Murky sound from AppleTV

8 replies
M(
Offline
Munin (archived)
Bronze
Posted July 2, 2008 at 07:26 GMT
#1683729

I'd be very happy for some comments on this

This is my current setup:

1) ... this gives very crisp and clear sound :-) ... despite it is analogue!

 iMac >> AirportExpress >> Analogue  >> BS9000 >> Analogue >> BL5

[advantage is that I can listen to music without having to start the TV]

 

2) ... this gives considerably worse sound quality :-(

 AppleTV >> HDMI >> Beovision7 >> Analogue >> BL5

[advantage is that I can have music, images, podcasts, movies etc]

 

How can I improve the sound? 

a) HDMI + S/PDIF from AppleTV

b) Component + S/PDIF from AppleTV

c) What about digital input direct to the BL5s? Can I connect both AppleTV and the AirportExpress?
 (and digital from the BS9000 as well?)

 
Thanx!

/Munin

 

PS In what way could a Beosound5 improve the situation?

9_LEE
Offline
9_LEE
Bronze
Posted July 4, 2008 at 19:17 GMT
#1683730

Soundproof, Peter.. Alex!

These are the three apple musketeers who may be able to help! 😂

Lee 

JK
Offline
jk1002
BronzeFounder
Posted July 5, 2008 at 09:02 GMT
#1683731

The Apple TV can act as an Airport Express. It should show up in your Itunes like the Airport Express, I think you might have to activate that in the menu. 

I would try that first before fiddling with the connections. It might be the ATV itself being unsuitable  to drive 20K$ speakers.

 I will try myself soon as well, I installed a NAS this weekend and will rip my Audio losless.

 I was hoping that I could stream music to the ATV from the NAS but that is a No it seems .... 

Cheers

JK  

M(
Offline
Munin (archived)
Bronze
Posted July 5, 2008 at 11:59 GMT
#1683732
@jk You have to have iTunes running on a Mac in order to stream to the AppleTV. Previously I used to sync my MacBook to the AppleTV but realized that 160Gb which is max on the AppleTV makes this solution pretty useless. I was then recommended by some Apple-guys to buy a Mac Mini and skip the AppleTV altogether. But then you miss YouTube, iTunes Music Store etc ... so that's not really an option. Apple apparently does not want you to replace the AppleTV with a FrontRow-based Mac. Next idea was to put all the music, films, photos etc on some high capacity RAID system controlled by a MacMini. However - to be able to use the MacMini you need mouse, keyboard and some sort of display, adding to the prize. This is when I bought my iMac 😁 Yes - it's a weird feeling to have such a beautiful computer in the closet with the screen turned off 99% of the time - but it is a wonderful feeling to manage the entire music/film/photo-library from that "console". So basically what changed everything was when I realized that the mediaserver must be based on Apple software and hardware, cannot be anything less than a fullblown computer and finally - must be a separate computer from my daily-work laptop. The mediacenter has to be isolated. And then ??? Well I'm not sure yet. Since I now stream everything from the iMac to the AppleTV ... everything can be selected from the BV7-onscreen-menu. And a iPhone-based remote control will make things even better. But perhaps I'd like to stay with B&O when it comes to SELECTING music ... in other words buy the BS5 if it turns out to be as good as people hope ... AND if it can access my iMac-administered, RAID-stored iTunes library. Perhaps I can trade in the BS9000 ... although this hurts a lot. I just have to wait and see ... If this will be the way to go the AppleTV will be used only for images and video, until B&O releases the BeoVideo5 or what the name will be ....
JK
Offline
jk1002
BronzeFounder
Posted July 5, 2008 at 16:37 GMT
#1683733

I am using the A TV itself just for Video for now, due to the 160 GB restricton. I do not mind having a computer on to stream music to the ATV even though if it could pull it straight from the NAS that would be awesome.

I do want to try out though how the sound of the ATV is for music, I haven't done direct comparison but I figure it's not optimal to go through the TV via HDMi ..... willl see .... next weekend I will do a direct compare off ATV & lossless versus BC2 and Cd.

I am thinking of buying a BS5 myself but am really unclear where they are going with it. All I want is a Sonos like 2 way remote which I am not sure BS5/BM5 will provide. Based on descriptions here in the forum I am thinking Beomaster is the hidden Box & Beosound is a front piece similar to BC2 or BS4.  Beosound would just be too big for a 2 way ...... will see ....

Somehow I am settling in on CDs again at the moment ....  

Cheers

JK 

 

 

M(
Offline
Munin (archived)
Bronze
Posted July 5, 2008 at 16:55 GMT
#1683734

While keeping the HDMI cable I connected the S/PDIF from the AppleTV to an optical-coax-converter and then to the BV7-40.
(and changed the menu settings from HDMI to S/PDIF). The sound is now crisp and clear!! Cannot hear any difference between what comes from the AppleTV and from the Airport Express any longer 😁 

I'm still a bit puzzeled that it worked with the HDMI-cable + S/PDIF ... I thought I'd have to go to component ... but apparently the BV7 picks the videosignal from the HDMI-cable and the audio from the S/PDIF

Next thing to test would be a SuperDAC between the AppleTV and the BV7-40 ... hoping that it will send the good audiosignal undisturbed to the BL5s. Going digital directly to the BL5s seems tricky.

/M

PS ... @jk: Grabbing the music directly from the NAS? ... not so sure that this would be better ... you definitely want to administer your iTunes library. My iMac was the key component that changed things!

kallasr
Offline
kallasr
BronzeFounder
Posted July 6, 2008 at 08:57 GMT
#1683735

?

Not working on Leopard yet, but this might be the way to go.

Ralf

My B&O Icons:

BeoCenter-9500.png BeoCenter-9500.png
Beoremote-Beo4.png Beoremote-Beo4.png
Beovision-11.png Beovision-11.png
Beosound.png Beosound.png
Beoplay-V1.png Beoplay-V1.png
Beoplay-H95.png Beoplay-H95.png
Beoplay-E8.png Beoplay-E8.png
Beoplay-A1.png Beoplay-A1.png
Living Room: Beosystem 4, Beolab 7-2 (Center), Beolab 9 (Fronts), Beolab 8000 (Rears), Screen: Sony KD-85XH9096
Home Cinema: Beosystem 4, Beolab 7-4 (Center), Beolab 9 (Fronts), Beolab 4000 (Rears). Projector: Sony VPL-HW55
Home Office: BeoVision 11-46, 4 x Beolab 3, BeoCenter 9300 (BLC 1611/ML/NL)
Bedroom: Sony KD-65XH9077, Beosound Essence MK II with Beolab 6002 and Beolab 11 (all white, wall-mounted)
Dart Room: BeoPlay V1-40 on floor stand
Guest Room: BeoVision 7-40 MK IV, Beolab 7-2, BeoSound Ouverture
M(
Offline
Munin (archived)
Bronze
Posted July 6, 2008 at 10:21 GMT
#1683736

@Ralf

Thanx for the comment. Yes I know about ATV4mac and also that it's not working with Leopard (yet). However I think this strategi of Apples is no accident. I think that they want the modular approach i.e. a small controlbox in your living room (=AppleTV) and the mediaserver wherever you want to hide it. So I would not be surprised if they continue to leave FrontRow one step behind the AppleTV software also in the future. And personally I like this strategy which means that my AppleTV can do without frequent hardware updates. One exciting thing will be to see how Apple will adress the TV-issue. Perhaps the AppleTV will merge with EyeTV ... or the modular approach will prevail so that the AppleTV just picks the TV-signal streamed from some harddisk-enabeled STB. We'll see.

/M

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