AppleTV... Optical Audio Formats and Sample Rates

The only sample rate that the aTV2 outputs is 48kHz.

No. If you want bit-perfect 44.1/16 via AirPlay get an Airport Express instead. Whether you can actually tell the difference is up to you to determine.

The only sample rate that the aTV2 outputs is 48kHz.


I think so, but it doesn't matter what I think, spend the $85-99 to find out for yourself. Pick up a refurb Airport Express for $69 while you're at it and do a comparison in your space with your equipment.

I feed ATV2 to a Meridian digital system for audio via optical out. These are Apple lossless music files from CD sources. Sounds very good. I can't hear any substantial difference from the CDs;

However, if you want the ultimate in audio, you'll want to stick with spinner high def sources. Virtually all CDs limit dynamic range (and freq range for that matter). In this regard, the quality you'll get from the file sources you likely will have will be best used via optical out IMO.

Unless you have a very high receiving system to reclock the jitter in HDMI, you'll get best audible performance from optical out.

One exception might be if you have some high rez audio files (available from some special sites) or other (I have some ripped from Blu-Ray for example) These need to be fed bit perfect though; like chef says, you'll want to use Airport Express for that.

But if your feeding lossless CD quality audio, I cannot hear the difference between ATV2 optical out and Airport Express optical out and original CD.

I've pretty much adopted ATV2 for all library audio - then have one spinner to play original audiophile level stuff (SACD, DVD-A, etc.)- Can't rip those too effectively anyway (especially SACD)

anyway - that's my 'opinion-of-the-facts' - your ears may vary...

ken

let us know what you find !

Given the low cost of storage these days (even in portable devices)- I would highly recommend rips of all music in Apple lossless - All the Apple devices support it's streaming and play; Downgrades are always possible- upgrades are not...

ken

Totally agree. I was told that even with Apple Lossless encodes, to verify there were not read errors from the CD.

One more feature of the AppleTV2 is Netflix. My family uses this all the time.

I would agree with that. Nothing wrong with the Apple video streaming, but other systems are generally more flexible and capable.

Other items you can play with are access to your Photos (iPhoto or Aperture), AirPlay is becoming proliferate and works well. And there is an Apple Remote app for touch controlling your iTunes library using your iDevice

glad you like the setup and thanks for posting your results


ken

by the way if any forum members here really want to go down the audiophile path with their mac minis; There are now paths for that. I haven't noticed many interested parties on this forum.. but if you really want to go down the extreme bit rate, low jitter, high end outputs (including even multi-channel 5.1 file formats) you can start with a program like PureMusic which supports all of that (max 384k bit rates for example); Supports hdmi output as well. and FLAC.. etc. etc.

Of course I'll reiterate advice from above- you will largely not hear a difference if your source is normal CD, especially if your processor doesn't properly handle up-sampling.

I have used very high bit rate DACs to digitize my vinyl for example to create some of these master files.

One advantage to PureMusic is it maintain iTunes in place and surrounds that chassis with it's own output engine (you can even resample on the fly if your equipment will natively receive without down-shifting). (It uses Channel D's Pure Vinyl engine)

I hesitate to get too far into this here as it's really not the proper forum. But just to inform those interested; There are mac (mini and otherwise) options now for extremely high audiophile file and output handling that previously was only available in windows.

http://www.channld.com/puremusic/index.html

ken

I select sleep mode for my Appletv2 and it does. Later on I look over and the light is on. I place it again in sleep mode, same thing happens. I doesn't seem to go on any specific time. Does anybody have the same problem? Or a solution. I doesn't matter but sounds crazy to have to always see a lite on it and know it should be in sleep mode.

Thanks

I see the same thing with mine, light on when I don't expect it be. I tried figuring it out for a while, but gave up. I don't consider it to be a problem, as it's not using much electricity.

I would like to know the best way to connect my AppleTV to my Dennon receiver then on to my TV. I believe I have ample HDMI ports.

You answered your own question. Just use HDMI cables. You can get them pretty cheap from http://www.monoprice.com