The OFFICAL Apple TV thread

I put this in another thread, but I guess this is a far more appropriate place..

Toslink cable - Sonicwave glass 1 meter - About $25 from Amazon.com
Improved everything. Biggest difference was sound was less blurry and more focused. Everything sounded sharper, in a good way.

Power cord - Audioquest NRG 1 - 6 ft - $79 from Music Direct
Same results as the Sonicwave cable. Pretty much same extent too. I was skeptical about a power cord on the ATV, so I made sure I could return it. It stayed.

Vibracones - I had them laying around the house, and use them for better ventilation, as the ATV gets hot. It also helps lift the unit up so the cables are easier to get to. Not sure about sound quality, as I've used them since day 1.

iPhone Remote App - Free - Makes navigation far easier than on the TV.

Rega DAC - $1k - By far the best DAC I've heard anywhere near the price.

My ATV and Rega DAC sound so much better than my Apollo did. No going back to CDPs.

Also, just because you digitize your collection doesn't mean you have to get rid of the CDs. I still have mine!

Forgot to say...

I have the ATV with 160 gb internal hard drive. All music is Apple Lossless with error correction.

Haven't heard a difference between WAV, AIFF, and Apple Lossless. Have heard a difference between error correction on and off on some CDs. Probably depends on the CD's condition.

Stored music sounds better than synched.

Just reporting what I hear. Others have disagreed with one or two things. As always, try it for yourself.

Jmelvin -

Have you tried the Tranquility DAC with the ATV? Going from an old but excellent Theta Cobalt DAC to the new Rega DAC was a very big improvement. The Rega DAC reclocks, whereas the the Theta does not. That probably explains part of the improvement.

In my experience, the Rega DAC at $1k was worth every penny. Not to start a debate about DACs, but I easily preferred my Theta DAC to a V-DAC and a few others in that range when I tried them.

Nieuwen,

Is the Mac Mini a step up with software like Amarra/Pure Music, or without it?

Thanks Nieuwen. I've skimmed the computer 'phile site, but haven't dug too deep. Maybe when funds recover and everything else is settled, I'm really enjoying the ATV1 and Rega DAC combo, so there's no sense of urgency to change it. There's always better.

Jastorg1 -

I have not tried the USB input on the Rega DAC, and have not heard the USB on the rDAC, so no opinions from me. I don't want my computer tied to my system, hence the reason why I went with the Apple TV gen 1.

The only way to find out if a laptop would be better than the AVT2 would be to try it out. No one can tell you what you'll hear, then can only tell you what they hear. If I listened to what people told me I'll hear, everything would sound great and horrible at the same time!

PCM is a digital signal, not analog. I may be wrong, but I think PCM is basically a 2 channel digital signal, whereas DSD is multichannel. Someone will probably rightfully refute that.

Kops,

As Yioryos was speculating, the ATV 2 has an optical digital output, which bypasses the internal DAC.

My favorite feature on my ATV (aside from playing my music) is YouTube. There's so many great music perfromances on there. Sound and pic quality varies greatly, but that's not what it's all about. I'll take a poor quality BB King playing the Thrill Is Gone on the Kenny Rogers Show in the 70's any day of the week. Same goes for Cliff Burton (deceased Metallica bassist) playing For Whom The Bell Tolls.

Apple devices won't play WAV. Not sure about Macs, but the iPod/iPad/iPhone, AE or ATV won't play them.