Next Apple TV not yet out but...

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Paul Barker
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#16 Re: Next Apple TV not yet out but...

Post by Paul Barker »

Ok a little feedback on the former version of Apple TV which I plumped for.

All this depends on your dac and your tv to make sense,

I bout the departing generation Apple TV because of the optical output. I found that using it for audio with the toslink output my iPhone as the source spitfire dac the sound is very crisp, no apparent faults or colourations.

Using the Apple TV through the hdmi and then taking the single spdif output from the tv to the same dac, I have the distinct advantage of seeing my iTunes screen on the tv. Also if you split the audio before the tv the sincing of audio to visual is misaligned if watching iplayer YouTube et al.

YouTube sinc is more often poor as it is. So no change there.

Via the tv spdif sound is coloured, less bright. But equally satisfying, if not a little more satisfying, as the clinical sound from the toslink connection is not my cup of tea. The muddier sound from phono cabling rounds the edges to appear more analogue. Obviously from this cable rolling would apply.

So if I had my choice again I would just buy the latest Apple TV to get the other benefits.

Just a practical expose. Not a knowledgeable or authoritative review.
"Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I am not yet completely sure about the universe." – Albert Einstein
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Paul Barker
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#17 Re: Next Apple TV not yet out but...

Post by Paul Barker »

Ok so you may recall that with my original broadband wifi the Apple TV kept dropping out. I found it worked great if I set up a wifi hotspot with my phone so 4g was faster than my original router on wifi.

As I have free broadband with my orange business mobile contract, I have always been reluctant to change provider.

Anyway on advise I bought the fastest router Curreys had in stock. £125 Image

As a Luddite I believed the Asus would replace the gig asset but it needs the original router as a modem.

But anyway, my wifi network is now on parr. If you're struggling with a gig asset Router, don't!
"Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I am not yet completely sure about the universe." – Albert Einstein
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Paul Barker
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#18 Re: Next Apple TV not yet out but...

Post by Paul Barker »

I tried googling this but came up lost in the wood for the trees.

My new router can do 5GHz

My iPad and my phone also can?

How to make sure they are? Answers on a post card?
"Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I am not yet completely sure about the universe." – Albert Einstein
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Mike H
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#19 Re: Next Apple TV not yet out but...

Post by Mike H »

That's only the Wi-Fi frequency tho isn't it? Won't help with bandwidth off the net.

I bought my first Wi-Fi router just couple of months back, and took me a while for the penny to drop that what I actually want is one that INCLUDES the modem part. I.e. I didn't want to still be using the old unit! Not obvious when you go looking for a Wi-Fi router. Well not to me.

Was round a neighbour's today and he was showing me his new Amazon Firestick thingy, lke wot Jeremy Clarkson is advertising on the TV, and that was freezing and dropping out too. So still all depends on Internet speed.
 
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Paul Barker
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#20 Re: Next Apple TV not yet out but...

Post by Paul Barker »

Yes I thought I was buying something that replaced my orange wot sit.
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#21 Re: Next Apple TV not yet out but...

Post by Cressy Snr »

When I was sorting out the system so that I could set up a permanent site for the Lenco, I pulled out the TV table and in the space at the back, I found my old AppleTV2 complete with HDMI cable and power lead still attached, under about half an inch of dust :confused1: I had wondered where that had got to.

I decided to copy Paul and set it up so that its audio was operating via HDMI into the TV and back out through the TV's coaxial digital output into the DAC. The sound is very good indeed. It'll do me nicely. Very organic; almost analogue but losing no detail, as Paul observed.

Image

Wot...no optical?
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#22 Re: Next Apple TV not yet out but...

Post by Cressy Snr »

I'd completely forgotten what a superb box-of-tricks the AppleTV actually is. Slotting it into the system with its digital audio out being handled via HDMI and the TV output to the DAC, has made the combination of TV and audio system a doddle to use. Switching of all digital sources is now handled by the TV remote, with the sound coming via the hi-fi, whatever source is selected.
The sound itself is excellent, the Mac Mini, serving up music into the AppleTV's RAM buffer. The music interface is simple and a doddle to use, either with the Apple Remote or the new AppleTV remote app for iPad or iPhone. The AppleTV experience has matured a lot since I first got the box in 2010. The software updated itself yesterday as the thing hadn't been used for years and is as far on as possible. I'm currently debating whether to either get the AppleTV 4 which has its own app store, so that we can get the ITV player, BBC iPlayer and the other catch-up apps, among other improved facilities.
We've got the best of both worlds now, with the analogue handled by the Lenco TT and the digital via the Mac and AppleTV.
The system itself has come on nicely over the past six months.
At the moment I have a bit of a speaker project at the planning stage, which will hopefully, see a pair of folded quadratic tapered quarter-wave MLTLs in the system before Christmas; still with the Metronome shape, but less than half the height.
Sgt. Baker started talkin’ with a Bullhorn in his hand.
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