How is sound quality when you use the digital out?

Since it is digital, it should be perfect, but what you hear will still depend on your headphones and the D-A converter you plug them into.

 

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Digital is digital; the sound quality when using the optical out will depend on the amp you choose. Head over to head-fi if you need help with a headphone amp setup.

 

digital is not always perfect over a medium, a proper optical cable still has to be used if you dont wish jitter to occur, which can and will distort audio.
but thats nitpicking.. ;D

imo mbp d/a is pretty crappy, and the Astro will probably yield better results than built in d/a

 

Sound quality on the Macbook Pro is better than any PC laptop I ever owned. I don't get hiss on my outputs. How loud are you cranking your music? Make sure your app volume is up high first, then start cranking the main volume.

Digital output doesn't really have sound quality in itself - it depend on the quality of the digital to analogue converters in the receiving device. Heck you could spend $2000 - $10,000 for two channels of good converters. If you want good sound quality, think about getting an Apogee Duet http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/duet.php external firewire audio interface.

 

Listen to low impedance headphones or earphones and you will hear it, it's even more obvious at low levels. Fairly common problem with the MBP.

 

its very appearent at low volumes, especially when you work on lowlevel unmastered material, or you are listening to classical..
or anything 24bit that actually has some dynamic range.
it is better than PC's, but not good...

if you are at interfaces id also recommend Echo Indigo which is Expresscard. i have those converters in the big echo card and theyre damn good.

 

I personally don't use my headphone jack from my MacBook Pro, Whenever I listen to audio tracks/videos I run everything out my FireWire port and into my Apogee Duet, I will from there send the audio to two KRK ROKIT 5 Powered Monitors, or I will plug my Sennheiser Headphones in the 1/4 inch jack of my Duet.

So from what I get through my interface, I'd say it is pretty good.

Before I used interfaces I had a pair of Altech Lancing Speakers that just plugged into the 1/8 inch jack, And they sounded really good except I ended up blowing them out.

I did however notice that you get more buzz/distortion when you use the 1/8 inch jack.

 

I love it. I use my MBP to play a bunch of MKV files my friend. The 5.1 surround sound and the 1080p video is a blast to play over my hdtv!

If your sound system supports optical audio definitely get the adapter. I purchased this one from Amazon for .20

http://www.amazon.com/Toslink-To-Op...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1242574401&sr=8-1

 

Yup. I get the hiss even on my macbook with my 16ohm Sennheisers. I do plan on getting a headphone amp to get rid of the hiss though, since it is really starting to annoy me.

 

If you use a good DAC like Apogee Mini DAC, you will get great results.

 

It really depends on what you get; plus you need better headphones first, if you haven't made that purchase already.

So for best audio quality, you'd need good headphones, a good amp, and a good DAC. It gets really pricey.

 

According to The Absolute Sound, this $89 USB DAC is an incredible performer.

http://www.highresolutiontechnologies.com/products.html

 

be sure to check IOx, not DJx. IOx has better converters!

headphone amp wont help you, sorry. another interface will