How to connect my mid 2009 MacBook Pro to Denon RCD-M40DAB

[geirole]

Hello,

I just bought the price-winning Denon D-M40DAB mini hifi system. It sounds great.

Connecting the lightning output of my iPhone 6 to the USB port on the front of the receiver works fine and I can play FLAC files with the Vox media app. I had thought that it would be possible to connect my mid 2009 MacBook Pro the same way, but that turns out to be quite a challenge. Firstly, it is difficult to find a USB cable with the right plug in both ends (male type A). Reading a bit in the manual they state that it is not possible to connect a computer to the USB input.

The receiver has two optical digital input on the rear. Is there a way to convert the digital stream that comes out of the USB port on the Mac to an optical digital signal that I can feed into one of the optical inputs on the receiver?

I do have an Apogee One for iPad and Mac, so I guess I can take the headphone output from the Apogee and feed into the line-in of the Denon, but then I don't benefit from the DA converter of the Denon.

Another problem I discovered is to read FLAC files off a USB stick. The display on the receiver says "Unsupported". The same stick plays fine on my Onkyo HT-R693 A/V receiver. If I put a USB stick with MP3 files into the Denon it plays fine. I wondered for a while if this could be a problem with copy protection, but HDTracks.com state that there is no such limitation on files you buy from them. And, as said, the FLAC files play fine on the Onkyo.

If anyone has experienced the same problem and maybe even has the solution, I'd be happy to hear about it.

Cheers,

Geir

 

[jjbomber]

Hello,

The receiver has two optical digital input on the rear. Is there a way to convert the digital stream that comes out of the USB port on the Mac to an optical digital signal that I can feed into one of the optical inputs on the receiver?

Geir

Turtle Beach Micro II fits into the USB and outputs an optical feed. Choose an optical cable of the desired length and away to go.

 

[MajorFubar]

Pretty sure your macbook pro's headphone socket also doubles as an optical-out (check the manual or online). All you'd need is a mini-to-TOSlink optical cable.

 

[chebby]

I'd connect an Airport Express to your Denon (with one of the optical inputs) and then use AirPlay for all of your Apple devices including the MacBook.

You can get the latest version for £45 (used) from these people instead of £79 new ...

https://uk.webuy.com/product.php?sku=SNETAPPAPEXA1392#.VnQnDVLOvOw

It's exactly what I did.

 

[geirole]

Hi Chebby, Thank you for the reply and the advice.An Apple Airport Express is a good idea since we have several Apple devices in the house (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) in addition to a couple of MacBooks. I guess the sounds quality one gets with the Airport Express is pretty good, although according to what one can read here and there it does not support "more than" 16 bits/44.1 kHz. I put "more than" in quotation marks because I am not sure if I can hear the difference between this and 24 bits/192 kHz. Cheers, Geir

 

[geirole]

Hi MajorFubar, Thank you for this good news. I was convinced that my mid 2009 MacBook was too old for this. Looking more closely it seems this was introduced already in 2006. I will get hold of a mini TOSlink adapter and a cable and try it out. I guess I was misled by the fact that recent Macbooks have a symbol next to the socket indicating that there is an optical output there, whereas my MacBook only has a headphone symbol. Checking in the System Report I could verify that my MB actually do have a combined headphone/optical output. This is very good news. Cheers, Geir

 

[geirole]

Hi jjbomber,

Thank you for the quick reply. The Turtle Beach would have been the way to go. But since it turns out that my Macbook has an optical output after all, it seems that the problem is solved. I'll try and find the adapter and cable tomorrow morning.

Cheers,

Geir