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iMac hookup to stereo receiver question

D

Darl Bundren

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 25, 2009
24
0
In my living room I have a nice home theater set-up--big old TV, PS3 for Bluray, and a quality 2.1 speaker system.

When my new i5 gets here, I am kind of planning on setting it up in our downstairs area and using it for computing and listening to music and, on occasion, maybe watching an occasional movie. I am wanting to connect the iMac to an AV receiver that I already have and using that to drive some bookshelf speakers.

What would the best-sounding connection be from the iMac to the receiver?

Is the only audio out on the iMac the little headphones jack deal? Is that called a 1/8" jack? Or is there a cable that will get me from USB to RCA ins? Or does the iMac have a digital out that I don't see on their little "Ports for everything" screen?

Thanks.

Edit: Here's a link that shows the back of the receiver: link
 
flopticalcube said:
The headphone jack on the iMac doubles as an optical out. Use a mini-toslink to toslink optical cable from the iMac to the Yamaha and you can get full 5.1 sound out of your iMac.
Click to expand...

If the OP only has a 2.1 system, 5.1 won't help him... HOWEVER, just using the optical will allow your computer to output 24-bit 96kHZ audio in stereo, which is far superior to the analog output, and your hardware will upconvert lower sample rates to make them sound better.
 
bingo. Unless you already have a TOSLINK optical cable kickin' around, then you just need a little adapter which should only cost a buck or two on Amazon.
 
knewsom said:
If the OP only has a 2.1 system, 5.1 won't help him... HOWEVER, just using the optical will allow your computer to output 24-bit 96kHZ audio in stereo, which is far superior to the analog output, and your hardware will upconvert lower sample rates to make them sound better.
Click to expand...

The receiver will also down mix the 5.1 to 2.1 which standard stereo can't provide.
Darl Bundren said:
Thanks for the prompt response and great information. So...am I looking for something like this?

image-3160356-10521304
Toslink to Mini-Optical Digital Audio cable
Click to expand...

That's the one.
 
flopticalcube said:
IIRC, Dolby drops the LFE channel in stereo downmixes by default.
Click to expand...

What, on a receiver? Or in the computer? Because I'm pretty certain the computer includes the LFE channel in its downmix.

Unless the receiver is in DIRECT mode, it should separate out the low frequency sounds and play them through the sub.
 
On the iMac since that is where the decoding is done. There may be an override (which I doubt) or Dolby may have changed things in the last year or two. I know dropping the LFE on downmix was part of the original spec which is why I always try to go 5.1->2.1 rather than 5.1->2.0->2.1. At any rate, its only important for movies but I gather that was what the OP wanted to do.
 
flopticalcube said:
On the iMac since that is where the decoding is done. There may be an override (which I doubt) or Dolby may have changed things in the last year or two. I know dropping the LFE on downmix was part of the original spec which is why I always try to go 5.1->2.1 rather than 5.1->2.0->2.1. At any rate, its only important for movies but I gather that was what the OP wanted to do.
Click to expand...

Well, I'm sure the OP wants music as well, but 5.1 music is rare of course.

Well, if the Dolby software decoders drop the LFE, that's pretty weaksauce. Then again, most DVDs are also included with a stereo track that's PCM - I have to wonder if that would sound better than a downmixed 5.1 to 2.1 - might be worth a test.
 
Thanks again. I actually have a toslink cable right here, so I'll try to track down an adapter. I hadn't thought about the possibility of buying an adapter instead of purchasing an entire new cable. I really appreciate your help.

And, present plans are primarily for music, but I may throw a sub into the mix to watch movies on that sweet display.

:)
 
Cave Man said:
I'm pretty sure all the Mac does is send the digital signal out the port. It is the responsibility of the receiver to decode the digital signal. That's why they come with Dolby Digital or DTS algorithms.
Click to expand...

The Mac sends PCM audio, not DD/DTS. The exception is for those apps that know how to <optionally> send the AC3 data transparently, eg: DVD Player.

A.
 
Cave Man said:
I'm pretty sure all the Mac does is send the digital signal out the port. It is the responsibility of the receiver to decode the digital signal. That's why they come with Dolby Digital or DTS algorithms.
Click to expand...

Alrescha said:
The Mac sends PCM audio, not DD/DTS. The exception is for those apps that know how to <optionally> send the AC3 data transparently, eg: DVD Player.

A.
Click to expand...

I was thinking about the downmixing and conversion to stereo analog. Obviously this would be done on the iMac.
 
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