Streaming alternatives to pricey kaleidoscope?

That’s great, I am a fan of atmos music and the weakest link is you have to use HDMI out to my processor instead of my DAC. It sounds good but I realized there is only so much you can squeeze from HDMI no matter how much you spend on a HDMI cable. I was trying to find a workaround by upgrading ethernet cables too which helped a little, but fell short of what the SQ is vs USB in on my DAC. I am looking forward to getting an ATVX unit soon.

@donavabdear , I know you are doing an upgrade, you might want to check this out as an upgrade to the source inpacts everything downstream.

I have an older Apple TV that I no longer use which has an optical port.  What are the implications of using an optical connection to alleviate issues arising from HDMI?   
 

With my existing Apple TV, I upgraded the power cord, the HDMI Cable, and the ethernet Cable as well as feeding all the power from a Transparent Power isolator. Even upgraded my power cord to the back of my processor. This has achieved great results as Long as the production quality of sound within the streamed source is done well.  Problem is the sound quality of many Streamed sources it's not that good and you can really hear the differences.  

Jumia, "What are the implications of using an optical connection to alleviate issues arising from HDMI?   "

Ooooo.. Its a older ATV. But. With the same mods I do, it could be really awesome. Again you have limitations of Optical SPDIF, and I do not know what the audio limitations are on the older ATV,, but that sounds fun :)  I think those older ATV have limitations on what apps they will run tho. They are way out of apple support.

So what nearly everyone has found with a AppleTV X is that using a really good power cable from a clean power source is really important. My linear with the R-Core will really love a good power cable and I feed it from a Torus system. A reviewer I know is using $30k in cables feeding the ATVX.

Yes, its STUNNING the difference in shows, apps and commercials.

Tonight I was watching Star Trek Strange New Worlds on Paramount, the sound was STUNNING.. The imaging and depth on the ohcestra was remarkable. Keep in mind my reference for SQ for digital music is a Taiko and either a Wadex or CH Precision C1.2 dual mono with X1 + T1.. So when I say the soundtrack of Strange New Worlds was stunning, I am not kidding around.

I think dejittering the entire platform really mattered. The Ethernet, CPU. RAM all really matter to bitstream decoding. The board is 2" sq. ALl the traces are REALLY short. So that makes for very little loss between chips. The super low phase noise chock chips I swap out also really matter. The high precision low drift voltage regulators make for really precision decoding of Ethernet and really precise encoding of HDMI.

Even af ter using the ATVX for over a year now, it STILL stuns me. I just never get over it. Something comes along in picture or sound and my brain goes "Impossible, OMG".. I love it. Its a pain for me to make them. I make my money in other ways and there is not much profit in it for me. I make them because they really are doing something beyond anything I would have thought possible.

I am not alone. Reviewers have covered the crazy cool experence. Owners have done reviews and ABs over on the Whats Best forum thread.

I have users doing all sorts of cool things to get even more performance. Cables. vibration isolation. Mass loading. Its just loads of fun to tweak and get more out of it.

Kota1.. Yes Ethernet cables seem to somehow matter. Technically I can't imagine how, but I have hear/seen it in a blind AB. I do a lot of blind AB doing development. I made a switch, its currently with my distributor. He is doing evaul. I applied all that i learned with HDMI to Ethernet and a switch. I need to do more testing with others to see what they think. I know people with all the current high end switches. People are doing ABs now. If it works out I will sell the Switch X. Its modular and can do 10Gbps. You can configure it for ethernet or optical in any form or as many ports as you want. It also has a special way to use it where it will isolate all the packets on some ports to ONLY those ports making a clean audio section of ports. I also have a modded cable modem. Both the Switch X and the Modem X use the same linear and sensing noise cancellation.

So I might soon have 3 products. The AppleTV X, the Switch X and the Modem X. But the switch and modem still need to be vetted by a bunch of my beta test group of users. WHo knows. Maybe not worth the effort. A SoTM switch is pretty good. Not sure a modem will make any difference.

@xymox , it is like audio alchemy, you found the ATV "philosophers stone" and now you are looking at the chain for applications, very interesting stuff. We have another member who is a professional, @cohsystms and he has developed proprietary tech that might be synergistic. I know he already has an ethernet switch, let’s see if he chimes in on this thread. His company is add-powr. His previous company, QRT, was acquired by nordost.

@kota1   Just to be clear, the company name is Coherence Systems. The brand name is ADD-Powr.™. In a nutshell, the Symphony I/O is a pass thru device that restores the harmonic integrity to the streaming network. It accepts ethernet or usb signals. There is an intensity switch that controls the degree of our harmonic field directly upon the interface.