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iMac optical out

post #1 of 11
1/19/12 at 1:39pm
Thread Starter 

Right i have a 2011 iMac and its listed as having optical out

 

I have also heard that the iMacs have reasonably good DAC's just the headphone amp is rather trash

 

I currently have a FiiO E7 but im not very impressed and stil within the return window so im going to send it back

 

What do i need to get the optical out of my iMac (i think its a special socket in the headphone port that goes deeper?) to hook it up to a non-DAC headphone amp (not sure what im getting quite yet)

 

 

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post #2 of 11
1/19/12 at 2:33pm

If you are going to use the optical out on the mac you will need a DAC to convert to audio.

 

You will also need a cable with an adapter such as this...

 

http://store.apple.com/ca/product/H6745ZM/A?fnode=MTY1NDA3Ng

 

If you have a cable you can find the adapter separately but you're going to have to do your own search on that.

 

 

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post #3 of 11
1/19/12 at 3:05pm
Thread Starter 
Ohhh so i can use the imacs dac but avoid the headphone amp? May aswell stick to usb dacs then
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post #4 of 11
1/21/12 at 5:54pm

Just buy an adaptor on monoprice. Monoprice has good cable too.

 

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10423&cs_id=1042301&p_id=2671&seq=1&format=2

 

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10229&cs_id=1022904&p_id=2763&seq=1&format=2

 

 


Edited by Trudo - 1/21/12 at 5:56pm
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post #5 of 11
1/22/12 at 7:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rogan View Post

Ohhh so i can use the imacs dac but avoid the headphone amp? May aswell stick to usb dacs then



If you use the optical out, you MUST use a DAC external to the iMac. That is sort of the point of an optical out.

 

If you have very high def music, do be aware that the optical out is limited to supporting "only" 24/96  sample rates. DVD audio is nothing to sneeze at, but thought you should know just in case.

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post #6 of 11
1/22/12 at 9:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rogan View Post

Ohhh so i can use the imacs dac but avoid the headphone amp? May aswell stick to usb dacs then


Depends, some usb dacs sound really crap compared to optical.  Optical has jitter, but many usb implentations are downright awful, so you have to let your ears be the judge.

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post #7 of 11
1/23/12 at 10:21am
Thread Starter 

 

Ok so can someone check this will work before i order

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003NT6RDO/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=ANNASRW22SIOH

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0053VKP8S/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&m=A2OAJ7377F756P

 

 

into Little Dot MK II

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post #8 of 11
1/23/12 at 10:34am

That looks like it should work.  The cable has the mini Toslink connector which is what you need, the DAC has Toslink input.

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post #9 of 11
1/23/12 at 3:52pm

Agreed that will work, but I question whether that DAC will offer much improvement over the iMac's. 

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post #10 of 11
1/24/12 at 1:03am
Thread Starter 
Without it though i have no line out options to go to amps?
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post #11 of 11
1/24/12 at 4:46am

You can use a mini to RCA connection instead.  Something like this:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Audio-Cable-Splitter-1-Mini/dp/B00004Z5CP/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327409103&sr=8-1

 

The optical out also serves as an analog out if you use something like the above.  This will mean the iMac is doing your digital to analog conversion as opposed to a stand alone DAC.

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