[mr56k]

My Koss KSC75's sound great out of my Macbook. I havent been using my Audio Technica's as its been so hot lately but tried them briefly several times and they also sound good. Im sure its not the best but definately sounds good to me

. On a side note after having using my laptop for the past few weeks I have determined this is one schweet portable machine.

 

[gerG]

My new HP laptop has optical out, but it locks at 48 khz, which means that it is probably resampling. Bummer. I suspect that this is a common issue with the optical output on Windows laptops. I also suspect that the Macbook may not have this bad habit. Can anybody confirm a clean 44.1 khz optical output from any laptop (without an add-on, of course)? Does the Macbook revert to 48 khz when running win XP?

gerG

 

[Elephas]

Running WinXP on a MacBook, the SigmaTel control panel installed by the Mac Drivers CD allows selection of 44.1, 48, 96, 192 kHz or "Dynamic" Sampling Rate and for SPDIF output 44.1, 48, 96 or "Dynamic" Rate.

Setting it to 44.1 kHz, playing ALAC files on iTunes and using a mini-optical to toslink cable to connect the MacBook's headphone/optical out to a Lavry DA10, the Lavry indicates 44.1 kHz.

 

[hedrick]

I have a Macbook Pro. Output quality is OK, but I get significantly cleaner sound when I connect a digital output to an external DAC (Benchmark DAC-1) or receiver (Arcam 250).

With DT880's, the lower frequencies are somewhat missing when I connect the headphones to the Macbook headphone output. With a Senn 580 that doesn't seem to be the case. The overall tonal balance seems about the same as when I use an external amp (in this case the headphone amp in the DAC-1). However the sound is still cleaner using the DAC-1 or Arcam.

Neither of these headphones is intended for unamplified use. I don't believe I have any headphone that is. (In addition to DT800 and HD580, I have an old K340. It definitely isn't intended for unamplified use.)

 

[kugino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by donunus I was thinking of plugging my k81djs into the macbook. Wonder if it will turn out fine til the headfi bug bites and I get my dac . And my question again, has anyone compared the macbooks output to an ipod or to another laptop. Thanks

reviving an old thread...i've been using the k81dj out of the macbook for a few days while i wait on my DAC and amps to arrive. while the macbook's headphone out is decent as far as laptop outputs go, it's certainly not driving these k81djs very well. these are known for their bass but it's diminished on the macbook. also, the headphone out is a little noisy, audible in some "black" moments...what i do like is the midrange. guitars and vocals sound pretty good...but i'll most certainly be incorporating the alien DAC into my listening...

 

[Calroth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by deadlierchair At the moment, my plan is to build my Alien DAC and use it on my MBP I got a few days ago. The optical out is an awesome idea as well. At least for the MBP, maybe someday the ExpressCard slot will house a decent sound card. But that's a long way off I think.

You could do this yourself!

From what I've seen of the Alien DAC, the PCB is small enough to fit in the ExpressCard slot. The ExpressCard standard allows a USB connection, with the standard power, so you could interface the DAC directly with the computer, if you come up with your own connector.

The only problem (and yeah, it's a big problem) is finding capacitors small enough to fit in the slot with the PCB... cut out all the non-optional caps, use small electrolytics and mount them off-board on their side, use tantalums? I'm sure it can be done

 

[hartphoto]

Quote:

Originally Posted by donunus How is the sound quality of the macbook compared to most pc laptops by acer, dell, sony, etc... anybody with any experience out of the headphone jack?

I'm using my iMac G5 as a source (for now). Don't know if the iMac G5 and MacBook share same internal DAC components. That'd have to come from opening up the cases I would think....and even then, the software (firmware) would be different, and that would most likely affect SQ. This would also be true with comparing to any PCs.

To maybe help your quest with the MacBook SQ....I currently use the headphone out (analog) of the iMac G5 (OS 10.4.7) to either of the setups in my signature. MACs are 'usually' well known for the SQ. My setup, sounds very, very nice. Finding detail, separation, depth, dynamics and many things I've never heard before in my 300+ CD collection with my old lo-fi sound system.

Note that all my ICs are DIY mid-fi level (at least imo). Neutrick connectors, silver stranded cable, silver solder, even on my AKG 501s. Maybe that helps, maybe it doesn't, that's an entirely different conversation. I like to think it does, at least in comparison to the el-cheapo cables that you get for free.

