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MacBook Pro Office Setup

post #1 of 5
12/22/10 at 6:37pm
Thread Starter 

New to forum, need some help.  I have an 8 year old  Altec Lansing 2.1 setup in my office.  believe it or not, actually produces some very good sound (3 way speakers and a decent sub).  Want to improve.  Someone mentioned that Apogee makes a pretty good DAC (Duet?) that integrates well with Macs (firewire connection).  Don't have a fortune to spend.  Should I look to something like this as an option or should I be thinking about something like a new speaker set up that has a DAC built in (Focal, etc)? I am far from being well versed in this stuff, but sound quality matters to me.  Most of mu itunes library is ripped CD stuff, not lossless, though.  Thanks in advance for any helpful input.

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post #2 of 5
12/24/10 at 9:52am

hard to say really.  Saying you have an altec 2.1 setup is akin to saying you have a white car and asking for recs on a better performing one.

 

More details?

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post #3 of 5
12/25/10 at 3:37pm
Thread Starter 

Good point.  Altec Lansing MX5021 THX certified, 2.1 system.  Not very powerful (30W satellites, 50W Sub)  but very clean, neutral sound.  Plenty enough volume for my home office set-up.  Good enough for me to notice some of the faults associated with the sound card built into my Macbook Pro (2010 model).  Once again, I am far from an expert but have heard that a good DAC can "clean-up" itunes output from a Mac.  I have a DAC hooked up to my home system and it dramatically improves the  quality of what comes out of my iPod. Prod me again if you need more info to lend a helping hand.

JR 

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post #4 of 5
12/26/10 at 4:02am
Edifier S730, also has a clean neutrual sound, and enough volume for a party, it has its own built in dac and coax or optical toslink in, i use a audiophile usb for usb to coax for it as my laptop has no digital outs, the sound is very clean and clear it was showing up my badly mastered low bit-rate mp3s, sound is pretty neutrual expect a slight lack of mid-range bass due to the bad crossover, and the sub is huge you would need a very big desk to put it under.
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post #5 of 5
12/26/10 at 1:58pm

Not familiar with your speakers, but lots can improve with good speakers.  First you need a budget or if flexible then consider speakers and a dac.  I went through the process of going to a place like best buy and guitar center and listened to lots of speakers for my budget.  Powered and un-powered and narrowed it down.  

 

In the end bought some passive from a audio shop, much more natural for the price.

 

As for Dacs, the Duet is unquestionably the hardest dac to beat for the money.  No $400 or so dac I have heard does as well as it does.  It is not without faults but you really have to spend quite a bit more to get better.  It is very musical.

 

Good luck.

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