External DAC for ATV?

Who's using an external DAC with their Apple TV? What make and what difference did you notice?
For stereo audio.

What will you be plugging an external DAC into?
I just run optical to an old Yamaha DSP processor for stereo (PCM) conversion and DD 5.1 decoding, this then feeds the stereo for general audio and L/R front for surround, the processor powering rear/center surround speakers.
I can't remember even trying the analogue audio out, but most say it's poor quality, though one or two comments I recall said it was very good.
I'm more than happy with my old setup for use with AppleTv so if you already have some form of home theatre setup try it with that, though if you have a stereo amp without optical input you may well want an external DA/processor.
Bear in mind AppleTV generally cannot output better than 16 bit 44.1kHz PCM to a DAC for stereo.

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ITunes 11.1.2 sound is distorted, from the library from the store, from my external DAC. Tried swapping USB ports, reloading songs in an uncompressed format, etc. Sound is awful. Thanks for any ideas.

iTunes 11.1.2 sound is distorted on my iMac, from the library from the store, from my external DAC. Tried swapping USB ports, reloading songs in an uncompressed format, etc. Sound is awful. Thanks for any ideas.

I have the same issue. If I open up the Equalizer and select any setting (including the one that is already checkmarked), the sound corrects itself. However, it goes right back to crappy when a new song comes on.

Worn-out headphone jack as optical out for computer audio via external DAC

I have been using my iMac's headphone output jack to connect with a DAC and my audio system for some time now, but I apparently have inserted and removed the optical plug connector so many times to switch between DAC and internal iMac speakers that it has worn out: pulling the plug out of the jack no longer always switches the sound output back to internal speakers - Built-in. I have to pull it in and out several times and even this doesn't always work. Is anyone aware of a switch I could install to do this without constantly pulling the plug out and plugging it back in?

My suggestion to work around this problem would be to hook up an Airport Express. The AE also has an optical out the same as your iMac. As long as your wireless connection is robust enough you should be able to stream from your iMac to your AE and then have the optical cable connect between your AE and your DAC, which then connects to your Integrated Amp/Receiver/Pre-Amp (depending on your system configuration).
I assume because you are using the optical out and connecting to an external DAC that you are looking for a high level of Audio quality ?

Problem with Itunes and Remote when external DAC is used

I am using IPad Remote app to connect to itunes library paired a windows vista Toshiba Laptop.
When the pc speaks are used or the iPad for audio reproduction, everything works OK, and iPad Remote can connect to iTunes Library.
Unfortunately when the optical audio output of the PC is used for audio reproduction through an external DAC, amplifier and speakers, iPad cannot connect to iTunes library!
Thanks in advance.

Perhaps Tom could assist.

Using an external DAC with my iTunes library

There are a lot of links on the web to people incorporating external DAC's in using their iTunes music library as a jutebox for your home stereo and I wanted to share my experience as I think it may help some of you in the decision making process. I spent several months researching different products and decided on April Music's Stello DA 100. The sound quality was a big part but so was the fact that they have two digital optical inputs, one coax input, and a USB input. Making it substantially more versatile than more expensive options without comprimising the sound quality. They have a U.S. based distributor/hub in Chicago which has provided me excellent service (help in using iTunes as my digital jutebox player). If you are currently connecting your computer or ipod directly to your stereo, you really should consider placing a DAC in the loop. It will make a big difference.

I noticed this is getting views so, I'm posting answers to myself if case it's helping someone else.
I turned the external drive off and started iTunes on purpose to see what it's reaction would be.
It does redirect itself to the original location, remake the iTunes Music folder on my internal drive, and start to download Podcasts.
Is it possible to stop this? Can the path to the iTunes Music folder be locked? I'd actually rather iTunes crashed than reset itself this way.

DAC for Vision M or how to connect to Amp

) What is the best DAC for the Zen Vision M? Are there any docking stations the Creative MP3 players available? Or do I just find a DAC that will take a USB input? I'm sure there is a way to get the best sound to my music system but I haven't been able to find this...

- DAC = Digital to Analog Converter.
I'm no geek - but the way I understand this is that the quality of the converter is a huge impact to the quality of sound. Now the MP3 player (Zen or Ipod) has it's own internal DAC which is how you get the sound in the headphones. But there are docking stations or external DACs which essentially bypass the MP3 player's internal DAC and do the conversion from the mp3 directly, resulting in much better sound.
There are tonnes available for the ipod - see here: http://www.google.com/search?q=DAC+for+ipod&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&client=firefox-a
Standing out is the Wadia DAC which bypasses the Ipod internal DAC. http://www.wadia.com/products/transports/70i/
But there is nothing I've been able to find for the Zen. Right now I'm just taking a cable from the headphone jack to the amplifier.

