All things apple tv

I just got mine the other day too. So far so good. I imported a few new CD's today and as each one was ripped into iTunes each song was synced onto the Apple TV.

I am using the digital optical out to send a signal out to my DAC.

After a few days of use, I contacted Apple to return my Apple TV.

I have now purchased a MacBook and it is everything that I could want. The sound is much better. Imaging is much more stable. The strings have come alive with much more presence, and the detail in male and female vocals is much more textured and transparent. If you can afford the upgrade, get it.

after talking to the founder of computeraudiophile.com, he helped give me that little nudge to go with the MacBook.

I was experiencing shifts in imaging that really bothered me. the vocals also didnt have much shape or texture, even less than the squeezebox I was replacing. I was also concerned about the optical output adding too much digital jitter to the signal. Another issue was my desire to have a smaller screen to navigate the menu's compared to the 57' screen i was currently using. I like to listen to music in the dark and the big screen displaying the album art took me away from that a bit.

these are just my opinions, but I have spent the last few years trying to find a cheaper way to have a music server. i finally sucked it up and decided to do it right. if you are on the fence, go ahead and get a MacBook and a USB DAC of converter to use your own DAC, you will not regret it.

Well, the squeezebox was hardwired to a desktop computer via a router. The Ethernet cable was 80 ft long and I could never get over the feeling that I was losing some resolution due to that. The other issue was, even though the SB has a good user interface, I have experienced the user interface of the MacBook and the Apple TV and it is much easier to use and much easier on the eyes.

Those things combined helped me make my decision to try and find something new. After all, it is in our blood to not stay in one place long, if I did that, what kinda audiophile would I be?

The end result is everything that I could have hoped for.

Perhaps there isn't a reason for the Apple TV to not sound as good as a Mac computer, but it didn't. If you lived in my area I would certainly invite you over to experience the difference. For whatever reason, the music did not sound as clean and controlled with the ATV as it does with the MacBook. I just don't think the digital outputs on the ATV are implemented that great. The HDMI and optical outputs both are guilty of higher levels of digital jitter than other digital outputs. That could be part of the reason the music sounded inconsistent at times. Maybe the product isn't ready for primetime? I have also read many negative comments concerning the quality of ATV's audio and video. I can say that the HD video quality was quite poor. Downloading HD content is far from being able to compete with hard disk material. I would say that HD movies downloaded from Apple are only slightly better than the same movie on a SD DVD disk. For some people, these issues may not be as apparent or as bothersome as they are with me. I really wanted to like the ATV, but in the end, I didn't have faith that it was as good as I could do.