As cool as the AppleTV may be from a functionality perspective, it sounds like steaming llama dung. Enter the Empirical Audio Pace Car 2 with Superclock 4. I've lived with my Pace Car for a few weeks and am ready to add my voice to the chorus of enthusiastic supporters.
Here are some basic observations...
Bass: better integrated, tighter, and less omnipresent.
Midbass: greater speed, articulation, and tonality.
Midrange: increased textural resolution and vocal presence.
Treble: I won't even try to list all the ways it sounds better. The treble was broken and now its fixed.
Microdynamics: I was really shocked at how much I was missing in this department. Musicians lay on various notes a little harder than others, and that important aspect of performance was totally flattened out by the stock AppleTV.
Macrodynamics: The lower noise floor makes the music seem louder at a given volume setting. Louder as in more powerful and present, just the antithesis of the way things get louder with compression.
The overall effect of adding the Pace Car is not at all subtle. I heard it right out of the box and it improved significantly over the break-in period.
Best of all, you do not need to have a uber dollar system to hear the improvement wrought by the order of magnitude reduction in jitter. Based on the wide variety of folks running and loving the Pace Car, I've come to the conclusion that it
isn't a tweeky sort of device that only works in some systems and only appeals to some ears. Rather, low jitter is a foundational sort of thing akin to room acoustics and clean power; something to be addressed sooner rather than later in the quest for your ideal system.
My AppleTV has thus evolved from the Old Brokeness to the New Hotness
Party On!
Jake
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A bit about my signal chain and overall system for reference...
Apple TV -> (AQ Optilink 5) -> Pace Car -> (AQ Eagle Eye) -> B&K Ref 31 -> (AQ Niagara) -> Aragon 8008x3BB -> (AQ CV-6) -> Polk RTA15TL
Equitech 1.Q balanced power system and PS Audio Premier AC cables.