Best way to connect macbook pro to active monitors?

Zhaolu with discreet headamp upgrade sounds just right =)

I personally haven't heard a Zhaolu but going by what I've read here, it's quite the amazing piece of equipment. I'd talk to Eddie from diykits.com.hk and get all the upgrades from him. The discreet headamp upgrade is quite nice.

I don't know if it'll stack up to a maxxed pimeta, for $40 that should be illegal hah. If I were to guess, I'd say it's just like a standard Pimeta. Still worth it though, I have to say the DAC is more important than the amp =)

Check out the bazillion Zhaolu threads here

my MacBook Pro Experience

or the last month I have been playing with the best setup using the MacBook Pro as a source. I finally got it or at least, this is the best sound I have heard so far.

I bought my self a HD650 and a Headroom Maxed out Home Head Amplifier.
I hooked my Mac to the Headamp using a monster cable out of the Airport audio port. The sound was good by it lacked brilliance, depth and sounded a little choppy at times, event though my source was DDD cd's converted using apple loseless. The sound with the Maxed out was comparable to the one connecting the HD650 directly to the Notebook or Airport Express.

I suspected that I might get a much better quality of sound if I used a more complex DAC circuit than the one provided by Apple. After some research, I decided for the Zhaolu 2.0 with a discrete Headphone amp upgrade. I connected the Zhaolu to the Airport express via the monster analog cable as I had not yet received the toslink cable. At this time, the sound coming out of the Zhaolu headamp was still similar to the Maxed Out. I even considered selling the Maxed out at this time.

I finally received the toslink cable as well as the DY2000 OP Amps that I ordered for the Zhaolu. Hooked up the Airport Express to the Zhaolu via toslink. I have to say that the sound image was fantastic. SO much better, there was brilliance in the sound, a lot of depth, bigger soundcage and no more choppiness.

I then connected the Maxed Out to the analog output of the Zhaolu believing that it could not get any better. How wrong was I. The sound coming out of the Maxed out could finally be differenced from the Zhaolu's upgreaded headamp.

I'm now looking forward to a higher end toslink cable and silver core interconnect cables.

Even using Rhapsody as the source sounds fantastic!. The downside besides the cost? I can now very clearly differenciate between a good recorded cd's and those that are not.

I presume connecting to external speaker is not much different