Hi guys i have an early 2008 Mac pro linked into a beoport via the analog audio line out port on the rear of the computer itself.  This then links into the BV 7 40 MKIII downstairs and the required Beosound 3200 so Netmusic can be used.  My question is this is it worthwhile installing a DAC in between the beoport and the mac-pro.  Does it really improve sound that much and what are the current leaders.  

My setup in the main living room is BV7 40 Mk III with center speaker which i intend to software upgrade in the not to distant future before xmas.  This in turn is linked to 2 x Beolab 6000 for the front and 2 x Beolab 4000 for the rear (tempted to to get the new Beolab 11 at some point as well when i win the lottery).    The MKIII has connected to it the new apple TV, a PS3 and a Humax Foxsat HDR which distributes both via the HDMI lead and the scart lead to all the TV's in the house which is great however i will only have limited control of the Foxsat at the moment until the PUC list is upgraded which will then give me the ability to play and control the recorded items from other rooms.  

I use DTV or sat to watch normal digital TV, DVD2 to watch the PS3, V.Aux 2 to watch ATV and V.Mem to watch the Humax.

A beosound 3200 controls the music and distributes it to a 2 x MX4002 TVs in kitchen and the main bedroom.  I have a beolab 2000 in my spare bedroom which is where the beoport and the mac pro live.  This is all linked in by masterlink cables.

I currently use linkplayer which is an excellent product to distribute the music around the house.  I currently have to press N.music to be able to hear any sound from my computer but this turns on the music in itunes.  Is there another button press i can use to hear the sound from the mac pro rather than N.music all the time then manually stopping the track to hear sounds from the computer.  I am pretty sure there is but i am unsure what to do.

Thank you in advance for all your help.

An external DAC can definitely improve the sound.  However, it is difficult to predict whether you will notice.  If you mainly listen to compressed music from your Mac, I would say that it probably isn't worthwhile... but we all hear differently so your mileage wil vary.

Stan

Thanks Stan i currently have all my music on my hard drives in apple lossless format so its probably not worth it in the long run, but it seems just so pointless having some great music pumped out of the back of my mac pro over what essentially is a headphone socket to a so many thousand pound B & O music system.  I feel like i am seeing myself off LOL.

Always going for that extra bit of excellence.

Comrades

I also have a mac (mini) connected to a beoport and beocentre 2. I bought a cambridge audio DAC about 18 months ago. The difference in the sound quality, across all sorts of files was significant, i.e right from lossless through to 256/320 bit mp3's. The sound cards on computers cannot compete with a DAC for reproduction. I also invested in some good quality cabling and that also appeared to further improve the sound. To my ear the sound was less thin after connecting the DAC, i.e the mid range and bass was more present. I also notice a nice improvement in the sound quality of NRADIO.

There are probably better and more expensive DAC's than the Cambridge Audio, but we noticed an improvement immediately, plugging the dac in and listening to the same tracks with and without DAC

The only issue i have had since installing the DAC is i have to turn the volume down to about 3/4 on itunes itself, without doing this i get a crackle intermittently while listening to music. I have no idea why this is the case, all the processing via itunes is switched off.

Hope this is of some use

David

Carl Sheerman:

Thanks Stan i currently have all my music on my hard drives in apple lossless format so its probably not worth it in the long run, but it seems just so pointless having some great music pumped out of the back of my mac pro over what essentially is a headphone socket to a so many thousand pound B & O music system.  I feel like i am seeing myself off LOL.

Always going for that extra bit of excellence.

Actually, since your music is apple lossless (which is compressed on your disk, but is "uncompressed" - bit for bit the same as a CD by the time it reaches the Mac's sound card) then an external DAC could be a worthy investment.  By "compressed", I was thinking of lossy compression like MP3 or ACC or iTunes downloads... and even then, it may still be worthwhile (but the probability is less).

Stan