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MAC to DAC connectivity

I am waiting delivery of my first dedicated DAC. I decided to try a MHDT Orchid (non oversampling R2R dac). It is on its way from the designer in Taiwan.

Here is my question. My MAC is about 20 cable feet away from my integrated amp. That is longer than a single USB cable can run. SO I believe I have two options:
1) use a USB clarifier/re-clocker like the Wyred 4 Sound Recovery unit. With this I think I could run two 10' USB cables from the MAC to the DAC and get a "better" signal to the DAC.
2) Run a short USB cable into a USB/SPDIF converter like the Schiit Eitr, and then run a longer SPDIF RCA cable to the DAC.

Which option seems to be the smartest of the two? The cost is pretty much the same when I look at all the cabling and hardware options.

I am really new at DAC/MAC solutions so starting from scratch. After I get it set up the next round of questions will be around the options interns of players on the MAC.

Thanks for your input.
stuartbmw3

Showing 1 response by melvinjames

melvinjames
416 posts
 
Does anyone know if there is a way to get optical output from the MAC to the D2's optical input? I have been using the usb input and the optical out from the D2 into my Krell. Sound is pretty decent but wondered if the optical from the MAC is possible.

@audiosaurusrex .. depends on when the Mac was built. When Apple finally released their updated Mac mini last year the optical-out was no longer. Optical-out was abandoned sooner for at least some, if not all, of their other computers:

https://www.macworld.com/article/3205890/how-to-replace-the-missing-optical-digital-audio-output-on-newer-macs.html

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