy to do a comparison between 44.1 and 48k.

I've found the upsampling to be audibly transparent. I can, however, hear the effects of Airplay. It's not a massive difference, in fact it's quite small, but I proved to myself I could hear it 'blind'. The last time I looked I couldn't find any reliable info about how Airplay works.

Dave, it may be possible to get a bit-perfect output from the ATV1 (I don't know), but not the ATV2 + 3, both resample everything to 48khz.

 

[davedotco]

I have wondered If ATVs 48k up sampling makes a difference. I have tried searching (albeit a short search, I got bored) for any online results suggesting it caused noticeable differences. I have found nothing conclusive either way, only that people on the internet are generally not very nice. My new amp will have Airplay built in, so when father christmas shows up it should be relatively easy to do a comparison between 44.1 and 48k.

I've found the upsampling to be audibly transparent. I can, however, hear the effects of Airplay. It's not a massive difference, in fact it's quite small, but I proved to myself I could hear it 'blind'. The last time I looked I couldn't find any reliable info about how Airplay works.

Dave, it may be possible to get a bit-perfect output from the ATV1 (I don't know), but not the ATV2 + 3, both resample everything to 48khz.

Thanks for that.

I use AEX and know that is 16/44.1, I wasn't sure about modern ATVs and guessed that someone would put me right if I was in error.

For what it is worth I think Airplay is audible, but have no idea why. Airfoil is, if anything, even more audible which is interesting.

Also for what it is worth, I find that with a wired setup, Spotify sounds better when the files are downloaded (in Premium) and played offline rather than streamed live. All these differences are quite small and I have experimented to see if they are cumulative but as yet with no firm conclusions.

If I was trying to work out best practice for Spotify, my primary interest, I would use an Apple laptop or Mac Mini with solid state drive, playing offline via a good usb dac. All wired with, if required, an iPad as a remote.

 

[JamesMellor]

Did you see this link in the AV forum Paul ?

http://www.creative-audio.co.uk/HOTDEALS.php?HD=HOMECINEMA