Macbook and Naim DAC

Posted by: Richard Adams on 10 February 2010

I've got my demo of the Naim DAC booked for this Friday. I've just realised that all my digital music is stored in Apple lossless and the Naim DAC doesn't recognise this. Apparently ITunes doesn't recognise FLAC files.

So how am I going to get my music from my Macbook to the Naim DAC? I'm planning to connect via Toslink

Many thanks

Posted on: 10 February 2010 by Joe Bibb

Apple lossless will be fine. Think you may be confusing the DAC with the HDX.

Optical is fine, but there are other options such as the HiFace, which does a good job of converting USB to Coax.

Joe

Posted on: 10 February 2010 by Scaramuccia

Hi!

Through Toslink (or Coax), the DAC will accept any file up to 24/96 coming out of your MacBook, if it is supported by CoreAudio. So Apple Lossless is no problem.

Through USB (+HiFace), 24/192 is possible.

It's only the DAC's USB that is limited to WAV-files. But this goes up to 32/768!

Cheers
Scaramucce

Posted on: 10 February 2010 by js

As above. Use what you got and see if it rings your bell. Would be nice for dealers to have interface options about for clients to try.

Posted on: 10 February 2010 by Richard Adams

Many thanks for the replies

Posted on: 10 February 2010 by JYOW

I have tried TOSLINK from my Macbook Pro and it sounded very good. I have since moved on to connect via the HiFace but have not done any comparison, but I thought TOSLINK was totally acceptable. The main reason for HiFace is support beyond 24/96 and longer distance with the Coaxial/BNC cable

Posted on: 11 February 2010 by Scaramuccia

The DAC's white papers say:

'Why S/PDIF optical rather than coaxial?
Coax can sound better but optical has the advantage
that it prevents ground loops and isolates the ground
system of the source, which may be noisy, from that of
the Naim DAC.'

Cheers
Scaramucce

Posted on: 11 February 2010 by goldfinch

quote:
Originally posted by Scaramucce:
The DAC's white papers say:

'Why S/PDIF optical rather than coaxial?
Coax can sound better but optical has the advantage
that it prevents ground loops and isolates the ground
system of the source, which may be noisy, from that of
the Naim DAC.'

Cheers
Scaramucce

IMO that recommendation is suitable for standard coax computer's digital outputs. A decent sound card/audio device (internal or external) can give good isolation and low jitter, so I would definately use one for demoing the DAC.