The OFFICAL Apple TV thread


I have purchase an Apple TV recently and have looked around the net to find quite a few others have and are trying to integrate this into a decent stereo setup. The purpose of this thread is not to debate the merits of Apple TV but to help users (myself included) find ways of improving sound from their streaming device. I would like to start the discussion myself by asking a few questions:

Has anybody found any third party software which can play iTunes files (WAV, IAFF,) to an Airport express?

If so what do you use?

2. What Toslink do you use on your Apple TV? What is the length?

3. Have you considered or used an after market power cable? If so what were the results?
lush
Kops,

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

Yup it's true I need to try it myself. ANyways, I believe ATV1 has a hard drive so we are different.. ATV2 completely streams audio via wifi or a connected LAN before going to whatever it is that is in your system..
Well actually the Apple TV Generation 2 does not have an internal DAC, since the only way to output audio is via a optical out. An optical out must be fed to a DAC if you wish to make music. :-)
The first generation Apple TV could output both in optical or analogue.
Just some thought.

I have an ATV2 and in the process of ordering a DAC. I'm streaming music from ATV2 through Airport Extreme from Macbook Pro and have two thoughts.
1) Does wifi signal affect sound quality? (for example 802.11a/b/g/n)
2) I'm thinking of replacing the airport extreme with the time capsule which has a built-in hard drive. Can I save my entire itune music to the time capsule so that it is more direct streaming than from the Macbook Pro?
I just purchased an ATV2 and hooked it up to my system. I fed the audio (TOSlink) to my 8 year old Pioneer Elite A/V receiver and the streaming sound of Apple Lossless files is as good as playing the CD's through my Elite 45A universal player (analog out).