sjpetry said:
I have a iMac G5 and is the optical out on the back just as good as a a USB thing. I am guessing that the iMac has better sound than the Mini. Am I right?
The optical is a digital cable, it will depend on what is on the other side. If you connect that to your stereo optical in that is what will set the sound quality.
I see people here confuse about audio connectors.
The Macintosh has a mini plug out put and imput port for audio. Those are called analago to digital converters or viseversa because you are transforming an audio signal in to digital data.
If you have a CD player and you plug your head phones to the phone jack, that would be the Digital to Analog converter.
Now, the difference between an expensive one and a cheap one is how accurate they transform the analog signal from the digital. Those are chips and they use algorythms and re sampling functions to achieve more fidelity from the upcoming digital signal.
It is just liek having 3 different computer monitors from different brands, each one give a different quality to the colors even they are receiving the same digital signal from the same computer.
Now, speakers can mask some details in the sound, most of the time they are mean for that, the manofacturers add more base or change the frequency response or even add some reverb. But if you connect those speaker to a good output they will sound way better.
Actually recording studios always look for the real accurate sound from the source and studio speakers get very expensive because the components are mean to move the diagfragm very fast emulating the vibartions you see in the wave forms of the music.
So, those are the basics.