Better Sound for Mac

The problem is actually the speaker so adding a "better" sound card won't help. The simple solution would be to buy an external set of speakers that match your needs.

Well, I can tell you an expensive way... depending on how serious you are :o)
I have a higher end Creek amp and Linn speakers (maybe a $1400 setup) that I am using to listen to tunes off of my MacPro. To generate the input to this setup, I run an optical cable from the MacPro to an outboard D/A converter... this then feeds the amp. Sound is actually quite good. You can find decent 2nd hand D/A's at a website (that I use) called AudioGon.
http://www.audiogon.com/

Not a cheap way of getting good sound... but you do get what you pay for.

I should add two things...

1) There are cheaper D/A solutions out there. AudioGon has higher end units. You could search eBay or google Audio DAC's to get more options.

2) If you go this route, make sure that the D/A has an optical input. There are also coax inputs which the MacPro does not have

As far as an add in solution, I would just wait for M-Audio to come out with a PCI-express sound card. Creative is releasing one very soon and M-Audio shouldn't be to far behind.

I'm going to chime in here because I'm dealing with a very similar situation. I had a reasonable 5.1 speaker system attached to my PC. Not that I've gone MacPro, I have yet to find a "reasonable" solution to better audio. I can't find any PCI Express audio cards on the market and the USB solutions seem questionable.

I already have a high end home theater system but it's in a totally different room - not reasonable to connect my PC to this system.

So, I too am looking for some cost effective option to produce 5.1 audio from my MacPro.

Carl

Welcome! Billy.
RME 400, 800 firewire/interface Billy, so stable their second to none.
Also there is RME 9623 Hammerfall card.
M-audio is only the entry-level when it comes to soundcard, RME, Apogee, Digidesign, Madi,Prism, Larvy, Prism and thats just a few of the top cards.

Fr. BlayZay.

And one vote for Motu Ultralite -- Motu have always been on the Mac side of life.

But just curious, the onboard Audio supports 96K/24bit and actually sounds pretty good -- it is the Realtek ALC885 chip

http://www.losslessaudioblog.com/2006/03/11/realtek-releases-alc885-lossless-aud io-codecs/

Are you sure you have your speakers setup correctly for it?

Rob.

Hi Willy,

Can I ask you what exact brand you purchased. I have a similar problem as yours. The Natural speaker of the MacPro just does not cut it for me and I want to add to it and be a happy camper like you!

Rio.