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Originally Posted by SACD-Man  I'm typing this on my new MacBook Pro and I love everything about it. It's my 5th mac so my expectations are high when I upgrade.
One thing that everyone should understand is that the audio line out sounds the best compared to other laptops. For those of you who are DAC users, this is key since its the cleanest source I have heard so far (referring to laptops).
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Which is interesting, since what's inside is basically a bog standard low-end soundcard with the same (or in some cases even worse) electronics between the codec and the sockets certainly in terms of analog output as any number of other notebooks. (digital isn't actually that hot either, but that's another argument and really not that important as it *is* quite convenient) One aspect of Mac 'fanboyism' is that many people imbue Apple gear with superior function for no logically discernible reason. I see it everywhere since I started using them again in earnest.
There are situations in which Apple OS or hardware can clearly work better. Most of these situations however, if I were to be a little brutal, involves users who don't quite know what they're doing but you need them to be productive. For me Linux is an OS nerding too far, and I'm not a huge hardware nerd in that if I'm going to have a high-performance system, etc I'm going to get someone else to build it: But I do absolutely believe in nerding out on software, to search out and to buy what really works best for me. I know for many people the three or four-digit spend ends with the computer: Not for me.
And in that respect while I find the uniform elegance of Apple solutions beguiling, in comparison to Windows in general I find it too limiting in terms of the applications I can run on it: There is basically everyone else's slightly dumbed-down, easy to use,
good enough way to do it... or no way. And while some of those solutions may even be
de facto industry standards, I ended up being surprised by how often this was true even in quite mainstream areas once I started looking. As a result there are a limited number of things I do which I like to keep to Apple but interestingly, anything to do with Audio is not... and my media setup is now back to being predominantly Windows.
And Jude, your experiences aren't unique. That's the other problem... the actual build quality of Apple equipment, not just the surface look & feel which they are masters of. The two issues for me ended up also undermining the theoretical advantage of a Boot Campable Mac (which isn't actually that convenient or compatible, and virtualisation isn't for everyone who has 'heavy lifting' Windows uses). As much as I depend on my iPods, I have to say I have a more ambivalent relationship with the Macs.
