Well, it took long enough. A leak in developer code suggests the next Apple TV 4K may finally support untouched bitstream audio passthrough, the one feature home theater fans have been begging Apple for since, oh, roughly the dawn of streaming. Geeky-Gadgets spotted the code, and if it means what it appears to mean, this is genuinely good news for people with nice sound systems.

Let me explain what this actually is, because "bitstream passthrough" sounds like something Marcus would cover in one of his deep-dives. Right now, the Apple TV decodes surround sound formats like Dolby Atmos itself and sends the finished audio off to your receiver or soundbar. That works fine for most of us. But enthusiasts with serious home theater setups want the Apple TV to pass the raw, untouched audio signal straight through to the receiver and let its own decoding hardware do the work. Every major streaming box from Roku to Nvidia's Shield has offered this for years. Apple, characteristically, has not.

I remember setting up my first DVD player with a digital optical cable back in the late nineties and feeling terribly sophisticated about the whole thing. The idea that we'd still be arguing about audio passthrough on a $129 streaming puck nearly three decades later is a little funny to me. But audio people are patient people, and they've waited this one out.

The leak comes from developer code, which is not the same as Apple standing on a stage announcing anything. Treat it as a strong hint rather than a promise. Apple has been known to test features internally that never ship, and my motherly advice is always the same: don't buy anything based on a leak. Wait for the actual announcement, then wait for the reviews, and then decide.

That said, if this ships it removes one of the last real complaints about the Apple TV as a home theater device. The box already has the best streaming interface in the business in my opinion, and pairing it with truly clean audio passthrough would make it the complete package for people who care about sound. And people who care about sound quality care very, very much.

Whether this arrives on a new Apple TV 4K hardware refresh or comes to existing boxes through a tvOS update isn't clear yet. I'll be keeping an eye on it, and I'll let you know the moment Apple says something official. Until then, keep your receiver warm.