Has anyone connected a mac to a stereo?

[Wellander]

Hi,
Has anyone ever connected a mac to a radio or a stereo instead of computer speakers?
I am asking bucuase I do it. Anf I want to know many people do this.
Thanks.
I can nor edit the title.
I made a mistake.
Can Someone with proper privs please rename this to say Has anyone ever connected a mac to a stereo?
Thanks.

 

[WildCowboy]

Sure...lots of people do it right now through an Airport Express. But even before that, I often plugged mine into my stereo. Nothing fancy, just connecting my headphone jack to a line in on my stereo.

 

[iMeowbot]

Yyyyup. A Mac replaced the CD player a long time ago.

I don't know that I'd want my desktop machine set up on a stereo full time; when I was living in an apartment a few years ago, the guy in the unit next door used to have his Windows box hooked up that way and had a habit of throwing stuff onto the keyboard on the way out the door, so I'd hear that Windows THOOMP. THOOMP. THOOMP. THOOMP. sound through the wall for hours on end.

 

[khisayruou]

On occasions I hook up my powerbook to a 5.1 receiver so I can get those jams in the living area. I'm so happy Apple finally included the opticals when they did.

 

[irmongoose]

Yup, sure do. I use one of these



to connect from the headphone jack on my iMac to the RCA inputs on my stereo system.




irmongoose

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

I don't know that I'd want my desktop machine set up on a stereo full time; [...]

Not a big problem when using an AirPort Express, as it's only the music from iTunes that's send to the stereo (without 3rd party software and/or some major hacking), the system sounds "stays" on the Mac/PC... and I'm very grateful for that... both on my own and my neighbours behalf...

 

[Shamus]

Yup, sure do. I use one of these



to connect from the headphone jack on my iMac to the RCA inputs on my stereo system.




irmongoose

Same here. My iBook has become my main music device in the house since getting that cable.

 

[rick6502]

CDs? We don't need no stinkin' CDs!

Indeed, I sold my CD player in favor of iTunes via Airport Express. I dislike radio so I just let my iTunes play 24/7.

 

[ddrueckhammer]

My girlfriends Pbook is connected to my HK receiver via an Airport Express and it works great. Before that, I used one of those mini jack to RCA receivers pictured above.

If you want to use other software to stream content to an airport express you can use Airfoil by Rogue Amoeba software.

http://www.rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/

If you want AC-3 or DTS from a laptop you can look into this product by M-Audio.

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Transit-main.html

 

[disconap]

Sure...lots of people do it right now through an Airport Express. But even before that, I often plugged mine into my stereo. Nothing fancy, just connecting my headphone jack to a line in on my stereo.

I tried that. The sound was funky. So I don't bother, and I get good sound out of the little speakers in my monitor--nothing too impressive, but it does the damage.

 

[displaced]

My Mac Mini (PowerPC) has an M-Audio Transit USB thingy which uses an optical cable to connect to my Yamaha amp.

I get my DVD's in 6.1 surround sound, which is nice.

My MacBook Pro gets hooked up to the amp occasionally when I've got my guitar plugged into GarageBand. Sounds awesome Otherwise, the MBP's usually playing to one of two AirPort Expresses or using its internals.

One of the lovely things about the Mac is how it handles multiple output devices. The Mini has Adium and all System Sounds (new mail alerts, etc) routed through the internal speaker, so my DVD watching or iTunes playing can be cranked up on the Yamaha amp without getting deafened by the 'contact has signed on' sound!

At the same time, Skype's audio is routed to a bluetooth headset. All three sound outputs (iTunes/DVD, System sounds, Skype Chat) work totally independently. It's really cool. Certainly impresses PC users!

 

[sunfast]

My iMac is hooked up to a Rotel amp and a pair of Mission speakers. Sounds great!

I forked out £30 for a quality cable to connect the two and it was definitely worth it.

 

[russed]

Yup, sure do. I use one of these



to connect from the headphone jack on my iMac to the RCA inputs on my stereo system.




irmongoose

same here for me - works a treat!

 

[nathanbusby]

Reply to displaced. I run a MBP and would just like to know how you get to route all the sounds to different places. I have my MBP hooked up to some 2.1 speakers (nice whilst at work) but when listening in I get all the alert sounds coming through the speakers too. could you let a fellow Kent man in on the secret.

15.4" MacBook Pro 2GHZ 100GB@7200rpm 2GB RAM

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

nathanbusby, the "secret" is the AirPort Express. When you send music through that with AirTunes, it's just the music from iTunes that are send to the stereo (or whatever is connected to the Express), the system sounds (and sounds from other apps) "stays" on the computer... very handy...

 

[yoak]

Yup, got my iMac hooked up with an Airport Express, works great. I can switch to the ibook when it suits me, when I´m in the kitchen for example. Gotta love it

 

[displaced]

Reply to displaced. I run a MBP and would just like to know how you get to route all the sounds to different places. I have my MBP hooked up to some 2.1 speakers (nice whilst at work) but when listening in I get all the alert sounds coming through the speakers too. could you let a fellow Kent man in on the secret.

15.4" MacBook Pro 2GHZ 100GB@7200rpm 2GB RAM

Hi Nathan,

This setup doesn't work on the MacBook since both the internal speakers and the 'headphone' or Line Out socket are basically the same audio device. So, there's no way to direct a particular category of audio to one and not the other.

My Mac Mini's got built-in audio (internal speaker + line-out/headphone) and the M-Audio Transit USB audio device. Via the Sounds system preference, I have the default output set to the M-Audio, and the 'System Sounds' set to Built-in Audio. Apps like Adium can also have their audio output set to the System output (and thus the internal speaker).


As Mitthrawnuruodo noted, you can get part-way to this setup on machines with only one audio device like the MacBook Pro by using an Airport Express. Without a little trickery, this'll only work for iTunes audio, but it's still handy.

 

[debrey]

If anyone is really interested in using the Airport Express, I recommend this somewhat technical but quite informative article:

http://stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/505apple/

-- David

 

[adk]

My crappy receiver/decent speakers sound SO much better than any computer speaker system. And that's just JVC and Polk components. To anybody who has extra stereo equipment lying around, hook it up!

 

[macfreek57]

I have an old sony cd/2 cassette mini-receiver to which I have a set of fairly decent Bose speakers. It was a gift -- don't ask. I hook my iBook up to it using a cassette adapter (!SOUND QUALITY!) because the sound input on my DVD player is broken. I just use it for watching (legally) downloaded video. It's a pretty trashy setup, but it works.