2. pc-audio
  3. 1248018986

Requesting input from iMac users

I have been playing my iTunes library through (into) the main system via a Toslink coming from the headphone jack on the iMac to the input of the Krell HTS 7.1 processor. It sounds good to me, however, a friend is telling me that this is the lowest quality option for playing the music. According to him the headphone jack is putting the music out through a very inexpensive DAC in the iMac thus diminishing the quality out and causing the processor to accept the music via analog, converting to digital and then back out again in analog. A series of distortion causing steps.

I do have a Pop Pulse (never used) that would allow for coming out of the iMac via USB into the Pop Pulse and back out with digital cable (SPDIF) to the processor. Apparently this eliminates some extra DAC conversions. Would this be a better option? How do you do it?
puerto

Showing 2 responses by audioguru1

audioguru1
19 posts
 
Your friend is sadly mistaken as your mac outputs digital. However, toslink is generally considered lower quality than coaxial digital. My understanding is that toslink cable quality matters a lot. I use (when I use toslink) a sysconcept cable. (http://www.sysconcept.ca/product_info.php?cPath=25_29&products_id=219 )

Some time back I had a pop pulse, it was relatively poor quality compared to my trends ud10.1. Its hard to say how the pop-pulse would compare to toslink, but I can tell you that toslink is a little bit more closed in sounding, with a somewhat more shallow soundstage compared to my toslink (set to 16bit output on the mac - it defaults to 24 bit, you need to open audio midi setup)
audioguru1
19 posts
 
@ Leahy

wow great tip! I just scored a m-audio audiophile firewire for $40 on ebay shipped. I cant wait to compare it to my trends. I figure even if its not as good (which I suspect it will actually be better) I can use it at the office for headphones.
More to discover