petervandommelen

Thanks Eloise, There are always better CD players and better amplifiers. I don't have bottom of the range stuff, but even with my 15-year old (then top-end) Marantz, Yamaha and Tannoy set up (or Sennheizer headphones) I can notably hear the CD sounding much better. Still working on connecting my iMac directly to the DAC Magic so as to see how much the difference will be then, Peter

Hi Rob, Thanks! Yes I tried connecting the iMac directly to the DAC through the short USB as well, but didn't get any signal either. I'm quite new to Mac as well. I looked at the Audio MIDI set-up settings, but only saw the Audio Output for the Built-in Audio output, I was wondering if somewhere here the connection to the DAC Magic should show up? Fiddled around with the settings but still didn't get any signal into the DAC Magic... Any further thoughts? Peter

Thanks Steve for taking time to reply, I have now figured out there was faulty input in my amplifier. Swapped to the Aux and am getting a very decent sound now. I was getting worried as even my 4-year old was complaining how rubbish the music was... I can still hear a big difference between the original CD and the ripped version though. "Lack of punch" is how I would describe it. I tried but didn't manage to get the iMac directly connected to my DAC Magic for some reason. Neither of the two outputs on the iMac where the mini-adapter Toslink would go into gave me a signal. Probably doing something really stupid again. But I would like to find out if it's the AE or the iMac (or both). Will continue trying. And, as from your comments, I will now go back to the drawing board in terms of (re-)ripping. You mention dbpoweramp (for PC), so is there no alternative that can do as well but directly on a Mac? Again thanks to you all, I appreciate your quick support! Peter

Thanks Peter, No Equalizer still gives the same poor quality. It really sounds like the tweeters have blown up (guess that's more than 'normal' jitter?). Will try your other suggestions later. Could you share your setup (especially player)? Thanks again, Peter

Thanks Steve this is much appreciated! I must say that I am surprised how Apple would ever let something this serious happen, there is really no point buying an Airport Express and Toslink cable (with mini adapter) and get this poor quality sound of what is supposed to be digital... Why would anybody buy a DAC then? I just spent 100$ in Bangkok 2 days ago on cable and adapter (nothing available in Vietnam). Let me continue demonstrating my ignorance by asking a couple more questions which are probably : - Will a good glass Toslink cable (with mini-toslink at one side) get significantly rid off the jitter though for a critical listener like me? - If connecting the iMac directly (without the Airport Express) to the DAC Magic, would this be an option and get ridd of the jitter? iMac is about 15 meters from my DAC Magic / Stereo. - Is ripping in another format / frequency / kbits an option? Again, appreciate all your help!!!

I do love my music and am a very critical listener and have an old but rock solid Yamaha amplifier and Tannoy speakers (and Nakamichi cassette player - remember those!?) ... but still being sceptical that I can get my ripped collection of music actually to sound as original CDs, I have made the jump to DAC Magic with Toslink connection to Airport Express (music from Imac - Itunes)... Well, was I dissapointed or what. I first thought that my tweeters (not sure if that's what the speaker component for the high frequencies are called in English) had blown up. Well they hadn't but that is the way it sounded. The bass / lows kind of seem OK. I guess I am doing something completely wrong and kind find out what. Tonight I will try to connect my Imac directly to the DAC Magic and see if it gets any better... Any help or suggestions will be highly appreciated. I am living in Vietnam and it's not the kind of place you can go to a shop and get some decent advise on these matters... Cheers, Peter