Optical Audio HELP! I have no control!

[chmarch]

I am curious about the optical audio port on the Alu iMac. I received the optical adapter today to connect my optical audio cable to the iMac, but when the optical is plugged in, I have no control of the volume. It's turned up all the way, and I cannot mute it or turn it down. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Christopher

 

[QuarterSwede]

So are you connecting the iMac to an amp (receiver)? Or are you connecting your amp to your iMac?

Basically, are you using the Line In jack or Out (Headphone jack) on the iMac?

 

[PlaceofDis]

thats because the optical audio out acts as a line out basically. control the volume with your receiver instead. you can control the volume in say iTunes still with the slider.

 

[superleccy]

Indeed. The Mac's volume control controls the gain of the analogue-out amp stage. You bypass this when you use the optical out.

SL

 

[chmarch]

I have the Creative Decoder DDTS-100, and the volume control is not so user friendly on it. I used optical audio from my Gateway to the Decoder, and volume control worked just fine there. This is very dissapointing! Is there any work-around to this?! Thanks to those who replied, and any further help is greatly appreciated.

 

[genereyes]

As said before, and as I have tried with my own Creative DDTS-1000 Decoder, the optical out serves as a line out.

In my experience, that's a good thing, as the audio stays clean (doesn't get crackly or distorted). The decoder's remote might not be the fastest way to raise/lower the volume, but the knob is plenty fast.

Now, if only iPods had optical out... Probably would take a lot of power, but it would be amazing!