[Jeff E]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pingalep /img/forum/go_quote.gif so the mbp doesn't have the headphone-out_toslink out combo female jack?

Yes it does.
From Apple's specifications:

Quote:

Combined optical digital input/audio line in (minijack) Combined optical digital output/headphone out (minijack)

 

[grawk]

The macs don't have an ipod dock on them, they have, as stated above, a combo headphone/optical out and a combo analog/optical in. If you use the headphone out, it sounds mediocre. If you plug in a poor quality firewire dac, it sounds mediocre. If you take the optical out and feed it to a $20,000 dac, it will sound like a $20,000 dac. Etc. There's little reason to use a firewire soundcard, unless there's one you particularly want. You can feed any dac the input from the optical. The one thing you'll gain from the firewire is the ability to feed a 24/96 or 24/192 source to a dac. The value of this is up to you.

 

[jrussell6]

Quote:

Originally Posted by grawk /img/forum/go_quote.gif The macs don't have an ipod dock on them, they have, as stated above, a combo headphone/optical out and a combo analog/optical in. If you use the headphone out, it sounds mediocre. If you plug in a poor quality firewire dac, it sounds mediocre. If you take the optical out and feed it to a $20,000 dac, it will sound like a $20,000 dac. Etc. There's little reason to use a firewire soundcard, unless there's one you particularly want. You can feed any dac the input from the optical. The one thing you'll gain from the firewire is the ability to feed a 24/96 or 24/192 source to a dac. The value of this is up to you.

like i said

 

[pingalep]

perfect. but, there would be a reason to use usb instead of firewire or toslink.
and it's to bypass the spdif conversion using a dac wich uses I2s protocol only(from usb to D\A chip). so i think it would also worth to spend 20000$ in a D\A external converter imho.

 

[Xakepa]

MB doesn't sound bad even with low-ohm cans like HD201 or PortaPro to my ears...not sure I'll go for anything...damn, have to update my sig

 

[vcoheda]

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnsonad /img/forum/go_quote.gif The Apogee Mini-DAC will have firewire input available this month. http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/minidac.php

This is true. And supposedly, Apogee is going to discontinue the USB model of the Mini-DAC. I almost purchased a Mini-DAC FireWire but didn't have a FireWire input on my computer (how lame; brand new computer too) and found a good deal on the USB version. So that's what I own now. I know FireWire is able to transfer data more quickly than USB. However, I don't know if this has any effect on the music.

 

[captainbrendo]

my presonus firebox has a dac and hooks up via firewire. I use it all the time and it sounds great with my hd595. Its got a beefy built in amp too!

 

[chopped_pork]

I cannot use the macbook pro's headphone out with my ety's cause it makes to much weird noises

I have a Terratec Phase24fw, and it even drives dt770/80s nicely unamped.

 

[ozz]

my mac pro book sounds good using my sfi5pro's but
when i use the optical out to the integra 10.5 through
the hi-fi or to the hd-580's it really shines.

 

[Aman]

So I have this Firewire 410 firewire recording box from M-Audio that I use on the MBP every once in a while. If I ran the headphone amplifier through one of the outputs on the back of this device, would there be any significant signal loss within the chain?

Thanks for the responses guys - very educational.

 

[ftlbaby]

The answer to your question is: What is the better DAC connected to? The firewire port or the optical out? The audio is digital until it gets to the DAC then it goes analog to the headphone amp. I use a metric halo uln2 firewire adac (24 bits at 44, 48, 88, or 96khz) that has analog out on headphone and trs plus digital out (aes/ebu and spdif) on xlr and coax. Best $1000 I ever spent on audio. The only gotcha is the detented heaphone volume control. I found this thread searching for anyone who has connected their macbook pro optical out to a presonus central station at 24/88, but now that have I read apple's developer note, I know it is not possible. I wonder if I will notice the difference in tempo and pitch when listening to 88khz recordings at 96khz?

http://tinyurl.com/23cwd6

15-inch MacBook Pro Computers (January 2006)
S/PDIF Optical Digital Output

The S/PDIF optical digital output is automatically selected when a S/PDIF optical digital output external device is detected. The S/PDIF optical digital output supports a stereo data stream at bit depths of 16, 20, or 24 bits per sample and at sample rates of 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz or 96 kHz in PCM format. In addition, the S/PDIF optical digital output supports a stereo data stream at 16 bits per sample and at sample rates of 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz, 96 kHz, 176.4 kHz, or 192 kHz in AC-3 encoded audio format.

During playback of a 1 kHz, full-scale sine wave (S/PDIF output format, 44.1 kHz output sample rate, 24-bit sample depth, unless otherwise specified) the digital audio output has the following nominal specifications:

* Jack type: 3.5 mm optical
* Digital audio signal-to-noise ratio (SNR): >130 dB
* Digital audio total harmonic distortion + noise (THD+N): <-130 dB (0.00001%)

The S/PDIF optical output channel status conforms to IEC 60958-3 consumer mode digital audio.

The audio output connector on the MacBook Pro is a 3.5 mm electrical/optical combination (combo) jack. For details, see “3.5 mm (1/8”) Combination Audio Jack”.