Unforgiving DAC or add Tube Preamp??

Leave your DAC on for several days playing something on a loop to get it up to snuff. Then listen again and see if that doesn't help. Call the maker and see what they have to say. My Yggdrasil continued to improve past 200 hours and is remarkable now. Try tweeking with cables, careful research is your friend here if you desire to keep your new DAC. Changing cables may get the relief you are looking for. If all else fails....tubes are always good in my opinion.

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itsjustme

The Apple TV is going to the Benchmark DAC however it is an optical cable not a spdif.  Some folks say going a BlueSound Node 2i over ATV will help.  Others say it makes no difference.

I use Dac ,for streaming ,of the Luxman sacd D-06, as preamp:Audio Note M5 (tube),combinated with Gamut D200. My best friend, use Dac,preamp,poweramp Ear 868.Beautiful !! We use as streamer:Logitech. Cables are here very important! 

I think Apple TV is 48KHz 16 bit. This means it must sample rate convert everything that is in an audio format (48KHz isn’t used for audio alone) and many think the conversion is poorly done. This is definitely the weak link in your setup.

Audio Note Kits. DAC 3.1. I am surprised AN has not been mentioned. Its crazy how good it sounds. I speak from experience as I have one and have gone through several 2500.00 Dig DAC's. I had it paired to a Bryston pre until I got the AN 3M line pre. The DAC was the biggest improvement made to my system. Even more than the AN tube pre.