Apple TV disappointment

[Reverend]

I've been using a generation 1 Apple TV for several years now.  I recently bought an Apple TV 3 and liked the additional features such as being able to point to which library to play from and which device to play too.  After several hours of listening I surmised that the audio output was the same between the two, no improvement.  Then I started getting into SACD rips and this is were things went downhill.  It's Pepe's fault too for bringing this stuff up.

I was streaming a SACD rip of Allan Taylor - "Colour to the Moon" and thought it sounded pretty good.  But, I noticed that the high end was a little "tinty" and then i hit a note that made my ribbons buzz.  I've never had that happen before.  For shits and giggles I burned this album to cd and was pleasantly surprised that you could burn a .m4a lossless file to cd and it would play on a CD-R.  Playing through my Philips it sounded much better.  That same note was crystal clear and did not negatively effect my ribbon tweets in the slightest.

Later that night Pepe the Deek sent me a text about an article he found noting that Apple TV down converts all of their signals to 16bit.  After moving around multiple forums I found this to be the case and the hacks available to my generation 1 apple tv did not resolve this issue.  To date, there are no hacks available to the generation 3. 

I recently installed Channel D's Pure Music (http://www.channld.com/puremusic/)on my macbook and was very impressed with the sound.  It adds the ability to adjust your output signal to match your output device and it will recognize the DAC it is connected to by name/maximum capabilities.  That and you can add FLAC files to your itunes using it.  All macs have a built in mini optical jack which doubles as the analog headphone jack.  The nice thing about pure music is it will confirm your bit and KHz rates during playback.  I happen to have a mini toslink cord and connected it directly from my macbook to my DAC.  It sounds dramatically better.  Why apple would allow you to play 24bit+ files but down convert them is beyond me.  Pretty shitty in my opinion.

I have a Mac mini sitting at work collecting dust so I'm going to see what operating system I can load on it and if it is compatible with Pure Audio.  Then connect that directly to my DAC.  In both cases, using my macbook or mini, I can use the apple remote on my iphone as a remote so I don't have to have a monitor connected to it or have to view the macbook screen.

Anyone else have any dealings with apple tv's or using a mac in your audio setup?  I'd love to hear your input.

[treos33]

This is one of the main reasons I ended up building a media streamer using a Raspberry Pi. Installed Openelec on the Pi so I could stream movies from my Plex Media Server and use airplay for music.

I used HDMI from the Pi to my receiver but you could also connect a USB DAC to the Pi if you preferred.

It worked OK. If I did it again I would probably use something more powerful than a Pi.

[ST-Rider]

For what it's worth, I really dig my Boxee  Box.

It plays just about every file format you can think of, plus has tons of streaming apps.

http://www.dlink.com/us/en/home-solutions/entertain/media-players/dsm-380-boxee-box

[SunnyDaze]

This is a complete disappointment, but not a surprise. Apple has been placing serious limitations on the capabilities of their machines more and more as of late.

Rev, assuming you have no issues getting the Mini running, the sound output from that little thing should be pretty darn good. My next move is going to be a Mini / DAC as well.

I ran a G5 Power Mac as my music box until I had the file index error that took down my RAID HD array and my external backups. I advise researching that Mini and making sure that they don't have issues with processor noise. Some models are known for it.

[MacGeek]

The Boxee looks pretty flexible.  I am not much into anything digital and am not sure I understand how everything works together.  What does the Boxee do that the "Smart" features on my OPPO player don't already do?  By the way, I used to stream Netflix, but got tired of all of the old movies and dropped the service.  I still get their DVDs in the mail and have a few premium channels on the Comcast box.  I am not fond of Comcast and the Boxee may present a way around cable TV.  Can it interface with all of the TV's I have set up in my multi-room system?  That's the main reason I stay with Comcast.

[schwarcw]

I read this thread an I feel like an audio dinosaur!  I have yet to take the plunge on a server, streamer outboard DAC and other devices in the modern digital age.  I have a bad ass SACD/CD player and a nice vinyl source set up but I am still using a slide rule in the digital age!

[OldiesButGoodies]

Sunny - that hard drive failure was a traumatic digital in your life... as you lie down on your deathbed 60 years from now you will still be cursing that g5!   

I have a core solo Mini that runs Lion OS X ok (not great) and the Pure software will attach to itunes running on it.  Not sure how well it would behave doing the processor intensive stuff, but just based on the system requirements on the web site it should work fine. 

I am curious as to why Apple decided to limit the ATV to 16/44.1, assuming that it (the ATV) is essentially a Mac in a tidy package that runs only one program.  They must have tried to get the higher bit rate going and something did not work well in that small a package - maybe the processor overheated just a tad - who knows.  But it sure makes a Mini a more attractive device to store high def audio. 

Capn TD

 

[SunnyDaze]

Pepe - As we speak, I'm attempting to resurrect that G5 with a freshly wiped set of HD's, again in RAID 1.

Rev, let me know how you like that DAC if you purchase it.

[Shayne]

I found this thread interesting because I have a Airport Express that I use the mini toslink adaptor out to my dac and I'm experiencing the same things. Sharp piano notes are distorted, occasionally an organ or guitar note gets crispy. I put in a cd and nada.

I love apple products, I'm a graphic designer by trade so they are my life but this airport express is a piece of shit. It refuses to stay connected to my network, so I hardwired it and it still drops off. I've done all the firmware and nothing helps. I'm looking at getting the Pioneer Elite N-50. Can anyone comment on its quality?

[Reverend]

Pepe - As we speak, I'm attempting to resurrect that G5 with a freshly wiped set of HD's, again in RAID 1.

If I understand what your doing here, you're trying to mirror two drives.  Probably why when one crashed so did the other.  I would not recommend setting this up again for backup purposes.  You want to keep the 2nd drive separate and isolated.  If this machine is being used just as a media slave, there's no need to mirror for performance purposes.

Rev, let me know how you like that DAC if you purchase it.

I'm not buying a DAC, you might be thinking of Pepe.

[tinpan]

The Apple TV's and Airport express's served their purpose for me. I found the audio coming off the AE express to be lacking but running coax to a DAC was acceptable....except for all the drop outs. I tried Pure Music and Fidelio or Fidelity or whatever it's called.

I finally upgraded to Sonos and love it. It's networking is far better than what I got with Apple. It's a little pricey but I have coverage all the way from my house to the garage all of a single NAS.

I am currently using a demo copy of JRiver Media Center to add all the missing artwork that dropped off my itunes library and converting all the files from AIFF to FLAC.

JRiver is very cool and makes managing a library very easy. I'll use the Sonos for playing the files though

[Reverend]

I'm currently using the new apple tv with my home theater system.  It's great for watching videos/netflix/etc.  Does not look and sound as good as my blue ray player but what do you expect.  Plus, I can mirror my desktop when i'm working from home which is nice.

I pulled the Mac Mini from work, flattened it, and had it synched to my media server's itunes.  Went to test it out with my DAC last night and the optical out is not working.    Spent about 4 hours trying to get the damn thing to work and finally gave up.  I went to lunch today in Shady Side and walked past the apple store.  Said f*ck it and bought a new mac mini.  The wife is going to kill me...

...but at least now I can try something other than itunes.  I was having problems with JRiver which I hope this new machine will resolve and Pure Audio has a known glitch playing from a shared folder.  I installed Bit Perfect from the apps store onto my laptop and that does have some good playback options for mac.  Anyone else using another program they feel is working well?  Mac or windows?