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Streaming, Apple TV, Tell me why not.

New to the streaming music end of this hobby, And honestly enjoy the (call me silly) getting up to grab the next compact disc and open the transport tray. BUT when my Pioneer DV-09 deal fell though, or rather had not been shipped from the seller... still trying to get my money back out of that deal... i started thinking, i have an Apple TV, a 3TB hard drive loaded with movies and music (not all high quality) and a Macbook... why do i need the CD transport at all. I know this is far from a new discussion, but the real question is, WHY NOT the apple TV? is there any good reason that goes against the HIFI Gods taht says I should not use the Apple TV to stream Ripped CD's? what am I missing if anything? What should I be using instead? what do you guys use?
zimmy709
glenfihi
525 posts
 
Shame on the guy who ripped you off. As for the streaming of music, whatever works. You may wish to have recorded music at the best quality, but your ears will let you know if it really makes a difference. The main thing is to enjoy the music.

I use a mac mini as music server. But yet enjoy my turntable and even cassette tapes. High def or not it is all about the tunes.
skoczylas's avatar
skoczylas
240 posts
 
I use the Apple TV and find it very convenient but the sound quality to me is 'good not great.' I believe the reason is that the apple TV reduces the bit rate for higher res music. If most of your music is not high res, it may not make a big difference.

If you chose to use the apple tv, the sound is enhanced if you use the optical out to a DAC which accepts optical inputs. This will get you to 80-90 percent of the sound potential in my opinion.

On the other hand, the apple tv streaming does not allow you to use higher res music players like audirvanna, etc. To me, that is a big drawback because these players significantly enhance the sound quality in my system.

I have switched between using my apple tv optical out to dac vs. my macbook optical out to dac, and here's what i found:
- low res apple store downloads are very similar
- higher res files usually sound better on my macbook
- streaming internet radio is better using my macbook (itunes) vs. apple tv
- apple radio is the same

Good luck
zimmy709 OP
14 posts
 
In planning to head down this road, I can't say that I won't listen to my downloaded lower res music anymore, especially with it being at myfingertips, but the real goal is to rip all of my cd's to the external HDD in lossless format, then yes playback through toslink from Apple TV to theta Casa nova, or I have also toyed with the idea of a Mac mini. It sounds to me that as far as full resolution fidelity goes, the Mac Mini would be the way to go. Or I may dedicate my MacBook instead and buy a new MacBook Pro. This black MacBook is going dated, won't run mavericks. More playback software options it seems from a Mac vs Apple TV. Decisions...

Has anyone tried their Apple TV hard wired via cat6 to their router? Any quality improvement?
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