If you still have the device at hand,
What devices show up in the Sound Output preference pane? What about Audio MIDI setup?
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How can I connect my 5.1 speakers to my 2017 iMac
- Thread starter ChaChing
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What devices show up in the Sound Output preference pane? What about Audio MIDI setup?
Thanks anyway. I came across this CM6206 enabler. Didn't work as I guess it was written some time ago.
Frustrating. Do you know any USB External Card that has optical output that definitely works in macOS?
Don't want to say "yes" for certain, but it looks like that would work. I don't see why it wouldn't. If it doesn't, just return it.
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https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7818763?start=0&tstart=0
pointed me to this
https://hifimediy.com/Sabre-9018-Type-C-DAC
good luck.
pointed me to this
https://hifimediy.com/Sabre-9018-Type-C-DAC
Ben on 18/01/2017
( 5 / 5 )
Works for 2.0 and 5.1 audio from my 2016 MacBook Pro.
More auspiciously the hifime mod confirmed that it works... (in the Comments section)
Works for 2.0 and 5.1 audio from my 2016 MacBook Pro.
good luck.
Sorry to hear you spent money on gear that didnt solve your problem, even after doing research.. i created an account here to share my own findings.
Im in a similar situation. I have heard almost all usb solutions will reduce DAC performance due to "jitter" unless you spend 1800+ on prosumer audio setups...
I am ready to just go "vintage" and get an "old" 2012 Airport Express. Imagine my surprise when i was ready to spend 1200 on a dac, 1800 on a usb-optical converter with de-jittering, just to listen to high res audio, and discover apple's $99 router is the absolute best option for non-usb audio via optical out. Who would have thought?
Here is a link to the test i am referencing:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/airport-express-audio-quality-2014.htm
My problem was solved quite easily.
I bought a Creative Omni USB card, and get 5.1 on my iMac via 2 combos:
1) using direct connection leads for each channel directly from the card to the receiver and selecting 'SB Omni Surround 5.1' in Sound preferences, or
2) via optical using the free decoder SoundPusher, and selecting 'SB Omni Surround Digital Out' in Sound preferences.
Both work fine except for an occasional momentary muting when using SoundPusher.
I bought a Creative Omni USB card, and get 5.1 on my iMac via 2 combos:
1) using direct connection leads for each channel directly from the card to the receiver and selecting 'SB Omni Surround 5.1' in Sound preferences, or
2) via optical using the free decoder SoundPusher, and selecting 'SB Omni Surround Digital Out' in Sound preferences.
Both work fine except for an occasional momentary muting when using SoundPusher.
wow ! Jesus Christ ! ,
Cant believe airport express can work like that ,,,apple sure is a weird company, removing optical output from Mac line even iMac pro but the airport express support it
There’s nothing weird about it at all. Airport Express is an old product which was released when the Mac line also supported optical.
Anyway, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t change what we are discussing here, i.e. surround sound. You will only get stereo from the AE optical without a decoder.
Not only the Macs and Airports, but most laughable is axing optical from the Apple TV, which is supposed to belong to home theatre setups where optical still has its place. If the Apple TV is only used for audio, routing audio with HDMI is a waste of ports/hassle to the overall system.
In the event that the ATV is repurposed into just an audio bridge. Or when you want to separate the video and audio signals, such as using a HDMI monitor with lousy 3.5mm jack analog output if your audio signal is stuck embedded into that HDMI path.
But consider this use case as well: ATV to receiver / TV via HDMI, showing video+ sound; and then having optical outputting to another system or even another room, so it double as an AirPlay audio bridge.
Would SoundPusher work for such an application, as mentioned in the post following mine? Just curious, I only have a 2.1 system but that may change some day.
I bought a 2014 airport express yesterday, I can't believe it still costs the same $99 that it did when it was released new 4 years ago, yet lacks 802.11AC... though at the same time I don't mind because I intended to use it permanently connected via ethernet anyway.
Had it hooked up in 2 minutes, was able to play music from my laptop and my girlfriends iPhone just changing the audio setting to airplay. Sounds great! I have not experienced any audio "drop-outs" in the wired configuration, but I have not thoroughly tested the wireless setup.
My only minor negative is that there is a bit of a lag when starting or stopping the audio, presumably due to the buffer in the express unit itself. I feel the play lag is necessary for smooth playback, but the stop lack could simply halt the playback rather than waiting for the buffer to flush... the lag may be due to network latency, but I would find that surprising.
I purchased some .flac formatted albums to test tonight
I would definitely like to try the 5.1 decoder for movies if I do get a 5.1 setup eventually.
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Hm, as I explain here, while Sound Blaster (Omni in my case) does indeed provide 5.1 output, DVD Player and iTunes send only stereo signal through it.
Also really disappointing are the reports that Behringer UCA202 does not support AC3/DTS in Macs. It looked like our last resort.
If in the meantime someone has found a solution, please post it here or in the other thread. It is unbelievable that there is no at least one well documented method to get 5.1 audio output from today's Macs through DVD Player and iTunes.
Nice find but the question rather is ... will it play well with DVD Player and iTunes? Because Sound Blaster also gives 5.1 audio but DVD Player and iTunes do not cooperate.
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Where can I download SoundPusher?
And when you say that you have 5.1 audio, do you mean that with this setup you can watch videos in 5.1 through DVD Player and iTunes as well?
You're not going to get 5.1 from iTunes. That's just not going to happen. It will of course use all 6 speakers, but still be in Stereo. But I do get 5.1 (from movies and DVD-Audio music albums) from DVD Player. If everything is hooked up to your iMac, after opening DVD Player (and before inserting a DVD or searching for the file you want to play), you have to go into DVD Player's Preferences. Under Disc Setup, change the Audio Output to the Sound Blaster.
As I explained in the other thread, I managed to get full 5.1 sound from iTunes and DVD Player by using the optical output of the MBP and an optical to 5.1 analog converter. But the optical output is now gone and this method does not work over USB.
Which macOS version are you running? I don't see a preferences menu for DVD Player in Mojave.