Trying to get the most out of my digital audio, component suggestions please?
- Thread starter TallyTech
- Start date
Thank you for the heads up, do you know if yours is newer than mine (2011)? If it isn't then I'm sure mine will have it.
Chris Brown
Super Member
Yeah he could, but in most newer HT receivers all analog inputs are immediately converted back into digital. It's cheaper and easier for manufacturers to do signal processing when everything is digital.
So feeding a digital signal into the receiver would result in this:
MacMini -> Receiver (D/A conversion) -> Speakers
External DAC would result in this:
MacMini -> DAC (D/A conversion) -> Receiver (A/D conversion, D/A conversion) -> Speakers
In that case adding an external DAC resulted in an extra Analog to Digital, and Digital to analog conversion, and ultimately you still ended up using the DAC in the receiver. 3 conversions instead of 1, which is what you get if you just run digital into the receiver.
I bought mine about a year and a half ago, so I'd say it's identical. (I'm at work now)
1. Make sure that you only use lossless codecs. There are two most common: FLAC and ALAC. Last one is natively compatible with MacOS
2. Find how your Mac can send digital audio out. I am not an expect in Apple products but it likely has Toslink connector somewhere. If it isn't, get one of USB to SPDIF adapters, but make sure that they support MacOS (this is not always a case).
3. Connect Mac digitally to Yamaha. Use Yamaha to do D/A conversion. It should support up to 24/96 resolution.
4. Get proper music player software, like JRiver. Make sure that player supports output in NATIVE resolution (not all of them do).
5. Start downloading music in high-res format - 24/96. Besides better technically, it is usually mastered better too as target customer base are those who care about sound quality.
2. Find how your Mac can send digital audio out. I am not an expect in Apple products but it likely has Toslink connector somewhere. If it isn't, get one of USB to SPDIF adapters, but make sure that they support MacOS (this is not always a case).
3. Connect Mac digitally to Yamaha. Use Yamaha to do D/A conversion. It should support up to 24/96 resolution.
4. Get proper music player software, like JRiver. Make sure that player supports output in NATIVE resolution (not all of them do).
5. Start downloading music in high-res format - 24/96. Besides better technically, it is usually mastered better too as target customer base are those who care about sound quality.
Cool, thanks
1. Everything I have right now is in FLAC, but I'm planning on converting it to ALAC.
2. I'm not 100% sure yet, but I'm pretty sure the aux out can be used as a digital out (I know my MacBook pro pumps out a red light when a cable is plugged in). According to a couple contributors above this should be a feature on my Mac Mini, I'm just not sure what kind of cable to use since the typical Toslink cable will not fit into the 3.5mm jack. Suggestions?
3. Pending finding out that my Yamaha does not do conversions I plan on hooking up the Mac directly to the receiver.
4. Right now I've been using VLC to play my FLAC files since iTunes won't support it. I was planning on using iTunes to manage my content. Is iTunes a subpar product compared to software like JRiver/not support native resolution? Is there anything else I should consider in a media player? I'm trying to stick with iTunes so I can manage my iPod, iPhone, and other media devices in tandem with my lossless and other media.
5. Any suggestions on where to purchase quality high-res albums?
http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=102&cp_id=10229&cs_id=1022902&p_id=1557&seq=1&format=2
This plugs into the Mac mini headphone jack, toslink on the other end.
This plugs into the Mac mini headphone jack, toslink on the other end.
Yeah that makes sense if his AVR works as you describe. No point in all that conversion.
Awesome, I've never heard of a cable like that before, it should get the job done nicely!
Apple doesn't really emphasize that feature. Too bad because I think the mini is ideal for music storage and as a digital source.
Gang-Twanger
Resident Wharfedaliophool
That's it right there... This is why I will never use any amp or receiver that converts the signal to digital. I'll handle my own conversion, thank you very-much, and with an external DAC at that. It's surprising how few people actually understand how those things work (the ones that DO convert the signal to digital when it gets to the receiver). I'm an analog guy. Always have been. CD's are one thing, but I'd prefer the digital-to-analog conversion for CD's be done by a decent, standalone unit (It's one of many good ways to better-tailor your system to suit YOUR tastes).
