Making the most of a Mac

[admin_exported]

Hello,

My Mac is my main source for music, which I know isn't staggering in terms of quality, but I've been won over by convenience. At the moment it runs through a Denon DM3 system with Tannoy Mission MX2s, with a QED J2P interconnect and Silver Anniversary speaker cables. All of which will be upgraded in the next few months as I become rich and famous. Browsing various threads I'm starting to realise that improvements can be made on the sound coming from the Mac, with DACs and such. I keep coming across "lossless" and "squeezebox" and, realising that it may well be a tiresome newbie question, need a bit of help with understanding them. I've got a couple of months worth of music on iTunes, so can I convert that to lossless and will is make a difference? What the Dickens is a squeezebox? And should I get a DAC before thinking about upgrading the amp or speakers?

Thanks,

Carrie

 

[Anonymous]

A cheap solution with macs is srs iwow if you didn't know about it already. It is software to clean up the output from your mac.ÿ

Have you been compressing your music? If is already lossy you cannot simply switch back to lossless...

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Octopo. I'll get iwow, and I've now switched my input pref to lossless on my mac. I'll have to put up with the quality, while gradually replacing compressed tunes.

 

[chebby]

Beresford TC-7510 DAC...

http://www.homehifi.co.uk/products/TC-7510.html

http://whathifi.com/Review/Beresford-TC-7510/

And/or Apple Airport Express connected to your hifi.

 

[John Duncan]

Well you've done the most important bit by switching to lossless. Anything else you add will be pointless, though, if you haven't got your speakers on proper stands, and a few feet apart - as opposed to sitting on a shelf either side of the Denon, for example.

From there on in, there are lots of incremental upgrades to be made, as suggested.

 

[John Duncan]

Just noticed that nobody's addressed the "what's a Squeezebox" question. First - where is your Mac in relation to the Denon? Geographically I mean......

 

[Anonymous]

The SRS iWOW does make a difference on many tracks, thanks for the tipÿOctopo, meant to say last week

Having had time to go to a hifi shop and try things out I can say that there is definitely a difference between 128k vs 256k vs 320k AAC vs lossless, so time to go and buy some bigger quiet disks

ÿ

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the advice so far.

Speakers are on atacama stands, albeit oldish ones, isolated with bits of blu-tak. Denon's on a shelf, also with blu-tak. Mac's on my desk or my lap, normally between 1 and 3 metres from the Denon.

 

[John Duncan]

OK cool. Def add airport express so you're not tethered to the hifi, then think about a Beresford DAC (any more would be pushing it probably).

 

[Anonymous]

That's great. Can I use my QED J2P to connect airport express to my amp, or is it not compatible?

 

[Anonymous]

Yeh then get an optical lead and proper RCA interconnect when you get DAC.

 

[Anonymous]

Many DACs seem to take a USB input, which will give 100% accurate digital transfer, though depending on which one you choose some allow different sample and bit rates over USB vs S/PDIF. The DACmagic from Cambridge Audio will only take 16bit over USB, though the device can handle 24bit.ÿhttp://www.cambridgeaudio.com/specifications.php?PID=320&Title=Specifications

ÿUSB will give a more reliable data transfer and certainly cheaper cables.ÿ

 

[John Duncan]

We're jumping ahead of ourselves here! Let's start with hooking the Mac up with lossless and airport express - the OP might be over the moon with the sound just with those.......

 

[Anonymous]

zzgavin:
Many DACs seem to take a USB input, which will give 100% accurate digital transfer, though depending on which one you choose some allow different sample and bit rates over USB vs S/PDIF.

USB will give a more reliable data transfer and certainly cheaper cables.ÿ

Sure USB will give a better data transfer if you don't take into account external interference. It is not isolated from electrical interference like S/PDIF is. The chances of actual audible degradation are much greater with electrical interference than with the possible tiny, tiny amounts of signal degradation with S/PDIF.

For me I would chooseÿS/PDIF.ÿ

 

[Anonymous]

Interesting, I hadn't looked at interference over and beyond the data transfer.

Is there data to show the differences anywhere? just curious, not disputing the optical vs electrical argument.ÿ

 

[Anonymous]

The differences are so very, very slight either way, taking this discussion any further is not worth the paper it is written on. I dislike HDMI cable discussions to continue with this would be hypocritical on my part. If you like USB nice one.

(remembering HDMI is shielded, most USB isn't)

 

[PJPro]

I believe iTunes streaming natively (with "Airtunes") to the Airport Express is bitperfect. Can't be bad!

 

[Anonymous]

PJPro:I believe iTunes streaming natively (with "Airtunes") to the Airport Express is bitperfect. Can't be bad!Indeed. Pity iTunes isn't itself guaranteed 'bit-perfect'

 

[PJPro]

One of the reasons I spend so much time fiddling about with Foobar and Windows. At the end of the day, any improvements are free (except for my time of course).

 

[Anonymous]

PJPro:One of the reasons I spend so much time fiddling about with Foobar and Windows. At the end of the day, any improvements are free (except for my time of course).

ÿ

..and of course time spent on such is just fun ÿ

 

[Andrew Everard]

Octopo:taking this discussion any further is not worth the paper it is written on.

Ummm, it's not written on paper.

 

[PJPro]

Octopo:zzgavin:
Many DACs seem to take a USB input, which will give 100% accurate digital transfer, though depending on which one you choose some allow different sample and bit rates over USB vs S/PDIF.

USB will give a more reliable data transfer and certainly cheaper cables.

Sure USB will give a better data transfer if you don't take into account external interference. It is not isolated from electrical interference like S/PDIF is. The chances of actual audible degradation are much greater with electrical interference than with the possible tiny, tiny amounts of signal degradation with S/PDIF.

For me I would choose S/PDIF.

That's interesting. I am considering a USB DAC (to upgrade my Beresford) to by-pass my soundcard. It would seem that you would not recommend that course of action. Should I think again?

 

[Anonymous]

For audio I would always use S/PDIF, it is what it is designed for. USB is designed for connecting devices to a computer. If it over a short distance I would have no problem using a USB DAC, but I would only do so if I wanted to bypass a soundcard like you do.

(Or maybe I am just a computer audio traditionalist)ÿ

 

[Anonymous]

short distances is what USB works well for, it is data perfect, but that ignores the noise issues you mentioned. Something I want to figure out, does the digital audio out on a mac bypass the dac and the amplifier or not. I'm sure Apple's developer documentation will tell me. USB out apparently does bypass the sound card.

 

[Anonymous]

zzgavin:does the digital audio out on a mac bypass the dac and the amplifier

Yesÿ