stereos/speakers with usb input

[jamisonbaines]

this is kind of a general question, i dont know what forum is most appropriate but yea...stereos/speakers with usb input, how do you utilize this? like for example a home theater receiver or a car stereo deck with a usb input supposedly for your mp3 player, how would you use this with an ipod or a computer?

the headphone jack on my mini is fried so i thought of purchasing some speakers that connect via usb but i don't entirely understand how that works. would i be better off using something like the imic as an intermediate or what is my best option? thanks.

 

[jamisonbaines]

i should add that i have stanton final scratch 2 and the firewire scratch amp if there's any way i could be using that to output system audio.

i also have airport express with the airtunes, which is what i use currently with itunes. the reason for my questions is that i want to use my computer to watch dvd's and with airtunes the audio is out of sync so i need a wired solution.

thanks.

 

[Killyp]

Connecting via USB into a system which supports it won't necessarily result in better sound than you would normally get out of a headphones connection.

What this actually does, is instead of using the circuitry in your Mac to turn the 1s and 0s into a sound wave, it uses the circuitry in the stereo/speakers to do it instead. Very often, the circuitry in the stereo/speakers is no better than that in your Mac.

I would go for a good basic stereo (speakers and an amp) and a good basic USB sound card. I'm not sure about the scratch amp, it may not have particularly good circuitry in it.

How much are you looking to spend?

 

[jamisonbaines]

yea, thanks for the reply. it's not so much of a question of how it works, it's that the headphone jack on my mac mini isn't outputting any sound and i want to find a way to output sound in order to watch dvd's. i'm not looking to spend a lot, just want something decent.

 

[ChrisA]

yea, thanks for the reply. it's not so much of a question of how it works, it's that the headphone jack on my mac mini isn't outputting any sound and i want to find a way to output sound in order to watch dvd's. i'm not looking to spend a lot, just want something decent.

You options are to either go with USB speakers. And these come in all different quality and price levels or to buy an USB (or firewire) audio interface and connect that to either an amp or to powered speakers. And again the price/quality can be all over the map

What you have to think about is the listening space. How big is it? Then speaker placement and how much room you have for equipment and budget. If you want people to recommend equipment you will have to talk abut what yu need in more detail.

You did say "home theatre". If by that you mean a high powered 5.1 system then get an audio/video amp and feed it with an optical S/PDIF cable from an external USB audio interface. (I think?) spdif is the only way to get 5.1 sound out of the Mac.