Apple TV crackling and static audio issues?

[qwimjim]

When I play music on my Apple TV 3, it introduces static or crackling, a lot of times you can't hear it but on some tracks it's very obvious. I've done everything to isolate the issue to the Apple TV, I have two of them, two TV's, multiple HDMI cables, multiple optical and analog audio cables, two earphones, two headphones, two receivers, etc.. I've connected them over two different wifi routers, and via ethernet on two different macs with two different ethernet cables. The static remains.

The best way to hear it is download the mp3 below and play the first 10 seconds on your mac or iphone with earphones on, now play it again but through your Apple TV with earphones on. Just the first ten seconds, thats where you can really hear it. It will be extremely obvious. I've turned dolby digital on/off/auto, makes no difference.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/14754850/15 - Hold On.mp3

Anyone have any ideas? Whether I play directly from the Apple TV, or airplay from my Mac, or airplay from my iPhone, the static remains.. pretty big bummer.

 

[qwimjim]

Anyone with an Apple TV, try for yourself, if you don't hear static I would be shocked and love to know why that is!

 

[driessmulders]

Same here. Music sounds really bad. Crackles/noise in every song. Mainly in the high tones and vocals.

I have been using Apple TVs for 3 years now and never had any problem before. At this moment I have two ATV3s, both have audio problems, both tested with toslink, hdmi, airplay, iTunes Match and home sharing. Only with music, movies are fine.

Since Apple released (and I installed) a update a few weeks ago, I suspect that this update is the cause.

Let's hope they fix it soon because now iTunes Match and my apple tvs are useless.

EDIT: I just noticed this post is a year old. Did you solve this problem qwimjim? I'm experiencing these problems right now.