Hello all,
I was about to get rid of my old Apple TV 3'rd generation, A1469 model, due to the fact that it has no HBO Max, just Prime Video and Netflix and not sure for how long, given that streaming platforms will probably get updated in few years again, while this Apple TV model is already not receiving anymore updates due to being a discontinued model, so I purchased on Black Friday a couple of Fire Stick 4K Max instead.
On a second thought, I said to myself that might worth checking how it will sound when streaming from my iPhone to this Apple TV connected via TOSLINK to my Yamaha A-S701 stereo amplifier + Canton GLE 496 speakers + SVS SB3000 subwoofer. Overall, I was quite impressed when I did a few A/B tests by switching between TOS vs. USB on my ASUS Essence One MKii and I realized that is pretty difficult to my ears to identify which source was the USB/Computer and which one was the TOS/AppleTV, so I'll need to give this another try later, by using headphones, to see if I can spot any difference this way.
So, I'm quite pleased with the sound quality of AirPlay (I guess it's AirPlay v1), while initially I thought that audio quality will be less than acceptable and there will also be higher latencies while skipping and glitches while playing on Wi-Fi (I haven't connected my Apple TV to LAN yet, just 5 GHz Wi-Fi for now), but it seems that I was very wrong about this...and now I'm glad I decided to keep the Apple TV and perform the below tests and measurements.
Till now, the only measurements I was able to find on Internet would be:
- https://kenrockwell.com/apple/airport-express.htm#perf
- https://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/airport-express-audio-quality-2014.htm#meas
- https://www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/505apple
- https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/revi...-and-Second-Generation-Apple-AirPort-Express/
The above webpages were previously spotted by other ASR members in this thread: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/airplay-vs-bt-ldac.40185/ and also few other threads are talking about Apple TV and/or AirPlay too: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...lay2-vs-direct-hdmi-input-measurements.20585/ and https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...v-4k-airplay-airport-express-version-1.26784/
As reference, I'll upload here the test results from today's measurement setup, Topping D90 MQA + Cosmos ADC. The ADC was "warmed-up" by placing it on top of the D90 for over an hour while playing some music, hence the SINAD of almost 120dB that I was able to get out of it in the below pics. For those being unaware why Cosmos ADC performs better when warm vs. when cold can read https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...adc-chip-currently.13469/page-25#post-1017068.
Now I'm going to give a spin to @IVX's measurement device, Cosmos ADC, and see how this Apple TV measures. I will feed it with sinewaves grabbed from audiocheck.net, Apple Music Lossless and Tidal Hi-Fi Plus, although inside the Apple TV the signal will probably get down-sampled. Apple TV was optically interconnected with my Topping D90 and the below graphs were measured with Cosmos ADC by using ARTA and REW apps.
THD+N: -102.1dB - Apple TV 3'rd Generation (A1469) driven by iPhone 14 Pro over Topping D90 @1kHz sinewave
Sinewave is 16-bit/48kHz and it was generated from audiocheck.net and played directly from iOS's Files manager
I wouldn't thought I would get a THD+N higher than 90dB, which still would be decent enough coming from a device of its age (Year introduced: 2012), so I was really pleased to see a THD+N of 102.1dB. Below I'll test couple of streaming services playing similar sinewaves too, but also a playback from VLC app too.
THD+N: -91.7dB - same 1kHz file from above, but now played via VLC app from AppStore
Not sure why the THD+N decreased so much while playing it with VLC, even if using the same cellphone
THD+N: -99.1dB - same iPhone Pro 14 + Apple TV + Topping D90, but now under Apple Music while playing 1kHz file from an artist named B.A.S.S.
There're also similar files on Apple Music's library to play, but with this one I found the best results
THD+N: -99.1dB - MacBook Pro + Apple TV + Topping D90, but now under TIDAL while playing the same 1kHz file from the above graph, same B.A.S.S. artist
IMD results on Apple TV + D90 via TOSLINK, audiocheck.net IMD test
Below I'll attach thumbnails from multiple measurement points, while checking for both THD+N and amplitude, which also gives me bandwidth linearity too. It seems that frequency response is quite flat between 20Hz and 20kHz, with only +/-0.05dB linearity:
To conclude now, I find the performance of this specific Apple TV A1469 Model as being good enough for decent audio streaming (a SINAD of 102dB). Especially when playing sinewave files directly from an iPhone, the performance of this device is more than acceptable. Despite of a bit lower performance when playing audio sines from the streaming services (a SINAD of 99dB), this may not be related to the Apple TV itself, but to the songs I've used from their libraries. Until I'll be able to find top-notch audio test files listed on audio streaming services I'll keep comparing apples with peaches...well, in a manner of speaking.
