Do you have an Apple TV?

[Carzee45]

I had my ATV3 for a number of months now. It was a gift from my children.Although I admire it's design and interface,I do find the sound quality less satisfying than my Vortexbox and dac set. After comparison the ATV appears brighter and slightly brash sounding. I can hear the compression more easily on the ATV3.I don't know why this is. Perhaps the effects of jitter?

[Richh]

I had my ATV3 for a number of months now. It was a gift from my children.Although I admire it's design and interface,I do find the sound quality less satisfying than my Vortexbox and dac set. After comparison the ATV appears brighter and slightly brash sounding. I can hear the compression more easily on the ATV3.I don't know why this is. Perhaps the effects of jitter?

 

 

I tried a ATV for music play back on my audio system from CD's I ripped to iTunes running on a Mac mini. The sound was brittle and very bright. I replaced the ATV with an older version of an Airport Express that I bought on EBay. This made a huge difference,. The airport express sounds as good as playing the original CD's directly on my audio system ( Marantz 7400, Monitor Audio Silver series speakers, Sony CD player)

[TomScrut]

ATV1 jailbroken with XBMC on it. Dont use it though it just sits in the drawer not doing anything

[Donkeyshins]

Um...nope. Why bother as it is neutered out of the box. I use a Windows 7 Media Center HTPC with a Ceton InfiniTV4 CableCard tuner for all my home theater needs.

 

-D

[ants]

Apple TV 3 hooked up to the big screen via HDMI. Use Beamer app on Macbook Pro to send video content wirelessly to ATV. Also hooked up to integrated amp via Toslink for casual listening, streaming and allow other iTunes users to connect and stream content. Mostly used for Netflix and streaming from laptop to big screen.

[Sam Lord]

I have an ATV3 and love most of what is does, slick interface...but I envy those who get lousy sound from it. I get no sound at all from the toslink out, tried two different cables into a Schitt Bifrost with no joy. I have read that the ATV toslink output simply fails feeding some DACs, anyone else dealing with that?

 

Also since it and my Mac Mini respond to the same iRemote, I'll get music playing from the little speaker on the MM when switching video sources on the ATV! But I just cover the MM's IR sensor with a roll of tape and I'm good to go. Wish I could hear music from the ATV though.

[speavler]

be sure Dolby Digital is set to 'off' under the Audio Output setting

[Sam Lord]

Thanks speavler, I tried that and all the other setting combinations early on, no go. I get a nice red light out the end of the cable, signifying nothing, apparently.

[coxhaus]

I have an Apple TV3 running into a Rotel receiver using HDMI without problems. Prior to the HDMI Rotel I had a Toslink running into a receiver without problems. I think the sound is great for TVs, better than some of the others out there.

[wgscott]

I have an ATV3 and love most of what is does, slick interface...but I envy those who get lousy sound from it. I get no sound at all from the toslink out, tried two different cables into a Schitt Bifrost with no joy. I have read that the ATV toslink output simply fails feeding some DACs, anyone else dealing with that?

 

Also since it and my Mac Mini respond to the same iRemote, I'll get music playing from the little speaker on the MM when switching video sources on the ATV! But I just cover the MM's IR sensor with a roll of tape and I'm good to go. Wish I could hear music from the ATV though.

 

I don't know what is going on with the first issue, but in the case of the second, you can pair individual Apple remotes with the ATV and computer, separately. Another option is to teach the ATV a different set of commands, from (eg) and old DVD player's remote, and pair it with that. Then they can peacefully coexist.

 

You may have to set the ATV2 to output 16 bit rather than "automatic" (or vice versa) if the DAC isn't handling its optical signal.

[Sam Lord]

...you can pair individual Apple remotes with the ATV and computer, separately.

 

Thanks wg, great concept, I had no idea they could do that. I just saw it in the manual, but I must have forgotten it when I set up my Mac Mini audio server several months later.

 

...You may have to set the ATV2 to output 16 bit rather than "automatic" (or vice versa) if the DAC isn't handling its optical signal.

 

Good idea, but mine fails under both settings. I think the possible culprits are 1) bad receiver in the DAC, 2) bad emitter in the ATV; or 3) bad firmware on the ATV. I'll need to fix it to be able to watch streaming video on my projector; so far I've had to limit streaming to the television because of the sound problem.