Does the built-in DAC on my 2007 mid yr iMac support 96/24 audio as it supplies signal to the headphone jack? (is there a reason to export audio via optical jack then to an external DAC?

does the built-in DAC on my 2007 mid yr iMac support 96/24 audio as it supplies signal to the headphone jack? If so, is there a reason to export audio via optical jack then to an external DAC then to stereo?

My suggestion to work around this problem would be to hook up an Airport Express. The AE also has an optical out the same as your iMac. As long as your wireless connection is robust enough you should be able to stream from your iMac to your AE and then have the optical cable connect between your AE and your DAC, which then connects to your Integrated Amp/Receiver/Pre-Amp (depending on your system configuration).
I assume because you are using the optical out and connecting to an external DAC that you are looking for a high level of Audio quality ?

Simultaneous output to multiple external DACs

Hello,
Just wondering if anyone has figured out how a single MacBook Pro can output audio simultaneously to 2 or more USB external DACs so that you deliver high quality source music signal to multiple zones of a building ?
Can this be done through wi-fi ?
I've been trawling through numerous blogs and posts and can't find anything other than accounts of unsuccessful tries with the Aggregate Sound Device.
Thanks.
Clement

Hi Raj,
The requirement is for one customer master if i want to add more then one email id and for those email ids , I want to generate a invoice output using VF02 , We can add more than one email id in Customer master but we can not use all the email ids the same time to trigger the output.
If I want to send the output to multiple email ids maintained in the customer master , how i can do that?
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Ananda

Moved library to external HD lost ATV

Had my ATV set and all worked well until I moved my Itunes library and my photos to an external HD. Now I cannot get my ATV to show under my devices.
I unclicked 'looking for ATV' box, closed my 7.7 itunes, then opened it again and looked for ATV. opened ATV and opened up a new library. As soon as I clicked OK in Itunes, ATV disappeared again and of course now my whole library is gone on ATV too.
????

I assume you have your iTunes folder located on your other drive (no Music folder enclosing it.) On your startup volume you have a /Home/Music/ folder but the iTunes folder has been removed. OK, so far?
Go to where the real iTunes folder is located. Select the folder then CTRL or RIGHT-click and select Make alias from the contextual menu. You should see a new icon appear named "iTunes alias" with a little curly arrow in the lower left corner of the icon. Now, copy the alias file to the /Home/Library/Music/ folder on your startup volume. Rename it to just "iTunes" (no quotes.) Delete the alias you created on the other drive.
Now when you double-click on the iTunes alias in your /Home/Music/ folder your real iTunes folder should open up. Now if you open iTunes application it should re-discover the iTunes folder.
Or you can do what the other posted suggested. Simply point iTunes to the new location of your iTunes folder. Open iTunes Preferences, click on the Advanced icon in the toolbar. Click on the Change button, locate the new library location, click on OK button of the Open dialog.

Using an external DAC with Apple TV

How is the sound quality using the Apple TV connected to a home audio system? Is anyone using an external DAC with the Apple TV to up-sample the audio?

The onboard AppleTV DAC will only be used to output analogue audio via the stereo jacks - HDMI or optical out will use the DACs in the TV/processor/receiver anuyway.
Stereo audio files are converted to a PCM bitstream (which will not use a DAC) for output via optical.
Personally I think even lossy MP3/AAC sounds great via optical from AppleTV. My Yamaha DSP won't upsample the PCM bitstream, but frankly upsampling audio isn't going to bring huge sonic benefits as it's only interpolating what isn't there isn't the first place. Granted opinions differ on whether upsampling makes things sound better or not, but you can't reproduce perfectly information you don't have , the interpolation will only be guesswork.
You may want to look at the 2 links here, which are along the lines of using AppleTV and Airport Express in hi-fi setups:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7330045&#7330045

Playing Hi Res music using an external DAC.

I'm using a Spotify Premium account at the moment for listening to music (synched to extreme quality), but I'm considering getting a Tidal account for better quality audio. As it stands, I'm under the impression that the iPhone 6 doesn't play Hi Res audio, so just listening to music with headphones connected to the phone's 3.5mm jack seems pointless as I won't be able to tell the difference between the MP3 from Spotify and the FLAC from Tidal. Is it worth investing in an external DAC to improve the quality? Another product I saw was the Amp case which is soon to be released, is that another alternative? Currently I'm using a set of V-Moda Crossfade LP headphones, but I'm considering getting a better set (e.g. Sennheiser Momentum). I'm not looking for the best music quality money can buy, but a way to utilise the better HiFi music on Tidal so that I actually notice the difference between it and MP3. Any suggestions on DACs to buy would also be appreciated.
Thanks.

