Wireless connection to USB DAC

Riley212

New Member
Im Trying to connect my macbook pro to my Benchmark DAC1 Pre with out a wire.

not sure what to do here or if anyone has tried this

any suggestions would be helpful
 
I believe what you are proposing isn't possible.... a USB cable is required to connect any computer to a USB DAC.
 
OK first off the responses so far seem to ignore the question at its core somehow????

A Macbook will have an optical audio output and the DAC1 has an Optical input so that is how these would connect if it were possible to go wireless with Optical Audio.
The DAC 1 has no USB input.

The Macbook is a MAC OS machine and in general Windows drivers will not be relevant anyway????
And again there is no USB connection to a DAC 1.

The way to do this is an Apple Airport Express via WiFi.
The Express does have a Optical or Toslink output and can send the Audio from the Macbook to anywhere the Express is located in this case by the DAC 1 and then be connected to the DAC.

They are great and flexible tools for doing exactly this among other things.

Ed
 
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Im Trying to connect my macbook pro to my Benchmark DAC1 Pre with out a wire.

not sure what to do here or if anyone has tried this

any suggestions would be helpful

There are some inexpensive choice and expensive ones.......Keep an eye on bit rates on wireless DACs. Some will only do 16/41, so if you have any hi-rez files like 24/96 or 24/192, they get truncated down to 16/41.

Grant Fidelity has a couple choices
NAD has a wireless DAC
Audioengine has a 24bit wireless DAC
Cambridge Audio has a couple choices too

Good luck
 
The airport makes the most sense here, I think. It works fine. I can't imagine the USB thing working out very well because it (I assume?) does not have a buffering system intended for USB audio. Maybe it does. I don't know. I'm skeptical. Speaking of which, be prepared for a buffer delay when you do this. It won't work out well for video.
 
The airport makes the most sense here, I think. It works fine. I can't imagine the USB thing working out very well because it (I assume?) does not have a buffering system intended for USB audio. Maybe it does. I don't know. I'm skeptical. Speaking of which, be prepared for a buffer delay when you do this. It won't work out well for video.

I was wondering about that too. For example, my laptop's performance divebombs when I use Wi-Fi (I realized this last summer when I had to stay up at the folks' house when my place was being repaired due to flood-damage), so since then I've avoided using W-Fi whenever possible (I run a wired internet connection to my laptop... Much-more-efficient). So, I guess what I'm saying is, if you're gonna' run hi-rez audio through Wi-Fi, make sure your gear is up to the task (You have a Benchmark DAC, so hopefully it won't be a problem).
 
Although the Airport Express is convenient and flexible, from my experience with it, the sound quality is far from desirable. Also, audio coming out of the Airport Express is limited to 16/48.

It would be a shame to not take full advantage of what the Benchmark DAC1 is capable of.

For me, I see the Airport Express as a means to stream music for background listening purposes but not for a main "serious" system.

Just my 2 cents.

The way to do this is an Apple Airport Express via WiFi.
The Express does have a Optical or Toslink output and can send the Audio from the Macbook to anywhere the Express is located in this case by the DAC 1 and then be connected to the DAC.

They are great and flexible tools for doing exactly this among other things.

Ed
 
OK
It seems that if you are trying to connect without wires there is a already accepted Low Quality Threshold implied to me?

The Airport Express seems a No Brainer still to me,simple and reliable and not terrible sounding at all.
If you want it to sound like it is wired,wire it!
 
It seems that if you are trying to connect without wires there is a already accepted Low Quality Threshold implied to me?
...
If you want it to sound like it is wired,wire it!
Malarkey. We're talking about moving a digital file from point A to point B. It doesn't "sound like" anything. The hardware used to make it happen might "sound like" something, but it has nothing to do with the wireless part.
 
Not arguing really but I think you know what I am trying to say?
We agreed on the solution for starters?

I do this all the time but more for convenience than quality though I have never had any complaints about the quality either.
When I have used this there is usually no dedicated high end DAC on the other end but a HT Receiver mostly.

I also had not considered using the USB transfer ability of the Express to do this but it might work just fine?
I stream Movies and other Media the other way all the time now that I think of it.

Do you have any better,more practical idea?
 
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Nope, I don't have a better idea. I think the digital output of the Airport is entirely adequate unless higher "res" files are important, and I don't know of a good affordable solution for that. Some of the wireless DACs above look nice, but the OP already has a nice DAC.
 
Yes, I was referring to the digital output. Analog output, at least for me, is unlistenable, except as I mentioned as background music.

White the digital output is far better, it's still not very desirable. For example, if you A/B the sound output from even a Squeezebox Classic compared to the Airport Express, it's no contest. Move up to a Squeezebox Touch and it's another ball game altogether. You're best bet if you want to stream music without having to anchor a computer to the Benchmark would be to pick up a Squeezebox, preferably a Touch due to it's superior sound as well as it's 24/96 capability which can actually be bumped up to 24/192 with a software patch.

The digital output?
 
http://audioengineusa.com/ has couple products that would work.

However the dongles have DAC. So you would be connecting DAC to DAC. If you are sending wireless there has to be translation between 2 points.

I am using Audioengine W1 to connect output of amp in living room to input of amp in bedroom. Works great.
 
White the digital output is far better, it's still not very desirable. For example, if you A/B the sound output from even a Squeezebox Classic compared to the Airport Express, it's no contest.
Okay, well I'll just point out to the OP that it's far from clear whether anyone can actually hear an amount of jitter that would occur in a real system, which is the only thing likely to be a difference here. There are some good reasons why it could be possible. Even if it is, it depends on not just the digital source, but also the robustness of the receiver (the DAC in this case).
 
Depending on your budget and what kind of SQ you're trying to get, you're going to have some options.

[EDIT]- oops. So, DOES your DAC have optical input? If it did, I would suggest:
Airport Express ->optical out -> DAC (you should be able to find a used one for ~$50). Someone above stated that the sound quality of the AE isn't all that great. I'd probably agree. It's good for informal listening, background music, ease-of-use, etc. With an external DAC connected though, I could imagine the AE sounding pretty decent. This would really be the cheapest option, IMO, easiest. If you don't like the result you could always sell the airport express and try the next option higher up on the price list..?


Or, get a really, really long USB cord? :)

I agree- the wireless transmission aspect is annoying as hell. For now, I'm sticking with my long optical cables.:thmbsp:

EDIT- for whatever it is worth, here is a link to Stereophile's review of the airport express: here
 
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