Amplifer Recommendations for Mac music server

[mattpitts74]

I have recently repurposed an old Apple Mac G4 as a media server using itunes, and I have a 10 year old yamaha RX-V396RDS av receiver that I was going to connect it to. I would be grateful of some advice about the best options for connections?

I am wondering whether I need to buy an external DAC?

The reciever has an optical input so I assume this would be the best way to connect the mac to the receiver, so I also assume the receiver has a DAC build into it.

I'm also wondering about upgrading the avr to one of the newer models which seem to have a lot more bells and whistles.

I would in interested to hear what people are using and how they are connected their Macs to amps and receivers?

Any DAC, AMP or AVR recommendations for use with a MAC would be much appreciated. my budget is £500 max, thanks in advance.

 

[BowserWilkens]

Hi there,

my mac mini is connected to my denon 4311 amp via optical digital and hdmi.

The hdmi takes care of the picture but I found the optical input on the denon to produce a better & clearer sound. I'm no expert but if I were you, I'd try this route too. See whether the sound quality is ok for you. I plan to buy a modest dac later to further enhance the SQ but for now, I have to say, I'm more than impressed with the result.

The Arcam iDAc, Musical Fidelity M1 or the new funky Nad 1050 are on my auditioning list - however, if the sound isn't drastically better, I'll stick to using the dac in my av receiver & save some money.

With an amp like yours, 10 years old, the dac in the yamaha might not be the best - I would invest in a new av receiver before buying a dac - things like Audessey, Airplay, NeoX, assigning amps, hdmi switching, HD audio, streaming and internet features make newer av receivers a lot more flexible than previous generations. (I had an old Marantz 7400 before the denon & ditching the former for the latter was the biggest leap I've made in improving my system.)

Hope this helps...