Thanks for all of your help.
That was my worry. If I can't write to the EDD using the PC, and I have to reformat the EDD for the mac (which wipes the files), then what do I do? lol
Since I don't actually "DJ" using iTunes, I had planned to store the music files on my external hard drive and use the Virtual DJ software to play the songs.
My external hard drive is currently 128GB of music, though that may drop a bit as I plan on removing some songs that are duplicates or ones I don't use anymore.
My other question is, I notice on iPhone that some programs will periodically crash when opened (ie - Facebook and MixVibes). All of my software and OS are up to date. Does this occur on the MacBook and iPad as well?

Playng music from computer with an external DAC

Hi to all,
I'm a new enter of this forum and I'm happy for this.
I'm not very expert on computer and I use it only for work, but in this period I'm in troble because I am not able to play computer music with my HiFi equipment passing throw an external DAC, recently acquired.
For this purpose I've bought:
1) Digitalpclink (USB to Optical&SPDIF converter)
2) Emagic 6/2m
in both cases the istruments worked fine on windows systems but failed to work on my Mac.
Have someone something to tell me at this regard?
Thanks to Everyone who spent His time in answering.

Easiest way is to continue to use the external drive for your main library. And then create and maintain a much smaller library on your internal drive for when you are away from the computer's external hard drive. Here is the instructions for creating and/or opening alternate libraries...
How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304447
Before you leave on a trip, set the laptop to use the internal drive library. Then while the external hard drive is still hooked up you can use the File -> Add to Library... to add tracks (songs, videos, etc.) to the library by pointing to the files on the external drive which will then be added to the library and copied to the internal drive. You can also delete stuff out of the internal to make room you don't need on that trip knowing everything is safely on the external drive.
Patrick

Wine external DAC issues

Whenever I play sound through WINE on my external DAC, the sound sounds all crackly. Problem does not occur when I play the sound on my built-in audio, but there are reasons why I don't want to use that.
My DAC is an American Audio Audio Genie Pro.

Try different nrpacks values or set a higher buffer/period size for the device in alsa configuration.

External DAC

Hi all. I have recently bought an external USB DAC/Amplifier to use with my headphones (the Fubar 3 from Firestone Audio). I am having trouble setting it up on my iMac. On my iBook it went right in and the sound control stage is appropriately bypassed, the volume control on the computer does not work, only the external one does. On the iMac however, the sound comes out through it after correctly choosing it in the sound output options, but the computers sound stage stays in the loop. The volume control on the mac is still active. This defeats the purpose, which was improving the sound quality. I tried different USB ports, re-starting the computer etc. Mac support had no idea. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you

What will you be plugging an external DAC into?
I just run optical to an old Yamaha DSP processor for stereo (PCM) conversion and DD 5.1 decoding, this then feeds the stereo for general audio and L/R front for surround, the processor powering rear/center surround speakers.
I can't remember even trying the analogue audio out, but most say it's poor quality, though one or two comments I recall said it was very good.
I'm more than happy with my old setup for use with AppleTv so if you already have some form of home theatre setup try it with that, though if you have a stereo amp without optical input you may well want an external DA/processor.
Bear in mind AppleTV generally cannot output better than 16 bit 44.1kHz PCM to a DAC for stereo.

I would like to know if you have to back up a macbook hard drive, can I use a external hard drive that has been previously used to back up several pc 's, or is it best to have a separate external drive for the Mac?

I would like to know if you have to back up a macbook hard drive, can I use a external hard drive that has been previously used to back up several pc 's, or is it best to have a separate external drive for the Mac?

In the Mac side of things, backups usually come in two flavors: clones or incrementals.
A bootable clone is a bit-for-bit copy of all essential files in the startup volume. If using the Lions, clones can be made using CarbonCopyCloner or just plain old Disk Utility. These backups represent the safest protection of your info, but take the longest to do. Recovery is an inverse process: you copy the clone back into the internal drive.
Incremental backups start with a complete backup of the startup volume and only copy whatever changed from the previous run. OS X includes the fully integrated Time Machine backup utility to do this. It is extremely easy to do and takes the least amount of time. Recovery is another matter altogether since you have to start with a freshly installed instance of the OS and have to apply all intervening backups to bring the result to the latest saved version.
As for where the backup takes place, the recommended media is an external dedicated drive or drives connected via the fastest interface available on your Mac: Thunderbolt, USB3, Firewire, or USB2. Network-based backups, wired or wireless, are attractive but may not offer the same performance and hence take longer. Also important to note that the entire drive need not be completely dedicated to a single backup. The Mac's EFI firmware infrastructure allows for an unlimited number of partitions on a hard drive and each can be used for either type of backups.
Holler if you need specifics on how to do each. This was just an executive summary.

External DAC for ATV?

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