How to play audio from Macbook Pro to Amp?

[tonyau]

Hi

I want to use my Denon AVR1713 receiver as a 2.1 setup connected through my MBP.
I thought it would be straight forward and that I would just need a toslink optical cable with the 3.5 jack on one end and it would be all good.

No - it doesn't work

Any ideas please?

 

[cbautis2]

Use a 3.5 mm to rca and you'll be good to go

 

[tonyau]

Yes, thanks cbautis, that did the trick!

 

[danb1979]

If you want a better sound, get a small DAC such as the Fiio D3 and use that

I had this set up with my previous MBP and then my a current Mini and it was great and sounds hell of a lot better than a 3.5mm to RCA cable, IMO!

MBP > optical cable > DAC > amp

 

[cbautis2]

No difference in DAC sound unless his speakers are high fidelity. If there is, it's so subtle that it can only be distinguished by precised volume matched double blind A/B

 

[jerwin]

you probably need to assign the denon's optical in to a specific input --bluray, game, aux, tv, etc.

It's explained on page 93 of the user manual.

https://content.abt.com/documents/43627/AVR1713_manual.pdf

In my experience, the mac's optical input has one advantage over the headphone jack-- no harsh feedback when you unplug without first turning off your speakers. And since it's a laptop, you'll be doing a lot of unplugging.

Oh, and dts/dolby digital sound if you're into that.

But as far as circumventing a cheap, electrically noisy DAC in favor of one that's engineered correctly, Apple may know what it's doing.

The major disadvantage of the optical. route is that you lose your volume keys-- you'll need to to adjust it using the Denon controls.

(I use the optical out because it's connected to a box providing both Line outs--for my amplifier, and a headphone jack-- for my Sennheisers.)

 

[tonyau]

Probably why it wasn't working initially, jerkin - I hadn't assigned the optical input, although tv audio is the default for optical, and I don't think I had changed it. I'll check it out tomorrow.