thxtheater

I found out that this unit will not down-mix multichannel to stereo. So it must be a 2-channel PCM signal for it to work. If that's ultimately the case, I can just go with a monoprice 4x2 matric switch for about $60 that has analog out. However, there are some reported issues with the analog out in the product reviews.

Greetings all, I may have found exactly the solution I've been looking for; I'm looking for your feedback. I came across a 1 x 1 HDMI Audio Converter by Octava here: 1x1 HDMI Audio Converter. Extract audio from HDMI to Optical Toslink. Full 1080P resolution. In this case, I could take the HDMI of the AppleTV and split the audio out into both analog and HDMI out. The HDMI out would continue to the Anthem for processing and DAC duties and the analog out would then go into the Anthem analog inputs to feed zones 2 and zones 3 for audio. The price seems to be right as well at $169! Any thoughts on this? Thanks, Theo

Thanks Bob. I probably should have posted in a different section. I was jumping around the forums and ended up posting in the same section as a previous thread. Regardless.... I'm specifically seeing if there are any best practices in terms of the settings and setup of Pure Music. Memory play, for example. Are there any settings like upsampling that consistently yield good results or should that be avoided, etc. It appears as through there are lots of places to tweak the settings in Pure Music and I'm curious if any Pure Music user has found any particular features or settings to be good bets.

Greetings all, I've downloaded the demos of both Amarra and Pure Music. I'm sure that there are battle lines across both camps; however, I'm interested in folks who are using or have used PureMusic to give me suggestions on the best setup and configurations. I'm outputting iTunes/PureMusic on a Musical Fidelity USB to S/PDIF connection on a MacPro that then runs to an Anthem AVM50v and I've chosen to use the DAC in the 50v to process things. In very, very casual listening, Pure Music seems to make the highs of the music a bit more delicate (in a good way) adding more air. There's seemingly more separation and definition in the music and instruments. I'm playing both lossless, CD ripped, and iTunes purchased music on the DAC. Much of what I listen to is classical and orchestral, but also lots of female vocals, with rock, acoustic, folk, acoustic, jazz and more. Thanks for any insights or feedback on what I should be focusing on. Regards, Theo

It's for Zone2 and Zone3 operation, so audiophile standards not strictly needed. I see that it coverts everything to S/PDIF. Now I have to see if I have a free S/PDIF port on the Marantz receiver. If I do, that may do the trick. So you understand the setup, I've taken all the HDMI feeds from AppleTV, Roku, Oppo, CableTV, and (believe it or not) Panasonic VHS/DVD player with up sampling HDMI output. As far as the Anthem goes, I have digital ports galore; but the Marantz is an older, pre HDMI unit configured to power a 4.1 system. So any device that has the HDMI going to the Anthem has either Toslink or S/PDIF (whichever it has) going to the Marantz. The Marantz is limited with its digital inputs. Side note, what I really like about your suggestion of the Matrix is the balanced analog outputs in addition to the balanced RCA. I'm running balanced cabling everywhere I can and this would be a nice fit. I'll check on the rear of my Marantz and report back. I've never heard of Matrix before so this was a huge potential help!! It's amazing not being able to find this feature using Google and just goes to show how good forums still are to add that human element of knowledge. Thanks! Theo

Greetings Eloise, Thanks for that suggestion and I'd certainly use it; however the Toslink is currently feeding a second multichannel setup. So I have the HDMI going to the Anthem and Toslink going to a Marantz. Unfortunately, I don't have any available digital signal ports. That's the problem with most of my devices as I'm splitting between the two. As I've mapped it out, the only thing that makes sense is a DAC with passthrough. Otherwise, I'm getting into using a Toslink splitter and then another DAC, etc. It just overly-complicates the setup and keeps adding more and more power adapters to the mix. Theo

Greetings all, I need help finding a DAC with digital bypass. I have an Anthem AVM50v and I want to use that pre-pro to continue to decode all multichannel digital sources. However, for Zones2 and Zone3, I need an analog signal or I cannot send audio to those zones unless I copy the MAIN zone to Zone2 or Zone3. That's fine in most instances, but sometimes, I want to play a different source in Zone 1 (MAIN) and a different source in Zone 2 or Zone 3. The only way I can do that is to have an analog signal to feed the Anthem. My biggest problem is currently my AppleTV and my iTunes Media server. Neither have analog outs. (for my iTunes server, which is 50 feet away, I'm using the V-LINK USB to S/PDIF converter. I'm looking for an inexpensive DAC that will have digital bypass so that I can get the analog out from that source to support Zone2 or Zone3 but at the same time, it will continue to send the original digital signal to the pre-pro in case I want to decode multichannel audio that comes from movies and multichannel music, etc. The only unit that I'm currently aware of with this capability is the DAC Magic Plus from Cambridge Audio, but it's $600. I was looking to spend less than half that amount. Any thoughts or suggestions?? I haven't been able to find any other options. Thanks, Theo

