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Resolved Optical Audio, any good?

MarkC426

MarkC426

macrumors 68040
Original poster
May 14, 2008
3,761
2,140
UK
Do any cmp owners use optical audio out?

I keep having problems with my left speaker being really quiet, and the optical ports are both red.
I can get a powered adapter for £10 with toslink cable from amazon.

Don’t fancy the recommendations to poke it with a cocktail stick!

Funny thing is, if I run the audio tone test from Techtool Pro, both speakers sound fine......:confused:
 
the right one is the OUT and should be red
the left is the IN and there is no red light > comes from out of the device

have a look at the audio/midi app in utilities
 
My mistake....I held my hand at the back and saw two lights on my hand.
They are from the output port, as you say (I checked using a mirror....:D).
 
Optical is great. It supports higher bitrate audio out to my dac compared to USB. It can also support compressed 5.1 audio to a receiver or the like.
 
MarkC426 said:
Do any cmp owners use optical audio out?

I keep having problems with my left speaker being really quiet, and the optical ports are both red.
I can get a powered adapter for £10 with toslink cable from amazon.

Don’t fancy the recommendations to poke it with a cocktail stick!

Funny thing is, if I run the audio tone test from Techtool Pro, both speakers sound fine......:confused:
Click to expand...

I have a DAC connected to optical out. Much !! better than USB to DAC
 
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Cool.
I forgot to mention I currently use the standard 3.5mm audio out (but optical light is also on)
 
Only thing that sorta sucks about the optical (and any digital audio output) is that you lose the ability to control volume using the native OS controls. I think there are hacks to bring it back, but honestly in 99% of cases you can't discern a difference between digital and analog, so I just use the analog output.

Optical is really only of benefit in certain cases, like when you're trying to record bit-perfect, or if you need the ability to output multi-channel codecs like AC3 and DTS to surround speakers, etc. For general listening I think it's unnecessary.
 
I've never tried it, but I may have to give this a go just for the fun of it. I too would be bothered by the inability to control the volume by means other than turning a knob.
 
bookemdano said:
Only thing that sorta sucks about the optical (and any digital audio output) is that you lose the ability to control volume using the native OS controls. I think there are hacks to bring it back, but honestly in 99% of cases you can't discern a difference between digital and analog, so I just use the analog output.

Optical is really only of benefit in certain cases, like when you're trying to record bit-perfect, or if you need the ability to output multi-channel codecs like AC3 and DTS to surround speakers, etc. For general listening I think it's unnecessary.
Click to expand...
The problem is I intermittently lose stereo sound (i.e. one speaker is a lot loader than the other) with standard line out.
The optical out light is permanently on, is this right?
I didn’t realise you lost desktop control of volume......:(
 
MarkC426 said:
The problem is I intermittently lose stereo sound (i.e. one speaker is a lot loader than the other) with standard line out.
The optical out light is permanently on, is this right?
I didn’t realise you lost desktop control of volume......:(
Click to expand...

Yes, it's normal for the optical output's light to always be on.

Wait, so you're saying with analog one channel is louder than the other. Isn't that the same problem you said is happening with the digital out? Maybe the problem is your speakers or amp? Have you tried connecting a different set of speakers or just a set of headphones to the analog output to see if the audio is still affected? If it is then you should check the "Balance" setting in Sound Preferences.
 
MarkC426 said:
The problem is I intermittently lose stereo sound (i.e. one speaker is a lot loader than the other) with standard line out.
Click to expand...

Have you checked if both outputs are set at the same volume in Audio/MIDI Settings?
Screen Shot 2019-06-17 at 02.01.04.png
 
Even with digital audio you can adjust volume with program controls (ie the volume slider in iTunes or VLC), it’s simply the OS controls that go out the window (such as the F key volume +/- or volume icon in the menu bar).
 
IndioX said:
h9826790

he used the analog out ; -)
Click to expand...
I am using analog out.
The only reason I was looking at the optical was to see if it fixed the problem.
A lot of stuff I have read on line suggested with the optical light on, it was stuck in digital, hence the analog was sketchy.....?
[doublepost=1560794386][/doublepost]Ok I tried a couple of things (all analog):
Unplugged speakers, plugged in headphones to line out.....fine (so socket works).
Plugged in speakers to line out, plugged in headphones to speakers headphone output.....fine (so cable to speakers works).
All settings are as should be balanced etc.
Tried speakers as normal.....seems fine.
The only cable I couldn’t swap was from one speaker to other as it’s attached to one speaker.
Maybe unplugging all helped fix it......:confused:
 
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