jcobb

Ok, so I got some great ideas but I should have started with the basics. I went back through my hookups and realized that my amp was taking the analog audio feed from the apple tv instead of the digital-optical one. For all of my components I also run an analog cable for audio so my second zone out (patio and garage) can play each source. But for it to work properly, the amp's input needed to be set to "auto," but for the apple tv it somehow got switched to "analog." Tested everything out once I fixed the amp's settings and the quirks I described with the mids and highs seem to be gone. Ok, cheap solution. Wow...I feel foolish. Sorry folks . I'm still going to keep working on perfecting my process for AIFF/ALAC etc. though. Thanks everyone for all the help. Jerry

It's actually very close to the rest of the equipment. I think the cable is probably the 3 ft. variety. Inside the cabinet I keep the apple tv, blu-ray player, motorola cable box, sony amp, roku soundbridge, tripplite power conditioner. There's also a URC mrf-260 converter for the various remotes in the house (mx-900s and KP-900s). Oh and one of those x10 543 converters that take ir and convert it to powerline for the lighting. I may try to move the apple tv out of the cabinet and put it on top away from everything when I swap out the cable. It runs pretty hot so that would probably be best anyway. It's just that I was using the front blaster of the mrf-260 inside the cabinet for the roku and apple tv since I've used all the other ports and I've gotten out of the habit of pointing remotes. Maybe that will help. These are some really good ideas.

I really had not thought about a mac, since I just sync everything to the apple tv. I rarely listen to music streamed from the pc (or even directly on the pc actually). I mentioned earlier that I felt I had tweaked my setup about as much as I could. Maybe I haven't. I'm going to try swapping out the optical cable on the apple tv. It didn't occur to me until now that I was using an old one that I bought years ago. I'll probably try that as well as some of the other suggestions prior to looking into another purchase. I guess there could be issues with the EAC rips. I bookmarked a site a while back that offered recommended settings, so that could be another avenue to check out. Thanks!

Thanks for the info on possible jitter issues. I'm not too clear on what causes it but it sounds as though it could be the issue between the apple tv and my blu-ray player. I may try the music fidelity v-dac to see if it helps. Thanks again! Jerry

Hello everyone. I have been reading the various forum threads for weeks now, trying to learn a little about getting the most out of my system. This has been a wonderful resource. My system right now: Apple TV via optical out into a sony 3300es amp, paradigm monitor 9 fronts with dsp3100 sub. I run windows xp, iTunes 8.1. I use EAC to rip CDs into AIFF for archive and then import into itunes using ALAC (jazz, classical/opera, rock, reference CDs), AAC @ 192 (pop and others). The Apple TV has been great (also use a Roku Soundbridge sometimes) and it is the first audio purchase that my wife has actually enjoyed using. While I realize compared to many systems I've read about on here, it is low to mid-grade, for the most part the setup suits me pretty well. I do have some hearing damage that tends to lose some of the high end sometimes. Anyway, I love the paradigms and they've been a phenomenal value compared to others I compared to in the showroom. I feel like I've tweaked about as much as I can with the current setup. The room provides some difficulties (wood floors, one wall of floor-to-ceiling windows, etc). With some CDs off of the apple tv, the mid-range sounds muddy to me and I don't seem to get all of the highs. Particularly compared to the CD played in my sony blu-ray. I've tried using AIFF instead of the ALAC, but I get the same result. Since I'm using optical out on both the Apple TV and the blu-ray (when playing the actual CDs), I assume I'm using the DAC in the sony amp in both cases. I just can't get my head around why I seem to be hearing a difference. For example, strings and horns sometimes lose clarity. Miles Davis' Sketches of Spain stands out as a good example. I can clearly hear a difference in presence, for lack of a better word. Another example is Sinatra's Only the Lonely. The vocals don't have the same punch. I realize this isn't scientific at all and I've no way to volume-match, although they're awfully close right now as it is. Can anyone offer some insight as to what might be the issue? I've wondered if something like an inexpensive DAC as discussed in the on-going thread (Valab, etc.) might improve the situation. But it doesn't seem to answer the issue of apparent differences between the apple tv and the original CD. Hope no one reads this as a critique of the apple tv though. It has been a fantastic purchase (had if for a about a year), if for no other reason than my girl gives me carte blanche on music purchases now. Thanks in advance for any assistance you can give. Jerry