Digital Audio - A beginners guide?

Well, you could use a USB or FireWire Audio Interface that's commonly used for music creation. They essentially are external soundcards and depending on your needs come with an array of I/O's. For just simply sending a signal you could get a pretty basic one. There's many options in all different price ranges. Common brands are M-Audio, PreSonus, Apogee, etc..

Here's some straight forward info: http://www.tweakheadz.com/soundcards_for_the_home_studio.htm

I'm not big into HT stuff but maybe there's a hoody-whoop out there that can convert an optical signal to a L/R RCA signal to work with your old unit? *shrug*

Adrien

 

Will the line out not do with a stereo mini-jack to RCA cable?

Unless you want to record also I think an external box would be a bit overkill.

 

I think the OP is looking a bit higher quality signal than a Mini-Jack output.

He mentioned he has a lot of Hi Bit-Rate and Lossless audio in his library.

Adrien

 

you can get a digital to analog converter which would hook up to the mac optical. i've got a Benchmark DAC-1 doing that and it sounds pretty darn good.

you'd save some $300 by not needing the USB version, as well.

 

www.procablesnsound.com

Great people, great cables, great prices.