MacBook streaming

Your right according to what HiFi review it is galvonically isolated!

Halloween Man posted:

How did you get optical out of Macbook? The new generation macbokks don't have it.

My MacBook Pro, bought November or December 2015, has a combined Toslink/headphone output. You need a mini Toslink to regular Toslink cable or an adapter. 

I think it's a shame Apple no longer do this.

True, according to the German Apple website the 2015 is still available.

DanT87 posted:

mayor west - I understand what you mean from locally stored files sounding better, this is why I currently use my offline playlist in Tidal as all HiFi music is stored on my phone and not streamed because it plugs into the asynchronous USB on the DAC V1 and plays this way offline (in aeroplane mode actually lol). Does audirvana access your offline Tidal playlist and allow "bit perfect" playback I assume? Negating completely any streaming?

 

I would assume so although I haven't tried it myself. You open up Audirvana and then sign into Tidal through Audirvana. Then it plays Tidal through the Audirvana interface which allows all the sound quality benefits that you would normally get from playing local files. Unfortunately like I say, I still think that local files sound better than streamed ones (streamed files sounding a bit flat and lifeless to me). I didn't do a comparison of Tidal Offline stuff compared to local files though. 

Innocent Bystander posted:

Bart posted:

james n posted:

p. posted:

For me the beauty of the MacBook as a source lays in its flexibility:  I can use Downloads, edit Metadata in a way convenient for me, use any Streaming Service I like, SoundCloud, BandCamp, YouTube, Podcasts etc.  - and run backups easily via TimeCapsule.

The flexibility of the nDac adds to this as friends coming over can connect their iPhones directly to the nDac. 

I understand that your main concern is sound quality. As I never compared my setup to a streamer I cant comment on this. 

If you are interested in accessing a broad variety of digital sources, I can absolutely recommend the MacBook-Dac-Route

Makes a lot of sense. Bart's suggestion of the Mac Mini too makes a lot of sense too as you can do all that you do now without needing to tie up the Mac book. You just VNC (or Screen share) into the Mini and run it headless. Whatever route you use, as long as you're playing music and enjoying it (and sharing with friends) then that's the most important thing 

The Mac Mini can do everything the Macbook does, w/out tying up a laptop.  Mini is much more cost-effective too.  And is happier being "on" all the time.

Actually, whilst MM ,pseems better in many ways there is one thing it can't doe that Macbook can, which is run on batteries. Apparently for ultimate sound quality through an extreme DAC like Dave,  playing from a source completely disconnected from the mains and thus ground is beneficial as it completely isolates the ground plane - but I suspect it is only likely to be evident to trained ears critically  listening for the effects, rather than anyone listening to music.

Battery power is a plus. With my MacBook I use A+, a Ciunas converter and Lacie 4tb HDD the latter 2 items powered by a well known dual power supply made in Israel. When I replaced the 2 wall warts with the dual PS it made a very noticeable difference and, in view of the low cost made sense to do before I put the 555PS on my nDac. I am delighted with the results.

I have both had a mac mini and now a macbook to my stereo. Mac mini worked well, the problem was just that it was difficult to control it without screen. I tested the Apple Remote, but no, it did not work well. What you could do is that connect it to your TV if it is nearby and use the wireless keyboard.

However now I use a macbook with SSD and store all the music files locally on your hard disk, you do not have to mess with any network. The only thing I do is to send backup files to a NAS. The best thing about the MacBook is that everything is reliable gathered, and you easily control what happens both on the computer and from the iPhone . When you go anywhere you can take the MacBook and headphones with you and have your music collection easily accessible. Computer / dac also feels much more future-proof than streamer. 

Sound wise I think it sounds great! And i only using AQ dragonfly at the moment, but going to buy a better dac soon so the sound should improve.

However, I can understand people running streamers, especially if you want to keep down the number of boxes.