How do I play YouTube music from my IMac thru my Conrad-Johnson amps?

You may be able to cast it to a smart TV which is connected to your stereo. Or a Roku. But I believe you will need the TV in the path with either route. I have a Roku Ultra with a USB output. However, I don’t have a USB in on my preamp. A HT receiver might have that, but I know of no 2 channel preamp that does. Hope this helps

Doug,

If you simply want to play YouTube on your system, a simple Bluetooth receiver, like the Auris BluME HD will do the trick. Simply play YouTube on your phone, laptop, etc., and connect that device to your system via the bluetooth connection.

You could purchase a DAC with a USB input and connect a USB cable from your iMac to the DAC and a set of RCA interconnect cables from the DAC to your system. Anything you play on the iMac can be output to the DAC via the USB connection and you'll hear the sound on your system, instead of through the speakers on your iMac.

For better sound than Bluetooth and YouTube can provide, a streamer, like the BlueSound Node 2i will allow you to stream nearly unlimited content from a subscription streaming service such as Qobuz, Tidal, Amazon HD, Spotify, etc. It also has a built-in bluetooth receiver, so you could also stream YouTube to it. It also streams internet radio stations, such as Radio Paradise, etc. Lastly, streaming high-res content via Tidal or Qobuz will offer significantly better sound quality than streaming YouTube or Spotify over bluetooth connection.

You have many choices. Good Luck. I hope you find what you need and get music back into your life.

Doug, I assume you have a preamp, if so you can go directly from the iMac's audio out to an unused preamp input.  You'll need a 3.5mm to RCA adapter cable.  This is not sonically the ideal solution, but it's dirt cheap, $15, and it will work.

Streaming Youtube from sources such as Roku, Amazon FireTV, AppleTV uses a really crappy youtube app and sound quality (as well as video quality) will be pretty bad. 

Streaming using the web browser on the actual iMac computer always gives superior audio/video quality.  It will also allow you to force the youtube resolution to a higher rate (such as 1080p or 720p).  These higher rate videos always have better sound data than the 480p setting.

Like others have suggested, your best bet is to get a USB DAC and connect it directly to your iMac.

Hey all.  This is what the HiFi shop is trying to sell me... a DAC for a couple thousand $$ and I was trying to avoid investing any more cash into my system, but i pay for YouTube Premium so it is commercial free and I listen all day and night to music there these days.  And I want to be able to listen to all that available music thru my high end system.  Thanks for any and all advise my friends :)