For me at least, this Apple TV is a keeper, at least until I'll get a better streamer, although I'm not actively looking to get one...yet
Thanks for reading!
I was about to get rid of my old Apple TV 3'rd generation, A1469 model, due to the fact that it has no HBO Max, just Prime Video and Netflix and not sure for how long, given that streaming platforms will probably get updated in few years again, while this Apple TV model is already not receiving anymore updates due to being a discontinued model, so I purchased on Black Friday a couple of Fire Stick 4K Max instead.
On a second thought, I said to myself that might worth checking how it will sound when streaming from my iPhone to this Apple TV connected via TOSLINK to my Yamaha A-S701 stereo amplifier + Canton GLE 496 speakers + SVS SB3000 subwoofer. Overall, I was quite impressed when I did a few A/B tests by switching between TOS vs. USB on my ASUS Essence One MKii and I realized that is pretty difficult to my ears to identify which source was the USB/Computer and which one was the TOS/AppleTV, so I'll need to give this another try later, by using headphones, to see if I can spot any difference this way.
So, I'm quite pleased with the sound quality of AirPlay (I guess it's AirPlay v1), while initially I thought that audio quality will be less than acceptable and there will also be higher latencies while skipping and glitches while playing on Wi-Fi (I haven't connected my Apple TV to LAN yet, just 5 GHz Wi-Fi for now), but it seems that I was very wrong about this...and now I'm glad I decided to keep the Apple TV and perform the below tests and measurements.
Till now, the only measurements I was able to find on Internet would be:
- https://kenrockwell.com/apple/airport-express.htm#perf
- https://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/airport-express-audio-quality-2014.htm#meas
- https://www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/505apple
- https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/revi...-and-Second-Generation-Apple-AirPort-Express/
The above webpages were previously spotted by other ASR members in this thread: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/airplay-vs-bt-ldac.40185/ and also few other threads are talking about Apple TV and/or AirPlay too: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...lay2-vs-direct-hdmi-input-measurements.20585/ and https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...v-4k-airplay-airport-express-version-1.26784/
As reference, I'll upload here the test results from today's measurement setup, Topping D90 MQA + Cosmos ADC. The ADC was "warmed-up" by placing it on top of the D90 for over an hour while playing some music, hence the SINAD of almost 120dB that I was able to get out of it in the below pics. For those being unaware why Cosmos ADC performs better when warm vs. when cold can read https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...adc-chip-currently.13469/page-25#post-1017068.
Now I'm going to give a spin to @IVX's measurement device, Cosmos ADC, and see how this Apple TV measures. I will feed it with sinewaves grabbed from audiocheck.net, Apple Music Lossless and Tidal Hi-Fi Plus, although inside the Apple TV the signal will probably get down-sampled. Apple TV was optically interconnected with my Topping D90 and the below graphs were measured with Cosmos ADC by using ARTA and REW apps.
THD+N: -102.1dB - Apple TV 3'rd Generation (A1469) driven by iPhone 14 Pro over Topping D90 @1kHz sinewave
Sinewave is 16-bit/48kHz and it was generated from audiocheck.net and played directly from iOS's Files manager
THD+N: -91.7dB - same 1kHz file from above, but now played via VLC app from AppStore
Not sure why the THD+N decreased so much while playing it with VLC, even if using the same cellphone
THD+N: -99.1dB - same iPhone Pro 14 + Apple TV + Topping D90, but now under Apple Music while playing 1kHz file from an artist named B.A.S.S.
There're also similar files on Apple Music's library to play, but with this one I found the best results
THD+N: -99.1dB - MacBook Pro + Apple TV + Topping D90, but now under TIDAL while playing the same 1kHz file from the above graph, same B.A.S.S. artist
IMD results on Apple TV + D90 via TOSLINK, audiocheck.net IMD test
To conclude now, I find the performance of this specific Apple TV A1469 Model as being good enough for decent audio streaming (a SINAD of 102dB). Especially when playing sinewave files directly from an iPhone, the performance of this device is more than acceptable. Despite of a bit lower performance when playing audio sines from the streaming services (a SINAD of 99dB), this may not be related to the Apple TV itself, but to the songs I've used from their libraries. Until I'll be able to find top-notch audio test files listed on audio streaming services I'll keep comparing apples with peaches...well, in a manner of speaking.
For me at least, this Apple TV is a keeper, at least until I'll get a better streamer, although I'm not actively looking to get one...yet
Thanks for reading!
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