DAC with Mac Mini and Airport Express

[admin_exported]

Greetings ~

I was wondering whether it is worth using one as part of a wireless set-up or whether it is more optimal to have it connected to the HiFi.

My plan would be to have the Mac and DAC streaming to my HiFi in another room.

Do I even need one with the Mac Mini?

 

[John Duncan]

The DAC goes after the Airport Express - it has an optical out which would go to the DAC, then the analogue output from the DAC goes into the hifi. Is that what you mean?

 

[fatboyslimfast]

Or, indeed, after the Mac Mini (so you could have a multi-room).

So it could be:

LOUNGE - MacMini-DAC-Amp-Speakers

Room 2 - AE-DAC-Powered Speakers or similar.

Multiroom on a budget!

 

[Anonymous]

JD ~ I think that's my intention

Lounge: Mac

Room2: HiFi, Airport Exp, DAC

 

[John Duncan]

There you go then - getting an airport express to talk to a mac mini is trivial, it just needs to be plugged in near the stereo in the other room - then you can either take the headphone out straight to the amp using a 3.5mm-2xRCA cable, or take an optical out from the same socket to optical in on the DAC. At which point FBSF can step in with the results he had yesterday........

Please do note that airport express will only play iTunes content - if you want it to play anything else (like BBC radio from its website, for example), you also need to get Airfoil - a $25 piece of software.

 

[Anonymous]

Cool ~ but is it worth doing?

 

[John Duncan]

Abso-bloody-lutely. Presuming the Mac has all your music on it in lossless?

My Airport Express goes toe-to-toe with my Primare CD player, and when my DACMagic arrives next week, I fully expect it to become my main source.

FBSF got his yesterday - "Seriously, if anyone uses iTunes and wants to upgrade their hifi, I'm more than confident that the £180 of an airport express and Beresford combined will easily outperform a £500 CD player. It is that good."

QED.

 

[Anonymous]

JohnDuncan:Abso-bloody-lutely. Presuming the Mac has all your music on it in lossless?

Ah - I'm not sure that it is lossless.

 

[fatboyslimfast]

Sorry John, popped out for some of Morrison's finest cholesterol sticks from their hot counter.

I found that even compressed files (128kbps AAC and 160kbps MP3) sounded great. Not as great as lossless, but still more than listenable.

128kbps MP3 was not so good - the "washyness" you get was more apparant, but then I'm running this through a £3k amp/speaker setup...

 

[Gerrardasnails]

JohnDuncan:Abso-bloody-lutely. Presuming the Mac has all your music on it in lossless?

My Airport Express goes toe-to-toe with my Primare CD player, and when my DACMagic arrives next week, I fully expect it to become my main source.

FBSF got his yesterday - "Seriously, if anyone uses iTunes and wants to upgrade their hifi, I'm more than confident that the £180 of an airport express and Beresford combined will easily outperform a £500 CD player. It is that good."

QED.

One week to go John!!

I am praying that you are not disappointed!! I have not used a cd for a few weeks now (other than to rip) and have them boxed up.

 

[Anonymous]

Most of my music is probably imported at the standard (128kbps) with only a handful at 256kbps.

I assume that I would have to manually re-load any CD's that have been imported at 128 and that it is not as simple as simply dumping all of the tracks onto an external HD, chaning the bit rate in iTunes and reloading?

 

[Anonymous]

HiFi Mick:
Most of my music is probably imported at the standard (128kbps) with only a handful at 256kbps.

I assume that I would have to manually re-load any CD's that have been imported at 128 and that it is not as simple as simply dumping all of the tracks onto an external HD, chaning the bit rate in iTunesÿand reloading?

I think I understand. Yes it's that simple but you don't need to do it all at once maybe do your fav albums first and then gradually reimport the rest. As FBSF said the dac will add to your enjoyment of the 128's not detract from it.ÿ

 

[professorhat]

HiFi Mick:I assume that I would have to manually re-load any CD's that have been imported at 128
Fraid so - a process I'm doing very gradually!
EDIT - just as Octopo says, if I find I'm listening to a 128kbps song (you can usually tell), I'll grab the CD and reimport the album.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys, I'll give it some thought.

 

[fatboyslimfast]

Have a listen first - 128Kbps AAC (i.e. iTunes) is far better than 128Kbps MP3. You might find that for now, it is more than adaquate...

 

[Anonymous]

Forgive my ignorance, but if I convert to AAC will it still be compatible with my iTouch?

 

[Anonymous]

Yes AAC is the default for itunes/ipod e.t.c.

You won't get any benefit from simply converting your mp3 to AAC though, you'll need to re-import them in which case you might want to use .aiff (lossless).

 

[Anonymous]

Octopo:

You won't get any benefit from simply converting your mp3 to AAC though, you'll need to re-import them in which case you might want to use .aiff (lossless).

******! That means getting up at 4am again for a few weekends to reload