Markus77

I do have the apple tv connected to the onkyo and after putting in the optical cable from the airport express to the onkyo, I can't really tell the difference between the 2. I'm definitely going to be following the advice here and try connecting my father cd player and seeing how it sounds here. At that point I'll let you guys know what happened and see where to go from there. Thanks for all of your help! I'm sure you guys must get tired of newbies asking basic questions, but this is really helping me out and I really appreciate it! Thanks again, Mark

I see - lot's of factors here:) My father uses an older NAD cd player, arcam amp and mirage speakers. I'm not sure of the models, but I think from the research I've done my speaker setup and room acoustics should be better than his. I'll see if I can connect his cd player and see how that sounds. Thanks for the tips! I suspect that my onkyo may be the weakest link in what I currently have going. I'm going to try and follow your suggestions and go from there. Thanks:)

Hi Guys, I connected a toslink cable as you suggested and it has made a small improvement so thanks for that suggestion! I've also tried to do some more research on this forum and I notice that many people have a mac mini attached to their stereo - would that be the next logical step for me so that I can take the airport express out of the loop? Or would I be better off investing in a DAC first or other piece of equipment? Thanks again for all your help and suggestions, Mark

Thanks for the advice! I don't think I can connect my mac to the receiver without some major moving:) I'll see if maybe I can experiment with my macbook pro instead and what happens.

Thanks so much for this! I didn't realize that the analog could double as a digital port - I will try to pick up one of those cables this weekend and give it a try. In terms of the music in my library, when I ripped cd's I used the aiff option. purchased/matched mp3 music from iTunes I guess is just the standard they use, not sure how good the quality is on these. I will give the optical cable a try and hopefully that makes a difference. My main complaint is with classical/jazz where I just don't feel the sound is very "defined" for lack of a better term. The gentleman who sold me my speakers mentioned that they did well with a strong amp, perhaps my receiver is underpowered?

Okay will do. Thanks:)

Connected with just stereo analog cable. I don't think airport express has an connection for the Toslink? Edit - I just checked and realize that I am using an older generation airport express and the new ones have an optical out. Would purchasing the current airport express improve sound quality?

Hi All, To begin with, I’d just like to say how excited I am to have found this site! I am a total newbie in the world of computer audio and there seems to be a vast amount of knowledge here. I’m really looking for some advice on steps I can take to make my system sound better. Here’s where I’m at right now: We listen to music almost exclusively through iTunes (either iTunes purchased music or ripped cd’s). We have a few apple tv’s in different rooms but mainly music is sent to the living room stereo system via an airport express. Right now I have an Onkyo TX-SR606 receiver that everything is connected to (apple tv, game consoles, airport express, turntable etc.) My speakers are: Mirage M7si fronts, Mirage MCsi center, and Mirage OM-R2 rears. My computer (Mac Pro 2009 with external drive for iTunes library) is located in the home office so all music and movies and being sent wirelessly to the living room stereo via an airport extreme base station. I really enjoy the ease and functionality of this - wirelessly having the whole iTunes library controlled by my iPhone or iPad, but would really like my music to sound better! I find that particularly with classical music, my father’s 30yr old system of an amp, cd player and reasonable speakers sounds significantly better than my setup. After finding this site, I downloaded the software trial of Amarra HiFi and found this has already made a huge improvement:) However, I’m sure there is much that can still be done. I should also mention that I am definitely in the camp of convenience - even as a newbie I understand iTunes has it’s limitations in terms of a source for audio and quality, but to me functionality and convenience is very important. My goal would be to build a system that would keep this convenience and functionally but improve the sound quality of my system. I don’t have a large budget for this right now, and would probably have to add things on a step by step basis. I guess what I’m really asking is: given what my current setup is, what would be the next step? DAC, better amplifier, network player? Other suggestions? Any advice would be greatly appreciated and I apologize for such a long post:) Mark