[Cheeseboy]

I hope this is the right place to ask these questions.  One of my friends is asking what to use to build a 2 channel system to stream out of his Apple TV.  He will listen to both music and movies.  He only wants to have a two channel rig.  He has a pair of B&W bookshelves and will add a sub soon as well.  The outputs on the Apple TV are HDMI and optical out. 

What format does Apple TV Stream out?  Can it be upgraded to higher quality?  Can he stream a true stereo out?  I thought he would run the HDMI to the TV and the Optical digital out to a DAC with volume/remote and outputs to an amp and sub.  What low end gear would you recommend?  Yes to a digital amp. 

[cody69]

Yes, it will output stereo just fine and your understanding of cabling is correct. The usermanuals can be found online at Apple's website, search under the support section of the site.

Lots of choices for gear, really depends on amount of budget avail to spend. There are some receivers with a built-in DAC that would allow a less expensive upfront investment (HK 3490)

[WC]

He also could get an AV receiver. Most will work fine for 2 channel. They have built in DACs. Most of them will be marked down this summer as the manufacturers come out with new models. I picked up a Marantz AVR last summer for $550, much less than it's normal selling price of $900.

For audio the AppleTV will handle anything that iTunes supports. AppleTV is limited to 48kHz output. I would just run HDMI into the receiver like I do with my Apple TV. I only run 2 channel on the system with the appleTV and it works just fine.

[Cheeseboy]

Great help you guys!  I was very hesitant to offer advice with out understanding.  We found a used Peachtree Nova with an optical input.  The tube in the pre-amp is of interest to me. Tubes spoken here.  This might be a good basic system for him.  He is going to build a GR Research servo woofer to go with the rest of the system.   

We looked at the HK receiver as an option but it only has the dock to our understanding. 

[cody69]

We looked at the HK receiver as an option but it only has the dock to our understanding. 

The HK accepts two optical cables for input that you connect to the ATV.

[DS-21]

What format does Apple TV Stream out?

Standard PCM (or is it LPCM, whatever). You can set it to downmix 5.1 streams to stereo.

Can it be upgraded to higher quality?

You'd have to define "higher quality" here. However, I'm not sure the ATV is bit perfect. It may resample to 48kHz. The older AirPort Express router offers a digital audio output and was confirmed by Stereophile to be bit perfect.

I thought he would run the HDMI to the TV and the Optical digital out to a DAC with volume/remote and outputs to an amp and sub.

Or combine the functions after your first "and" into one box. I think both HDMI and optical inputs are active at once, but am not sure of it. I've never used both.

What low end gear would you recommend?

As far as low-end gear, at least for background listening this dirt cheap HDMI/stereo audio + component video DAC works very well. (I've not tried critical listening.)

I use two AppleTV's at home: a newer ATV3 in the main multichannel system, hooked up via HDMI, and the ATV2 it replaced in my bedroom, hooked up to the aforementioned DAC over HDMI, with audio signals going to an older integrated amp (Meridian 551) and the component video going to an old computer monitor, in case we ever want to watch Netflix or whatever in bed (haven't to date). Both work flawlessly, and the one in the main system I'd be willing to put up against any digital audio transport (that can play the same media!) at any price.