Macbook Pro Optical Audio

[SC68Cal]

Okay, so I have a Macbook Pro CD.

What is the Digital Audio feature that the headphone jack has, how common are accessories (such as headphones) for Optical Audio output?

 

[Sesshi]

It's for linking to home-theater receivers and digital-to-analogue converters. There's less loss in the sound quality if you output the digital signal directly (and input the signal to the Mac as well if you're recording) via optical digital to a good digital to analogue conversion device. If you use the Macbook Pro analog outputs / inputs, it's going through the 'it's OK' digital-to-analogue conversion that's built into the Mac.

There's only one headphone I know with digital optical input on the market. Do you feel like spending $700?