Getting a digital out from a Mac to feed into a DAC?

Posted by: Hawk on 07 June 2004

Can someone help point me in the right direction?

Basically i want to use itunes as a convienient front end to an office/second system and would like to improve on the sound of the standard output. I have a spare DAC lying around and i was wondering if i could get effectively a digital coaxial out to feed into the DAC? I would be using either a G4 17in Powerbook or an imac both of which have firewire or usb. Is this possible? and if so i would be grateful for recommendations on what to try and where to buy.

Thanks in advance...

Regards


Neil
Posted on: 07 June 2004 by Martin Hull
Neil,

If you can accomodate optical rather than co-axial then Mr Jobs has just the gizmo for you: Airport Express. See www.apple.com for details. Its just been announced today and is due to be available mid-July.

Regards,
Martin
Posted on: 07 June 2004 by Martin Hull
Neil,

I've just noticed that you're in the UK so I thought I'd mention that it looks like the iTunes music store is coming to the UK from next week.

Could be handy for the odd track.

Regards,
Martin
Posted on: 08 June 2004 by matthewr
The Squeezebox has a digital coax output as well.

See http://tinyurl.com/ywgsu for more details of mine.

Matthew
Posted on: 08 June 2004 by Stephen Bennett
Something like this http://www.jigsaw24.com/proddesc.asp?ITEM=X530ADA should be adequate - USB is OK for stereo work. You can of course spend more...

Cool

Regards

Stephen
Posted on: 08 June 2004 by Hawk
Thanks guys, some really useful info there!
Actually Ive gone mad and have ordered an airport express, a squeezebox and the usb cable! although the airport express will mainly be for wireless internet duties. I plan to try the squeezebox into a 282/hicap/250-2 and will use the usb cable into a Dac Zero/Linn classik.... and of course just about every conceivable combination of the above!!! The airport express doesnt ship until mid July but ill definately try that via the hifi before it starts its internet job.. I'll let you know how it goes..

cheers

Neil
Posted on: 08 June 2004 by matthewr
"Actually Ive gone mad and have ordered an airport express, a squeezebox"

Erm, why would you need both?

Matthew
Posted on: 08 June 2004 by Dan M
It's a bit late now but I picked up an Onkyo USB ADC/DAC dirt cheap (<$40) about a year or so back. Nicely reviewed in Stereophile by Fremer, and allowed me to digitise my LPs before I got a dedicated CDR machine.

cheers,

Dan
Posted on: 08 June 2004 by garyi
Hawk, it looks like you will need an airport card for the new apple gizmo.
Posted on: 08 June 2004 by Hawk
quote:
Originally posted by Matthew Robinson:
"Actually Ive gone mad and have ordered an airport express, a squeezebox"

Erm, why would you need both?

Matthew


The Airport express will be used to extend the range of a different wireless network... (unconnected to the iTunes idea!) i was going to get another base station but the express is cheaper... also it only has an optical digital out so it wont work with the DAC i have...
Posted on: 08 June 2004 by Hawk
quote:
Originally posted by garyi:
Hawk, it looks like you will need an airport card for the new apple gizmo.


I think your right garyi, thankfully ive already got one in the iMac and the laptop has one built in...

im interested to see how the the apple gizmo sounds but looks like there will be a wait... despite what it says on the website they dont ship until the end of july...