Anyway, my DAC isn't a high-end 800lb gorilla-killer, but it's a VERY-good one for the price, and it's smoothness and musicality suits my early to mid '60's, tube-powered system very-well (When I finally got into tubes, that's when I realized just how good the MSII really was... The richer and more-analog-sounding your hi-fi setup is, the more you'll get out of this DAC). I like having an asynchronous-USB DAC because it's designed to make the most of a USB connection, unlike some which are good with S/PDIF, HDMI, Toslink, etc., but regard the USB connection as an afterthought (Having a USB-friendly DAC means it will also work well with my laptop, which I use when I'm on vacation, house-sitting, etc.).
The model DAC I use is the HRT Music Streamer II (Was $149 when I bought it, but the price has since been raised a bit... $179, I think, but still an excellent, bang-for-buck asynchronous-USB converter... Great build-quality too... Nice high-quality RCA jacks that insure a firm connection).
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Mac had much poorer DAC than Yamaha - it wat top of the line receiver 10 years ago. All receivers do A/D conversion of incoming analog signal unless they are in "direct" mode bypassing any audio processing. iTunes is only useful for syncing your music library to mobile player/phone and purchasing from iTunes. Third part players are better in their primary function - play music. Most players can use iTines managed library as a source.
Here is a list of download sites http://www.head-fi.org/a/high-res-music-download-sites
If you are not afraid to use torrents - you have much more options, including rips from rare vinyl.
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I just checked and I could be wrong about support of 24/96 digital audio in Yamaha. You can check it, when you get optical cable.
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That's it right there... This is why I will never use any amp or receiver that converts the signal to digital. I'll handle my own conversion, thank you very-much, and with an external DAC at that. It's surprising how few people actually understand how those things work (the ones that DO convert the signal to digital when it gets to the receiver). I'm an analog guy. Always have been. CD's are one thing, but I'd prefer the digital-to-analog conversion for CD's be done by a decent, standalone unit (It's one of many good ways to better-tailor your system to suit YOUR tastes).
Anyway, my DAC isn't a high-end 800lb gorilla-killer, but it's a VERY-good one for the price, and it's smoothness and musicality suits my early to mid '60's, tube-powered system very-well (When I finally got into tubes, that's when I realized just how good the MSII really was... The richer and more-analog-sounding your hi-fi setup is, the more you'll get out of this DAC). I like having an asynchronous-USB DAC because it's designed to make the most of a USB connection, unlike some which are good with S/PDIF, HDMI, Toslink, etc., but regard the USB connection as an afterthought (Having a USB-friendly DAC means it will also work well with my laptop, which I use when I'm on vacation, house-sitting, etc.).
The model DAC I use is the HRT Music Streamer II (Was $149 when I bought it, but the price has since been raised a bit... $179, I think, but still an excellent, bang-for-buck asynchronous-USB converter... Great build-quality too... Nice high-quality RCA jacks that insure a firm connection).
Sounds like something to consider if I ever want to play my 70s Pioneer system with something besides the radio or turntable. Maybe some day I'll have tube power to go with it, but those things are just so damned expensive.
With the DSP-A1 doing the conversion theres not much point in have a conversion before the receiver.
If a good program can reference the organized library I guess that will fit what I'm looking for.
I'll have to look through that link you sent me later, looks like some good stuff.
I have used torrents, but I feel purchasing is probably the better way to go at the end of the day if it is readily available.
Gang-Twanger
Resident Wharfedaliophool
Yeah, if you're gonna' be using a digital player (iTunes, Winamp, etc.), it's important to make sure you're getting the most out of it in terms of audio-quality. I prefer a simple, meat & potatoes kind of player that doesn't have any bells and whistles and commits it's power to the music/audio instead of performing a zillion CPU-sucking functions I don't need (Say THAT ten times fast). Foobar is a good program for "simple-minded" folks such as myself ( :scratch2: ).
Right now I'm bouncing back and forth between that and VLC (I bypass the Windows mixer, which requires a plug-in software, and while Foobar is an extremely-efficient and powerful program, much-more-efficient than VLC, I just can't get the WASAPI-For-Foobar plug-in to work as well as the Virtual Audio Cable plug-in... If I WASN'T bypassing the Windows mixer, then Foobar would be the clear winner, but I've been having some sort of buffering issue that I can't seem to sort out... Virtual Audio Cable seems to be a much-better plug-in, but it's not plug-and-play on Foobar the way it is on VLC...I get great audio-quality with that setup... It struggles on certain higher-quality video stuff, but I think that's related to my video card, which has been struggling since I got this computer... The audio-quality is first-rate).
Don't forget - he uses Mac, so no Winamp, foobar etc.