Can't wait until I get the Storm DAC to add in the mix.

HTH.

 

[Chef Medeski]

I personally have a Powerbook. I find the headphone out pretty good for a laptop, but thats still only decent.

Realistically, no matter what laptop, the headphone out is not going to be nice enough for your headphones, so I would git a bithead, which is a USB dac. Yet, that would improve pretty much every laptop to the same degree, so its not like it matters too much that the macbook has a better SQ.

I guess you could always sue the optical out, but personally I haven't found a portable AMP/DAC combo with optical in; and I travel a lot with my laptop, so thats the only thing I would want, a portable AMP/DAC combo.

 

[PITTM]

man, i havent posted on here in a long time...i bought a macbook yesterday. I spent most of the night transferring everything over/figuring out a new interface/realizing how awesome the way you install things is/installing irc/firefox/aim/etc...

tonight i plan on breaking out the microdac--->hornet--->hd580 chain on my new beast. im really excited and wish i didnt have 2.5 more hours of work to do in the interim

. i listened to some stuff on itunes through the built in speakers while i was transferring things, and jesus they just sounded comically bad. it reminds me of when tyll broke out the triports. just like "wow, What were they thinking with these?"

in other news, i got a free nano with my macbook and today i decided i didnt wanna bring my akg-k26ps to work and instead just sported the nano and ipod earbuds(yep, first time) and i was suprised that they didnt sound as terrible as i expected. but on my lunch break the inside of my ears started to ache a little bit from the buds being placed strangely.

rj

 

[OakIris]

rj - I am interested in the combination of DAC & amp that you have put together. At some point I hope to purchase a MacBook Pro and I am looking for options should the "native" sound of the notebook be unacceptable. Please let us know what you think of the sound results from your chosen Micro DAC & Hornet amp, as compared to the internal notebook DAC.

Holly

 

[DLeeWebb]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OakIris rj - I am interested in the combination of DAC & amp that you have put together. At some point I hope to purchase a MacBook Pro and I am looking for options should the "native" sound of the notebook be unacceptable. Please let us know what you think of the sound results from your chosen Micro DAC & Hornet amp, as compared to the internal notebook DAC. Holly

I have just recently bought a MacBook Pro and I have been following this thread and others in hope of getting some insight into the interest expressed above. I have investigated "Stereo-Link" through the advertisment on this website. I am interested in solicting input on what way to go to get quality audio out of my MacBook...What DAC should I be looking at? What will it allow me to do that I couldn't do without it?

 

[LuckyKarma]

I really like my Macbook and have been running my headphones straight out of the optical line out for about 4 months. The sound quality sounds great to me, but I'm hoping it will sound better once I get my LDM+

My question is though, should I pick up a DAC to use with it and if so, what is a fairly nice, inexpensive (< $100) DAC that works well with the Macbook?

 

[jmmtn4aj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wmcmanus I just ordered a Macbook Pro the other day because I'm so tired of all of these viruses on PC-based systems. It will be a big switch after 25 years of being old school, but I value quick and efficient a lot. Chances are I'll never use the headphone out other than to listen to music clips on occasion.

The amazing thing is I've never ever had to reformat because of virii before. Then again, I've never had a single hard disk crash on me (as in, unrecoverable crash) in my ten years of computer experience and after countless systems, so maybe I'm just one lucky person

Anywho I'm looking to buy a MacBook to replace my year-old Vaio soon (dropped it a tad too many times

), but I'll be dual booting Windows and OSX because I need Visual Studio and a bunch of other Windows-only programs.

 

[Rambaud]

I have used my MacBook via an external DAC (DAC-AH) and Sennheiser 595s.

Although only used for about 1 hour, initial reaction was pretty favourable.

 

[Calroth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmmtn4aj Anywho I'm looking to buy a MacBook to replace my year-old Vaio soon (dropped it a tad too many times ), but I'll be dual booting Windows and OSX because I need Visual Studio and a bunch of other Windows-only programs.

There's a fairly large gotcha with running Windows on a MacBook Pro: with the current drivers, if you use the standard headphone/line out, the sound still comes through on the internal speakers (i.e. they don't cut out). I don't know if this applies to the optical digital out too.

This may be fixed in future drivers, and does not apply when you're running Mac OS X. It also doesn't apply if you have an external USB sound card.