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Oct 16, 2016 8:46 AM in response to chuckfromsanjoseby kahjot,My feeling is that a DAC would help, but I have never used my Mac's optical-out connection so I can't comment on the quality.
I have DACs for my headphones, and that is a huge improvemeant over the headphone jack on my MacBook Pro and Mac Pro.
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by John Lockwood,Oct 17, 2016 2:07 AM in response to chuckfromsanjose
John Lockwood
Oct 17, 2016 2:07 AM
in response to chuckfromsanjose
Level 6 (9,394 points)
Servers EnterpriseIf you are using the optical connection from your Mac Pro to the amp and you have your Mac then you should be sending the audio in digital form, therefore the amp will be acting as the DAC - digital audio converter and the quality will be dependent on the DAC built-in to the amp.
If you were using an analogue connection on the Mac Pro then the Mac Pro would be acting as the DAC and then this issue might be applicable.
While I think it would be fair to say that some third-party DAC interfaces would be superior quality to the built-in one on the Mac Pro unless you were using the Mac Pro in a music studio environment with high-end monitor speakers you are unlikely to hear the difference. (Unless you are a dog.) The other area where it might be applicable is if you want to directly connect a 5.1 speaker setup to the Mac, this is because the built-in analogue interface only supports a maximum of a 2.1 setup.