jkpalmer

I talked with a lot of people and talked with a sales guy from Emotiva. He coulda sold me one of their DACs but told me that my AVR had a decent chipset. Basically the DAC is needed if you don't have the ability to convert from digital to analog in your receiver. Mine is "good enough". The older I get the tighter my budget gets, so I'll spend the money on music before I lose my hearing rather than being a purist. Good luck and happy listening. JP

If you have a decent AVR that has an optical input with a decent DAC chipset, you may not need an external DAC. I'm not using HDMI because I'm using software (Audirvana Plus) to enhance the audio output from my Mini to my receiver via a toslink cable. My HDMI is only used for video from Mini to TV (big computer monitor!). JP.

Bobbmd, Thanks for you input. I took your advice and connected my MM video HDMI directly to my TV. Simple to get my Harmony One Remote to manage that. As for my MacMini, 2.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 8GB memory 1TB hard drive I'll probably use it for more than music, so that's why I "dressed it up". I spoke with many people and they all indicated that my AVR has a pretty good DAC chipset, so for now, just streaming via a TOSLINK cable from MM to AVR. Chose A+ because that was all that I was aware of at the time. Kinda wish I had known about Amarra before. I think their support would be better since A+ is a independent developer, smart, but limited time to be able to support. Happy listening. JP

I just purchased an Apple Mac Mini to be my music server. I have an Integra DTR-40.2 AVR with HDMI. I have a Panasonic TC-P50VT25 (50" 3D) I also have Audirvana Plus (1.4.6) installed on the Mini. My MacMini is connected to my AVR via HDMI. I plan on purchasing a USB DAC (still shopping) in the near future so for now I'm intending to stream via toslink until I purchase the DAC. I would like to periodically use my TV as the MacMini monitor, but presently I am having trouble getting my iTunes to play via toslink to my AVR. When I play iTunes the music is passing through the HDMI cable. Can anyone who has a similar set of hardware provide me with some pointers and advice on how to get my setup to work towards the best sound solution, but still have the video when needed? Also, pointers on setting up a DAC would be appreciated. TIA - JP

Not sure I understand on what you mean in the third option. What do you mean by "capture the sound from the A+"? What should the setting be in AirFoil? Also, in all my "attempts" to figure this out, I have now managed to disable my output jack, so I can't connect to my home stereo. Any ideas where I might have gone wrong? I compared ALL the software settings for AirFoil, A+, and AudioMIDI Setup, between my MBP and my iMac and all are IDENTICAL but I don't get any sound from my MBP headphones. I've gotten myself into another technical "mess". Any help would be appreciated. TIA.

I want to play music from my MBP via toslink to my home stereo as well as stream audio to an iarport express. I was told that I could do this using Airfoil, which I have, but I'm not sure I have it configured correctly. I have a MBP with ML, iTunes 11, AudirvanaPlus, AirFoil. Could someone with a similar setup tell me what steps I should go through to configure to get the best sound with my current software. TIA - JP p.s. Still consider myself to be an audiophile novice.

Never mind - Finally found my answer

Getting happier by the hour. I downloaded AudirvanaPlus, loaded to my server, using a toslink cable to my receiver and started listening. I'm sure everyone it thinkin' "big whup", but I am very happy with the sound. Much thanks to all who weighed in. What an improvement in less than24 hours!! Thanks again to all. JP

I downloaded and installed Audirvana 1.4 on my MBP. I want to perform an audio comparison between the two to hear the difference, but when I quit Audirvana and try to play my music thru iTunes I don't get any sound. HELP would be appreciated. I'd like to "toggle" the output to perform the comparison. TIA - JP

I'm not at my theater at this time, but I thought that the iPad Remote application was for managing music through my ATV when streaming from my MBP via wifi to the ATV and then my stereo. I'm trying to get the best sound from the MBP to my stereo with my current investment or minor $$ outlay. (Post Christmas budget crisis!).

Thanks for the continued feedback. Some tweak questions / statements - I don't have a mini at this time, that's why I'm using the MBP - it's a spare. I'll leave the DAC out of the equation for now and will revisit later. I'm still struggling with understanding the connection schema. As I'm currently configured, I have no ability to visually manage my music from the MBP because the output from the MBP to receiver is via toslink. If I stream my music from the MBP to the ATV and then to my a/v receiver, I can visibly manage the music, but I lose the quality because of the wifi. I'm still not getting it.

On the MBP.

I guess I'm a little confused about setup. My setup is as follows. iMac where I manage my iTunes library is in my home office. Distance to stereo is 30+ feet. I have a spare MBP in my family room that I've sync'd to my iMac. I was thinking that I could use a toslink to connect to Integra, but noticed that there is a digital port on my ATV,so I could connect my MBP to the ATV via toslink, correct? Right now I have the MBP connected to optical input on the Integra, but little difficult to select music to play... The main idea is to eliminate wireless in the setup from computer to the stereo, correct?

OK - So I get this right. 1) Re-rip my CD music to my iTunes as ALAC. 2) I've got my ATV connected to my Integra via HDMI and is using the PC port, but I can't seem to find how to set the input to "pure direct". 3) I can stream my music from my iMac to my ATV that is connected to my A/V receiver without any serious sound quality loss. I'm guessing my network is solid. 4) I've already got an iPad and just forgot about the "Remote" app. 5) Already backup iMac to external HDD. So I wasn't that far off, except the CD import setting and setting my A/V receiver to "pure direct" - which I'm not sure this capability exists.

I recently joined this forum to gain a much better understanding of how to get the best sound out of my music collection to my home stereo. I have an Integra DTR-40.2 A/V Receiver as my pre-amp and use an Emotiva XPA-5 to drive my speakers. I have several Apple devices / machines (Apple TV, MBP and iMac) and I sync my iTunes libraries between the machines (for backup as well as portability) using SuperSync. Until recently I was loading my CDs to iTunes using the default import settings (AAC) and now realize that I should have been importing them using ALAC. Oh well, I can re-import. I was also streaming over my home network from my iMac to my Apple TV for playback on my stereo. Not the best is what I gather. I'm also converting my vinyl to iTunes (Polderbits) and also have noted that I should have been converting using better settings. Oh well, again. I can do this work over. But if I'm going to do that, I don't want to have to do it a third time. I have read several threads and I realize that I might want to use either a plug-in for iTunes (BitPerfect) for playback or use a different software package altogether, like Audivrana. Could someone explain why and can I still use iTunes to manage my music? Also, I would like to use a MBP as my music server (for the time being) and connect via TOSLINK cable from my MBP to my receiver. I assume that this would be as good as running from MBP to a DAC to my receiver via analog connection. Perhaps someone could help me get the best out of what I currently have without spending more than a few hundred dollars. If so, I would greatly appreciate any and all advice. Complete newbie here. TIA - JP