HDTV Forum

Apple announced "same day" releases with DVD today:

http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/news/2008/0 ... elease.php

- Shane

Shane,

Is it acceptable to ask Audio questions here? I know that between you, Rodolfo and Richard you guys should be able to answer them.


Here goes.....since getting my iPhone and jumping ship from using my prevoius Cell phone Co. for almost 25 years, that gadget has turned me into an Apple guy.

Now I have Apple TV so I can wirelessly steam my Music to my sound system.

Quest #1 Does taking the Digital signal out of my Apple TV via the optical jack let me use my Controller's DAC to convert to Analog? That should be the same us using Wadia's 170 iTransport's dock?

Also does right clicking on Music recorded in iTunes (Mp3 AAC MPeg) converting to Apple Lossless make it the same as ripping CD straight into Apple Lossless?


Thanks,


Magoo

Never had to do this myself. Looked in my 1 year old Denon owners manual and it showed an ipod dock that connects only to the analog inputs...

Checked the Apple TV site and
Connect Apple TV to your widescreen TV via an HDMI cable (sold separately). This single cable delivers both audio and video. If your HDMI port is in use, or if your TV doesn

Good information.thanks very much. Just that i need.

magoo wrote:Shane,

Is it acceptable to ask Audio questions here? I know that between you, Rodolfo and Richard you guys should be able to answer them.


Here goes.....since getting my iPhone and jumping ship from using my prevoius Cell phone Co. for almost 25 years, that gadget has turned me into an Apple guy.

Now I have Apple TV so I can wirelessly steam my Music to my sound system.

Quest #1 Does taking the Digital signal out of my Apple TV via the optical jack let me use my Controller's DAC to convert to Analog? That should be the same us using Wadia's 170 iTransport's dock?

Yes. The whole point of SPDIF/TossLink is to use an external D/A converter. Some people say that the D/A converter in the ipod/iphone is not very good. I find that the D/A converter in my iphone is much better than the one in my 2nd generation ipod. However using any external D/A converter should be much better.

magoo wrote: Also does right clicking on Music recorded in iTunes (Mp3 AAC MPeg) converting to Apple Lossless make it the same as ripping CD straight into Apple Lossless?

If you have already downloaded or ripped music into iTunes as Mp3 or AAC or Mpeg, etc., then converting that file to Apple Lossless does nothing for you. What ever the damage caused by the original (worst case scenario) encoding will still be present in any files made from that file.

Audio Engineers will always tell you that you can't undo processing regardless what type. Lossless compression isn't actually processing as it doesn't permanently affect the sound of the file. Lossy Algorithms are processing since they actually make decisions about which parts of the music to throw away. Most people don't care because they can't hear the difference due to hearing loss or mediocre equipment. They other people don't care because they either don't care about sound quality or are more concerned about other things, ie. convenience of small files or don't have the space for the larger files.

I am an Audio Engineer and find that using VBR encoding at 256kbit/s AAC sounds indistinguishable from the CD I ripped from most of the time. Especially on the iPhone and using the Shure PTH500 in ear phones that I like.

Apple lossless is very large in terms of file size compared to AAC or MP3 so it is up to you. Whether or not you can tell the difference and want to spend the money on extra storage space to accommodate the file size are going to be the determining factors in this case. If you want the best possible thoretical sound then you have to start with the best source and use only Lossless algorithms or rip Red book directly into iTunes (not sure if thats possible) or use very high quality analogue sources and A/D converters but I am starting to get into a whole other realm of Audio Tech.

Hope this helps and good Luck,
Brian Marten.