Paul, Thanks for that feedback. I have, in fact, used XLD previously to convert FLAC files. It's a step I don't mind taking. It's actually worked quite well. I have a few files that I haven't yet converted and I'm now going to make the time to do that. I downloaded the demo version of PureMusic and I'm not hearing any difference (nor would I expect to hear a difference) between the FLAC and ALAC versions. Now, to PureMusic. I've been looking at the different software choices and this one appeals to my programming side and philosophy from what I've read. There's no A/B option to listen with and without it engaged, unfortunately and I haven't yet had the time for critical listening. I haven't noticed any real issues and other than a response delay with the Apple Remote, it's worked well. What I've been doing with iTunes prior to PureMusic is just leaving the MIDI sampling rate at 24/96 and it seems to have worked fine.

Jsmith, Thanks for the reply. Any particular pros or cons with any of these additions? Do they tend to work across iTunes upgrades? Much appreciated!

That's good to know. I haven't heard of Audirvana Plus. I'll check that out.

Greetings all, I need some configuration feedback on my server setup to make sure that I'm getting the best sound; I also need feedback on some odd problems. Here is my current setup: I have a Mac running OSX 10.7 and the latest iTunes. I'm not running anything else; I'm not using any plugins I'm going from the Mac to my Anthem 50v Preamp via a Musical Fidelity V-Link USB to S/PDIF. I have CDs, High Res Apple Lossless and FLAC files on my server If I want to play FLAC files, I use VLC I have the MIDI setup for the Musical Fidelity set to 96k 2ch-24bit integer for output. My general questions are: Is there anything that I should be doing specifically to optimize my audio? What plugins or other software would one recommend to work with iTunes. I use the Apple Remote on iOS devices to manage the server library so I want something that is still compatible with the iOS remote control. Now, my odd problems have to do with FLAC files: If I use VLC files to play FLAC files, they don't sound as good as I think they should. Specifically, if I turn up the VLC volume slider past about 70%, the FLAC files clip and they sound horrible. Any thoughts on this? Is it just that the gain is too much? What is the best way to play FLAC files within iTunes. Some say Amarra and others PureVinyl. What are the pros and cons in my specific setup? I don't mind converting my FLAC files to Apple Lossless if that's the best course of action and I'm very tech savvy and happy to do that too. I appreciate any additional thoughts from the community to help me out here.

Greetings all, I need a sounding board and some help. I have an Anthem preamp and I use multiple digital sources (AppleTV, Bluray, iTunes via Musical Fidelity USB to S/PDIF, Roku, Cable, etc.) I have a problem I'm trying to figure out when I want to play multiple sources to zones 2 and 3. The Anthem only has it's high-end DACs on the MAIN zone for digital sources. You can copy digital audio to Zone 2 and Zone 3 but it must be the same source as MAIN. Otherwise, if you are playing digital source X in MAIN, then only an analog source will play in Zone 2 or Zone 3. This is fine for my Bluray player and Cable, which have analog outs. However, for my AppleTV and iTunes, I have a bi of a problem as I only have Toslink and S/PDIF connection to utilize. My goal is to try and find an easy-to-use, low-cost solution that will allow me to continue to utilize the high-end DACs in the Anthem for all my digital sources and still allow me to get analog for the two sources (AppleTV and iTunes) that do not have analog out currently in my setup. My priority between the AppleTV and the iTunes library is the Mac with the iTunes library. Most things that I can think of require me to purchase new DACs for each of those sources and I don't want to do that. I don't want to impair the internal Anthem DACs for my main listening. Some questions and directions that I have been pursuing are: 1) Is it possible on the Mac (I'm running iTunes on an older G4 tower) to have both the 1/8 phones and the Musical Fidelity USB to S/PDIF as simultaneous audio out sources? If I could do this, it would basically solve my problem. 2) Is there any sort of Toslink repeater and converter combo that would convert the TOSLINK signal to analog and also allow the stream to pass on? This too would solve my problem. Every solution I've seen here only coverts TOSLINK to analog and doesn't repeat the signal on. 3) Resurrect a generation 1 Apple TV. Since this has both HDMI and analog audio out, I could share out the iTunes library from the Mac and then load it from the Gen1 AppleTV and play that to Zones 2 and 3 via the Gen1 AppleTV analog out ports. My gut tells me that option 3, to resurrect the old AppleTV will be the best solution, but I'm looking for some other insights and directions that won't break the bank. Option 1 would also be ideal but I don't know how to do that. THANKS!

It's 48k output...

The new AppleTV audio section appears to be the same as the Gen2 model. You can hack the AppleTV Gen2 with FireCore (http://firecore.com/atvflash-black) and get FLAC, OGG, and WMA support as well as higher res playback. The new update says that it will support 24 and 32 bit playback (see here: http://firecore.com/atvflash-black-changelog). I'd be curious to see if anyone has tested out a hacked AppleTV for higher res. I've hacked a Gen1 AppleTV but haven't uploaded any files to it for testing.