Apple TV sound quality as a transport

Rbstehno....yes, some of the glass cables sound better than plastic. Which glass toslink and jitter device are you using?

Macallan7....if it sounds good, leave it alone for now. Let your ears and mind get used to how it sounds and if you feel "itchy" in the future, introduce another DAC. I personally feel that most the jitter devices and "digital talk" is misleading. A good DAC can offer a big improvement, but I feel like most of it's character and presence is part of the "analog" design of the DAC. The "digital" side is important, but it doesn't seem to be the most difficult, and has very little to do with the character.

This goes against what most people think. A lot of focus is given to the "digital" aspect of the DAC, but as long as your music is uncompressed and/or lossless, and is clocked natively, everything just sings. The only DAC with jitter that really impressed me was the Altmann Attraction, but the DAC itself sounds wonderful, and when switching the settings on the Altmann, I (as well as several other listeners) could not determine what was better or not. I also really like the Naim DAC (which includes some jitter feature), but again, I like the character and presence of the DAC.

I have also heard subtle differences in different methods of getting a file to play (direct computer, Airport Express, Apple TV, Sonos, Linn DS, Naim DAC, Naim UNITI, NAS, etc....), but nothing major. I wonder how much is just in my head. I understand than some people have heard major differences in sources, and agree that some computers and streaming devices have issues. Some even go far into saying they can tell the difference in software used to rip/archive the file....I'm undecided on that claim for myself....so far.... ;)

The best thing I can recommend is keep it simple and have fun.... ;)

Jitter doesn't sound like anything. Jitter changes how sound/music sounds by misplacing and removing information. There are several mechanisms that can cause jitter. The CD format has a lot of jitter problems. Computers are better at controlling and eliminating some jitter, but they introduce other issues.

Macallan7 - CD can be ripped as data using programs like MAX (for Mac) or EAC (for PC). CDP cannot do it working real time and has to skip over piece of unreadable (wrong checksum) data. It is of course much worse with used or scratched CDs. I have few bad CDs that MAX set to "do not allow to skip" refuses to rip but CDP plays and Itunes imports.

Jitter is noise in time domain. When digital data is shaky (moving back and forth in time) it creates sidebands not harmonically related to root frequency - therefore audible even at very low levels. Since music is a bunch of frequencies jitter becomes bunch of sidebands - noise. It is strange noise because it is present only when signal is present. You can hear it as lack of clarity.

i use xld on the mac to rip my cd's to itunes.
hellofidelity - my cable is buried in my cabinet so i can't tell for sure, but i think it is the wireworld supernova series. right now, i use the monarchy dip jitter device. i used/owned other jitter devices for my other rooms from audio alchemy, and others. i use a cardas AES cable from the monarchy to the dac.
also, removing jitter does make a difference. for example, in my den system (jolida integrated, discovery cables, totem speakers, mac server for source, and a manley dac), when i hooked up the monarchy to this setup, everything came to life. it was as big of an improvement as adding the dac.

Yes, I've had excellent experiences with my Apple TV, also.

I rip everything to Apple Lossless (m4a) and stream to my 160GB Apple TV, then to my Proceed AVP. I've compared the sound very closely with my Oppo BDP-83 and cannot discern any consistent or substantial difference between the Oppo and AppleTV as a source.

I would say that the AppleTV does sound slightly less liquid as my old Theta David, but I got rid of the David because I could hear the transport spinning, and every 4 years it needed a $500 laser pickup replacement. Ugh. Suffice it to say, that the Apple TV is now the heart of my digital setup (with the Proceed AVP providing the soul.

Even the analog outs from the Apple TV are respectable, not great, but not terrible, and for anyone with "starter" hifi, may be enough.

The convenience and price of the AppleTV is excellent, and as a bonus, I rent movies for the kids, watch podcasts, and stream internet radio for background music.

Meridian makes a system that seems to greatly outclass the AppleTV in interface, but it also costs many thousands of dollars vs. the very cheap Apple TV, and I have not been able to compare the sound quality in any meaningful way.

Regarding the cable, there was a subtle, but noticeable and pleasant, upgrade when I replaced an older Ultralink plastic toslink cable with the Wireworld Supernova 6 glass toslink. The sound was better in every way.

Enjoy your Apple TV!