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Lossless music Imac to AV receiver

L

leemkule

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 6, 2009
49
39
I'm just getting into high quality audio and have ordered myself a set of speakers and an AV receiver. I have tried searching for this but couldn't really come up with a conclusive answer. What are my options for playing music directly from my iMac 27' (late 2009) to my av receiver? I am happy to use wired or non-wired solutions but wouldn't like to buy an AppleTV or anything.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! The av receiver is the pioneer SC-LX83 if that's of any help.

Thanks!
 
mb21 said:
iMac have a optical digital audio output. Get yourself a mini-Toslink to Toslink cable, assuming your receiver has Toslink optical input. You get uncompressed stereo sound (via the S/PDIF protocol) and Dolby Digital or DTS 5.1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOSLINK
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S/PDIF
Click to expand...

Thanks, I've checked out your link/google and it seems that max theoretical distance for one of those cables is 10 metres, the distance from my imac is 13 metres and I can't really make it any closer unless i run it through the middle of the room! Any ideas how I could work around this?
 
Last edited:
Move your iMac or receiver 3 meters closer together? :p

There is asynchronous usb audio too, but I wouldn't know if your receiver supports it or not.
 
Im a big fan of the sonos equipment and am currently building a system to cover my whole house. A single ZP90 would suit your needs but this may be vastly more expensive than your needs seeing that the other guy just suggested a long cable :D
 
TMRaven said:
Move your iMac or receiver 3 meters closer together? :p

There is asynchronous usb audio too, but I wouldn't know if your receiver supports it or not.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I can't move either of them, the room is kind of odd shaped and my AV receiver is too big to house anywhere else, as is the desk for my imac, damn! Ha, I have no idea what asynchronous usb is either, feel like a bit of an idiot right now! I'll check it out. Thanks!
 
AirPlay with either an AirPort Express or ATV2
Both have optical outputs and the AirPort also has line out stereo.

Either will be cheaper & better than running fancy audio converters.

I can't see why a TOSLINK cable would have a problem at 15m if that's the route you want to take.
 
I was considering the same sort of a situation but it was a 20" iMac and it was more like a distance of 50 feet. I bought an iPod Classic and use it as a digital jukebox. Ideally I would say get the AppleTV since an Airport Express will cost you about the same. If your receiver does allow connection from a USB then you can use the 30 pin doc connector or some of the cool (albeit a little pricey) Apple docks.
 
Sorry for hijacking, but i'm curious, can't we just use S/PDIF from iMac into Coaxial digital input on the receiver? because that way we just need a cheaper and more common 3.5mm jack into RCA audio cable, is it possible?
 
blueroom said:
AirPlay with either an AirPort Express or ATV2
Both have optical outputs and the AirPort also has line out stereo.

Either will be cheaper & better than running fancy audio converters.

I can't see why a TOSLINK cable would have a problem at 15m if that's the route you want to take.
Click to expand...

You could also connect to one of these via a big long Ethernet cable, but I'm not sure what the max length would be.

In regards to the toslink length, I'm not sure what the max is but the limit would be imposed by the power of the devices sending the signal. There may be FCC regulations limiting the power of the laser such as the limits for cd and DVD players.

Cool, I think this was my first post ever where I got to use the word "laser" ;)
 
iSayuSay said:
Sorry for hijacking, but i'm curious, can't we just use S/PDIF from iMac into Coaxial digital input on the receiver? because that way we just need a cheaper and more common 3.5mm jack into RCA audio cable, is it possible?
Click to expand...

The digital out of the Mac is optical. Coax digital (RCA type plug) is electrical not optical. Therefore you would need a converter. They use a common signal that can easily be converted for probably less than $50. S/PDIF
 
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i wouldnt worry about the lenght of the toslink cable. the standard mandates only that it works for 10m or less, but if you can find a longer cable it almost certainly will work too. and because the signal is digital you wont have any quality loss.

personally, i'd always favour a simple lowtech solution like a cable over more fancy and failprone alternatives - given it does what you want it to do. also, if latency is an issue (ex audio/video sync) network solutions are a nogo.
 
I'm considering using a 35' toslink to connect my iMac to the optical port on my receiver. That way I can also use the Remote app on my iPhone to control the music.

But I have a question. Since the toslink connects to the headphone jack on the iMac... if someone is using the computer (in the office) while I'm listening to music (in the living room), will all of the computer's sounds be played over the receiver and speakers? Does that mean that if my son is watching his preschool video books on the iMac, that we can't listen to music in the other room at the same time?

thx.
 
If you are getting into high quality audio you should first and foremost get yourself a high quality DAC for DA conversion. The Mac internal card can't even compete.
 
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