Mac Mini Line Out

[pulsewidth947]

I've got a Mac Mini at home, but I'm at work now and just have a quick question. I've noticed on the Apple marketting blurb that the Mini audio output will do Line Out as well as headphones.

Do you have to switch the output over in Audio/MIDI setup or something?

 

[Cave Man]

The port is dual analog (line-level and headphones) and optical. It should autodetect if you have an optical cable in, but if not you can set it in the Sound System Preferences pane.

 

[mpshay]

I never had to mess with the settings on eith of my minis. It just worked. Plugged the correct cable into optial jack on my receiver. If you don't already have the cable check out monoprice.

 

[pulsewidth947]

So you have to use optical for line out? Wow.. That's pretty bad. Guess I'll have to look for a USB line out thing then. Thanks for your replies.

oh wait... is the line port in/out? or just in? - occording to this it is in/out. Man I'm a dumbass.

:edit: i retract that statement apparently it is either optical out or headphones. that's quite lame. whats wrong with analogue line out apple?!

 

[ADent]

The specs for the mini shows "Optical digital audio output/headphone out"

Maybe you were confused by "Optical digital audio input/audio line in"

There is some spec data on the Apple Store, but this article has the more detailed specs: http://support.apple.com/kb/SP7

 

[pulsewidth947]

The specs for the mini shows "Optical digital audio output/headphone out"

Maybe you were confused by "Optical digital audio input/audio line in"

There is some spec data on the Apple Store, but this article has the more detailed specs: http://support.apple.com/kb/SP7

yeah i did get confused by it. gonna have to look for a cheap usb line out box

 

[reberto]

The optical audio out also acts as a headphone jack, just as the optical audio in also works with standard mics. You don't need a USB-Audio out adapter.

 

[ADent]

He wants a line out.

You can't change the volume on a line out jack. On an iPod the line out does not go thru a variable amp and is supposedly less noisy.

Not sure how noisy the headphone jack is on a mini.

Here is thread talking about it a bit: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/144904/ . The guy with $700 headphones and $250 external amp uses the line out on his iPod vs the headphone jack.