Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
I have a 10 year old sony sound system with decent speakers in my living room and all of my music stored digitally on my mac in another room. I'd like to play music from my digital library through my old sound system. What's the best way to do it? What hardware do I need and what connections?
iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1)
I've recently done this on my system at home. There are two basic issues to solve to get music from your computer to your home stereo -
For item 2 you will need a Digital to Analog converter (DAC). All CD players have this built-in to convert the digital source signal from a CD to an analog signal that can be processed by your stereo equipment and delivered to your speakers. Some newer high end CD players have a digital input jack wherein you can use the DAC in your CD player to convert a digital signal from your computer and pass it on through to your stereo. Some new high end pre-amps have built-in DACs as well. Assuming you don't have this, you will need to purchase a DAC. Any decent stereo shop can help you find a good DAC that is comparable in quality to your other home stereo equipment.
DACs typiclly have multiple inputs (USB input, Digital Optical Cable, and Digital Coax). USB is the typical connection from a computer to a DAC, but if you're coming from another room the distance is a problem. One option is to invest in a Mac Mini and park it next to your home stereo as the source. A cheaper solution which I have chosen is to utilize the new 3rd Generation Apple TV. It can wirelessly receive a signal from your home network via Home Sharing and access your music library stored on your computer. From the Apple TV you can run a Digital Optical out or USB cable into a DAC and from the DAC run the analog signal through a pair of RCA cables into your receiver or pre-amp (assuming you have RCA and not balanced input jacks on your pre-amp).
One note on file type and sound quality. Depending on the types of music files that make up your iTunes library, you may notice a significant quality loss when played through a good quality home stereo system. If your files are WAV, MP3 or AAC you will most certainly notice quality loss. If your library was built from ripping CDs, it may be worth re-ripping to AIFF or Apple Lossless format if you don't already use that file type. As a test, try ripping one CD to a higher quality file format and test your home stereo to hear the difference.
The new 3rd generation Apple TV is able to process AIFF files, which previous generations of Apple TV were not able to do. They would downgrade the quality of the music file in order to process it.
Hope this is helpful. There is endless discussion out there on digital source music. One good web site is www.computeraudiophile.com.
Good luck.
I've recently done this on my system at home. There are two basic issues to solve to get music from your computer to your home stereo -
For item 2 you will need a Digital to Analog converter (DAC). All CD players have this built-in to convert the digital source signal from a CD to an analog signal that can be processed by your stereo equipment and delivered to your speakers. Some newer high end CD players have a digital input jack wherein you can use the DAC in your CD player to convert a digital signal from your computer and pass it on through to your stereo. Some new high end pre-amps have built-in DACs as well. Assuming you don't have this, you will need to purchase a DAC. Any decent stereo shop can help you find a good DAC that is comparable in quality to your other home stereo equipment.
DACs typiclly have multiple inputs (USB input, Digital Optical Cable, and Digital Coax). USB is the typical connection from a computer to a DAC, but if you're coming from another room the distance is a problem. One option is to invest in a Mac Mini and park it next to your home stereo as the source. A cheaper solution which I have chosen is to utilize the new 3rd Generation Apple TV. It can wirelessly receive a signal from your home network via Home Sharing and access your music library stored on your computer. From the Apple TV you can run a Digital Optical out or USB cable into a DAC and from the DAC run the analog signal through a pair of RCA cables into your receiver or pre-amp (assuming you have RCA and not balanced input jacks on your pre-amp).
One note on file type and sound quality. Depending on the types of music files that make up your iTunes library, you may notice a significant quality loss when played through a good quality home stereo system. If your files are WAV, MP3 or AAC you will most certainly notice quality loss. If your library was built from ripping CDs, it may be worth re-ripping to AIFF or Apple Lossless format if you don't already use that file type. As a test, try ripping one CD to a higher quality file format and test your home stereo to hear the difference.
The new 3rd generation Apple TV is able to process AIFF files, which previous generations of Apple TV were not able to do. They would downgrade the quality of the music file in order to process it.
Hope this is helpful. There is endless discussion out there on digital source music. One good web site is www.computeraudiophile.com.
Good luck.
how do I link my hifi to my digital music library?
