col_in_belfast

I find the Cambridge Audio DAC Magic a good match for the AppleTV - I have had a decent improvement in sound quality at a reasonable price.

Thanks so much for your comprehensive and very helpful answers! Currently researching the Emotiva UPA-1 monoblocks. My confusion was that if iTunes Plus offers 256kbps & 16/44.1 then I thought this would be as good as a CD as I thought it was all about the sample rate being the same. I had no idea that while the sample rate is the same as a CD, there was such disparity in the kbps. Thanks again.

Thanks for your comments. I am starting to rip a few CD's into ALAC and will have a good listen to compare to what i'm currently using. I'm actually only using the Denon AVR for 2.1 sound, so i'm aware that a lot of video and audio functions are going unused. I am however using in puredirect mode so hopefully I am getting the best that I can out of it. I am going to have a look at some alternative amp's as i'm now confident that i'm only interested in stereo sound and don't need surround. Just one other quick question, if iTunes plus provides a 16/44.1 sample rate which I understand to be the same as a Red Book CD, in what way is this audio inferior to ALAC? Thanks again.

I have recently improved the sound quality of my setup significantly with the addition of a Cambridge Audio Dac Magic where previously I just connected my Apple TV directly to my amp. I have also re-ripped all of my cd's at 320 kbps (VBR) AAC where previously they were a mixture of 128kbps & 256kbps. I think this has made quite a difference. ------------------------------------------------------------- I was just wondering where the weak link in my system now resides? Or if maybe i'm not getting the benefits of my changes because of a particular part of my setup? ------------------------------------------------------------- In detail, I use: -iMac with OS X 10.5.8 -Apple TV with 1 TB of external storage - Music collection comprising 256 kbps iTunes plus downloads & CD 's ripped at 320 kbps (VBR) -Apple TV connected to DAC Magic via TOSLINK outputting at 44.1 sample rate - DAC Magic connected to Denon AVR-1907 via QED premium audio cable upsampling to 24/192 - QED premium audio cables to 2x KEF iQ7's and Cambridge Audio S90 subwoofer I would appreciate any thoughts or comments. Thanks.

Apple TV doesn't have to be limited for storage, a simple hack using a program called ATV Flash and an external iomega 1TB drive connected through the Apple TV's USB port has increased my storage by a factor of over 16 for a cost of £100. I also use the Cambridge Audio DAC Magic (a very recent addition) and find it to be a great combination with the Apple TV.

Im only getting a choice of Direct or Stereo, I cant find any reference to Pure Direct in the menu's or the manual.

Thanks, very helpful indeed.

Cool I found two 2 channel settings, Direct & Stereo, I had been using Stereo. I assume Direct will be the Pure Direct you mentioned? Currently experimenting with both of these settings. Thanks again :-)

I just went a got a QED analogue cable and used it to connect the DAC Magic to my Denon 1907 AV receiver. Fantastic! What a difference over the optical, perhaps not surprisingly.

Thankyou thankyou thankyou :-)

Firstly - I only found out what a DAC was yesterday so you can gauge my level of experience at this. My previous set up was an Apple TV, connected via a QED performance audio cable to a Denon 1907 AV Receiver with 2 Kef iQ7's bi-wired with QED Silver Anniversary XT speaker cables. Today I added a Cambridge Audio S90 subwoofer and a Cambridge Audio DAC Magic. The guy in the shop recommended that I connect from the Apple TV to the DAC Magic with an optical cable, seems logical enough. However, he then recommended that I also connect the DAC Magic to the AV Receiver with an optical cable for optimal sound? I don't know much about this but there seems to be something illogical here, i.e. converting to analogue to subsequently output through a digital cable? Surely it would be best going optical into the DAC Magic and analogue out of it? But then I did ask myself, if it is the case that an optical output doesn't make sense once converted to analogue, why would an award winning DAC have one? I would be much obliged if someone would clarify. Thanks.