Dac and Apple TV

[andy-integrale]

Hi all

Been an apple convert for several years from the 1st Gen iPod and now find myself fully 'appled up' at home.

My music library is in iTunes and I use airplay to stream music to various powered speakers around the house over a brilliantly stable airport extreme/express wireless set up. Controlled via iPad/iPhone or the kids use their iPods.

All my music is also synched to apple tv which is actually the primary source when listening properly to music at decent volumes in the lounge. The apple tv is hooked up (RCA leads)
to a Denon amp that came with a minidisc midi system about 10 yrs ago!! in turn this is bi wired to a pair of AE 100 series floor standers.

So my questions are

1. Are modern amps engineered to work better with digital sources. I guess my amp is a bit long in the tooth. Recommendations up to £500 (purely for music as no home cinema aspirations)
2. If I kept my existing set up would I benefit from using the optical connections and a decent DAC?

Guidance and pointers most welcome!

Cheers

[TonyRPH]

andy-integrale said:

So my questions are

1. Are modern amps engineered to work better with digital sources. I guess my amp is a bit long in the tooth. Recommendations up to £500 (purely for music as no home cinema aspirations)
2. If I kept my existing set up would I benefit from using the optical connections and a decent DAC?

Guidance and pointers most welcome!

Cheers

There are many older (vintage if you like) amps that sound as good as (or even still surpass) their contemporary equivalents.

If your Denon is one of the PMA series PMA 250/255 (IIRC) then that is still quite a decent amp, even with digital sources.

Likewise your AE100's (what are they? AE105 / 109??) speakers are still very good by todays standards.

I've not heard the Apple TV personally, but if it's as good as the iPods, then you would most likely have to spend quite a bit of money to improve upon it, at which point any DAC you bought may outshine your existing system anyway.

You must have started this topic for a reason.

Are you dissatisfied with the sound? Do you feel it could be better?

[1878]

I've got Airport Express rather than AppleTV but the optical out/Dac route sounds far far better than the audio out.

Plenty of DACs to choose from, currently using a Beresford model from http://www.homehifi.co.uk/main/main.html

Or you could buy a used one on eBay etc and try it, you'll lose little on re-sale if you decide either that it's not for you, or you want to go further up the food chain.

Steve

[andy-integrale]

Thanks for the responses.

The Denon amp is a PMA 6.5 and the speakers AE109's.

I am pretty satisfied with the current sound but had not really considered until recently how the "new stuff" works with my older equipment and whether my set up was fundamentally wrong in some way.

I was literally not aware of DAC's in their current form until a couple of days ago!

I don't want to change anything just for the sake of but would be interested in opinions .......

[TonyRPH]

My son has an Apple TV, and now you have perked my interest to try it in my system.

I have a couple of decent DACs with which to make comparisons.

I also just happen to have a spare pair of AE 105's (not quite the 109's but close..)

I'll try it over the weekend and report back if you like..

[andy-integrale]

Great, thanks.

Would be interested to hear what you think.

Edited by andy-integrale on Thursday 6th January 22:51

[TonyRPH]

As promised, I'm reporting back.

Well imagine my surprise when I find my son's Apple TV only has optical / HDMI out. (we appear to have a different version?)

So I had no option but to use a DAC!

Unsurprisingly, it sounds just like any other device I have put through my DACs (although I didn't listen with a hugely critical ear, but heard what I would have expected to hear).

I'm guessing this is what you have:



And this is what we have:

[andy-integrale]

Thanks Tony.

Yes I have tha ATV with the 160gb hard drive so I currently go phono to phono to my amp so guess I am using the inboard dac of the ATV?

So if I went for an external dac I woul go USB to dac from the ATV and optical to dac from my Sky + box ......

From what I have read over the last couple of days I should be able to get considerable benefit from a decent DAC.

[TonyRPH]

andy-integrale said:

Thanks Tony.

Yes I have tha ATV with the 160gb hard drive so I currently go phono to phono to my amp so guess I am using the inboard dac of the ATV?

So if I went for an external dac I woul go USB to dac from the ATV and optical to dac from my Sky + box ......

From what I have read over the last couple of days I should be able to get considerable benefit from a decent DAC.

Phono to phono will indeed be using the onboard DAC.

I'm struggling to find much info in the internal DAC - one page I found suggested it was a 16 bit device.

I guess all you can do, is audition it with an external DAC and decide for yourself if it's better or worse.

To be honest, I would be surprised if there was a huge audible difference between the internal DAC, and something like a Cambridge DAC magic, on anything less than a £600+ (by todays standards) system.

No harm in trying it though, if you have access to a loan DAC.

[Driller]

Just happened on this topic in the search for info on a DAC for my ATV.

Did you try a DAC OP, if so how did you get on?