Audio quality vs Airport Express

I don't know about everyone else but it seems to me that the audio sounds a bit weaker. Like it doesn't have as much bass or "depth". Seems like airport/airtunes sounded a bit better and deeper. Has anyone else notice this?

Which brings me to another question... Does EQ setting on each track (done by "info") change the output on Apple TV? Maybe I could add "bass booster" to see if that helps. Sorry, I can't try it out now since I'm at work.

Gino
Only difference I noted when upgrading for AE to ATV is the music defaulted to one of my surround sound modes which to my ear lowers the bass (geared for movie, big bass/booms for sound effects) compared to stereo mode. WHen I switched to stereo mode, I thought my two front L and R sounded better than AE, including bass. But I didn't think of doing a real side by side comparison. My set up is video/audio thru HDMI to a pioneer receiver to B&W speakers. ALso have L and R audio out of the ATV the Pioneer and then out to a Niles amp for a ZOne 2 driving speakers throughout the house; that hook up is comparable to AE. I didn't detect any differences with that but will listen again.
Pics

This analysis is completely subjective. To really know, you've got to run this against a singal/noise analyser to see how clean their DAC and amp electronics are. I remember seeing a write-up of this somewhere on CNET, but then again, their product laboratory findings I don't hold in very high esteem.

I was actually suprised by the amount of noise the Apple iPod video generated. This became apparent when I had the volume turned all the way up, and I went through simple actions, like navigating my library. It reminded me of the noise I heard when listening to the huygen's probe as it decended tothe surface of titan (it picked up alot of internal electronic noise).

Since most of the amplification will be done by your own stereo equipment, and it does so in a far cleaner way, I wouldn't expect there to be much of a problem. If you don't like the way your AppleTV sounds, run it through an EQ first. If you still don't like the way it sounds, get a better amp and speakers, and think about running it optical.

Golan.

I had a similar observation. Listening to music synced on ATV, it just sounded weak.

I previously had a G5 powermac plugged into the same system and compared the sound of 320kbps MP3, Apple Lossless, and the original source CD and couldn't tell the difference between any of these--all sounded great. Will need to try side-by-side with ATV when I have time.

picsob ,
I noticed also that my sound system defaulted to surround or prologic, so I made sure it was in 2ch stereo (L and R) and it still sounded a bit weak compared to my Airport setup. I still have the airport set up to the same sound system via digital connections. I'll go home later and do a comparison with the same song and the same audio settings... but from the 1st impression, it seemed weak. Even my brother noticed it and hes not much of an audio nerd like me. 🙂

Had me scared for a moment. I have a Denon S301 with iPod input (from the bottom) and on-screen navigation with awesome sound. The ATV did seem to lack some bass & definition with HDMI to the TV and, then, optical to the Denon. After running a optical cable direct from the ATV to the Denon, the sound seemed identical. Still very pleased. BTW, previous to the Denon, I used AE and iPod HiFi.

My express and my ATV both perform equally beautifully when I send iTunes Apple Lossless stereo to my Benchmark DAC-1 via a toslink optical cable. So well in fact, that I will be selling my expensive audiophile CD player. The digital to analogue converters in the Express and ATV are marginal, at best.

I have a B & O sound system with a massive 850watt sub so I don't think I'm going to notice - all I need now it the device as they have not reached us in the south West -uk can't wait!!

Guys,

I had the same issue, the bass is significantly muted. But I found something interesting. If you just plug only the Left or only the Right RCA audio cable into your receiver, the sound quality is great, but if you plug both right and left cables in, the audio bass get's removed. I tried different cables, different inputs on receiver, running it through TV, different tracks....I could not find any other item causing the issue than the actual iTV. I also tried using the optical audio plug, but that also removes the bass.

I am wondering if I have a defective unit. Can anyone else do this test? Unplug one of the two audio outs and see if the bass comes back in the remaining channel?

Thanks Sanjeev
jeevs@mac.com

The digital to analogue converters in the Express
and ATV are marginal, at best.

Compared to audiophile grade DAC's, I'm sure the ones in the Apple TV are marginal, but the chip in the Apple TV (an ALC885) is actually pretty decent, capable of 10 channels of up to 196 KHz, 24 bit conversion with distortion components 90 dB down from 1 volt output. It also includes a digital output suitable for a toslink or coax connection & is probably used for that purpose in the Apple TV.

For all but the most critical ears, it should be more than adequate for most audio imported into iTunes, even using lossless formats. This suggests overtly noticeable differences are due to other factors, like surround sound decoder variances between analog & digital inputs.

As JBW suggests, using the optical output & a stereo conversion should produce very good results.

My express and my ATV both perform equally
beautifully when I send iTunes Apple Lossless stereo
to my Benchmark DAC-1 via a toslink optical cable. So
well in fact, that I will be selling my expensive
audiophile CD player. The digital to analogue
converters in the Express and ATV are marginal, at
best.

I too, have 3 AE feeding 3 Benchmark DACa 1 . BEfore I upgrade to Apple tv, does it support more than 44.1 Khz sampling rate? Because the AE does not .