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Richh

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  1. I tried a ATV for music play back on my audio system from CD's I ripped to iTunes running on a Mac mini. The sound was brittle and very bright. I replaced the ATV with an older version of an Airport Express that I bought on EBay. This made a huge difference,. The airport express sounds as good as playing the original CD's directly on my audio system ( Marantz 7400, Monitor Audio Silver series speakers, Sony CD player)
  2. I replaced the Apple TV with an Airport Express ( older version) and the 24/96 files now play great. Music that is ripped from CD's sound much better using the Airport Express. The brittle, bright sound from the Apple TV is gone. My music now sounds as good as when I play the CD's directly.
  3. I connected up the airport express and it made a huge difference. The brittle, bright sound is gone. The music sounds identical to playing the cd's. I also tried a 24/96 album that I downloaded from HDTracks and it played great. Do you know if this setup would work with 24/192 files? Thanks again for all your help with this. Rich
  4. Thanks, for your very informative reply. One more question What app are you using to control your Mac from your iPhone/iPad? I don't want to have to go into the other room where the Mac Mini lives to select music to play. Thanks, Rich
  5. I think I would like to try your airport solution first because it is the most cost effective. I do have a few questions on how it works. Is the right airport express model A1264 MB321LL/A It looks like you need a special cable that goes from mini to toslink to connect the AE to the receiver. Do I just use an ethernet cable to connect the airport express into my network. Is there any setup software that must be used to setup the AE or will my mac mini just find it? My version of iTunes (11.1.3) does not show an airplay button on the menu bar, so how do I select songs from my library to play through the airport express? Thanks for your help
  6. Thanks for the info on the Airport. Is there anyway to tell if a unit on ebay is second gen?
  7. Thanks so much for all your help with this. I really appreciate it. If I decide to go with the vlink solution I will come back and post my results. Rich
  8. Thanks for your reply. My router is located near the Marantz and Apple TV so I have it hard wired via ethernet cable already. However the Mac mini is connected to my network via wireless, so I could try connecting it with ethernet. I think I'm already using your method 2 because I do browse my music via the Apple TV remote. I do not have any 16/48 files at this time. I did try downloading some sample 24/96 files from HD tracks and they sounded pretty good through my setup. I know Apple TV does not do 24/96 so it must be converting them somehow. What is really weird is that I bought a 24/96 album from HD tracks after trying their sample, and it will not play at all. It just drops the audio after a few notes. The album I bought does play just using speakers attached to the Mac Mini. After I emailed them HD Tracks told me Apple TV was not meant for HI Rez playback.
  9. Thanks for your reply. I assume the spdif cable would plug into the digital coax input on the Marantz. I did a little research and can buy the vLink for 250$ on Amazon. They sell 50' spdif cables and that would be long enough to run between my Mac and the receiver. (I would just run it down to a crawl space and back up in the room where my receiver is). I could also use the balanced output from the vlink and use a AES cable and a AES to spdif adapter to connect to the Marantz. Do you think the Crystal DAC in the receiver is of good enough quality for this solution? You seem like you are happy with the sound of your setup. This solution is within my budget and seem like it might be a good way to go.
  10. Would you please explain your VLink solution in a little more detail. What would be the cost of this solution? My Mac Mini is in another room so I would need a wireless (my preference) or Ethernet based solution.
  11. If I bought a new DAC I would use analog inputs on the receiver so music coming out of the new DAC would stay in the analog domain. I'm not sure if a new DAC will help because I'm now using the receivers DAC for both the Apple TV and the CD player. The fact that I here a difference in the music must be influenced by something in the CD player or the Apple TV that is affecting the music while it is still in the digital domain.
  12. I tried ripping them using Apple Lossless Encoder, and AIFF Encoder. I did not notice any difference between these methods, but they both sound bright compared to playing the CD on my player connected to the receiver. The apple TV and my CD player are both connected to the Marantz using Optical digital cables, so Im using the receivers built in DAC for both. The receiver is about 10 years old but according to the manual is has 192/24 bit Crystal DAC's. The CD player is a Sony CDP CE500 which is not a high end player.
  13. I like the convenience of ripping CD's to my Mac Mini using iTunes and using Apple TV to play them on my home system using a Marantz 7400 receiver and Monitor Audio Silver series speakers. I find that the music does not sound as good to me, as when I play the CD's directly through a CD player connected to the receiver. The iTunes music sounds too bright and somewhat tinny. I prefer a warmer sound. I tried several of the available formats for the rips but I'm not happy with the results. Would connecting a DAC between the Apple TV and the receiver improve the quality of the music? If so can you recommend one that would cost less then 500$ and give me enough improvement to be worth the investment? If the Apple TV is the problem, can you recommend an alternative keeping within my budget. Thanks
  14. I'm new to storing and playing files on a computer. In the past I just played CD's. I like the convenience of ITunes and being able to rip my CD's and play them through my receiver. The sound quality is not as good as playing the CD's directly. I thought using Hi Res files might sound better, so that is why I tried the 24/96 format. My Mac Mini is in another room, too far for an optical cable. What is confusing me is that all the files from HD Tracks sample album worked fine at the 24/96 sample rate. None of the files from The Joni Mitchell Blue album that I bought worked. I was looking at a product from NAD called the Dac 2. It is advertised as supporting 24/96. This product has 2 boxes. You connect one to the USB port on the computer and the other connects to your receiver. It has it's own wireless connection between the two. Would this be a better solution then using Apple TV? Will I still be able to use ITunes to manage my music files?
  15. My current setup is a Mac Mini using iTunes, Apple TV, optical out of Apple TV to Marantz 7400 receiver. I can play CD's that I ripped using AIFF and they play fine. I downloaded an AIFF 24/96 sample file from HD Tracks and it also plays fine. I then bought and downloaded an AIFF 24/96 album from HDTracks. It plays ok from speakers connected to the MacMini, but when I try to play it through the Apple TV, it just plays a few notes of a song and then the audio cuts out. Does anyone have any ideas as to why? Thanks, Rich
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