Hello all,

I'm thinking of buying some BeoLab 3's for use with my G5 Mac and iTunes.
Has anyone got such a set up? Any thoughts or anything I should know?

Silly question but what do the lights do when you turn the Mac off?
Do they start up when you start up the Mac or are they permanently on green?

Thanks

They have auto stand-by.

 So when you use them they will come on and after 3 minutes they will turn to red (aka standby) 

You might be disappointed with the sound coming out of soundcard. I was with my Imac. There are external ones though that connect through usb. I.e. from xitel.

Otherwise, the BL3 is an awesome speaker, I have it for 2 years or so.

 Cheers

Jk 

Thanks for the input guys. I just looked and have a built in sound card which is
a 'Burr Brown PCM3052'. Not sure if it's particularly good or bad.

 

The converters in the Emu 0202 USB get really good reviews given its price of around £70. A lot of Headphone buffs use it (or its bigger brother 0404) as the converter when listening to music from computer.

Puncher's advice is good. The BL3s are seriously better than the in-built sound-card that feeds the analog out ...

I concur with the idea that you may be disappointed with the sound quality, due to the limitations of Apple's implementation of audio.  

I've had very good experiences bypassing the audio out from Macs using either the toslink optical out, or USB or FireWire out feeds, to stand-alone DACs and receivers that take these signals. You then connect the speakers to them. It may sound OK using the analog out from the minijack on a Mac, but when you do it right, you'll be amazed at the sound from your BL3s.

The EMU is a cracking deal at the price.

I use Beolab 3s with my PowerMac G5 twin 2.0 admittedly via Beoport and am very happy with the sound. I imagine the sound card is rather better in the Powermac than the notebooks mentioned though obviously Soundproofs solution is the audiophile one.
 

Had a quick peek on t'net and the 'Burr Brown PCM3052' gets very reasonable reviews. Certainly try before spending money on an external converter.

 

 

 

soundproof:

I've had very good experiences bypassing the audio out from Macs using either the toslink optical out, or USB or FireWire out feeds, to stand-alone DACs and receivers that take these signals. You then connect the speakers to them. It may sound OK using the analog out from the minijack on a Mac, but when you do it right, you'll be amazed at the sound from your BL3s.

I have a pair of BL3s and use a DAC with my MacBook Pro.  The sound is amazing in fact as good as so called audiophile quality.  I haven't hear about EMU but the specifications would indicate that it would do the job.

Without a DAC, you will still get great sound with Beolab 3s.

If you have a iPhone, Peter can tell you about how to control iTunes remotely with the phone.   

Thanks everyone for your valuable input. I think I will do it. I can always get the Emu 202 if I feel I need to, so thanks for the info Puncher.

Mr. Moulton,

Regarding Apple's implementation of audio, would this poor quality still hold true if you were beaming (via WiFi) Apple lossless files to an Apple TV that was in turn connected to a BeoVision TV and then output (via the TV) to some BeoLab 3s?

TIA,

Mark 

I know it wasn't aimed at me but I'll answer anyway as I can...

When the data is transmitted to the Apple TV, it's 'lossless'. There is no loss of data along the way. Where the audible degradation comes into place is in the Apple TV's DAC, which isn't the greatest quality circuit out there. The Apple TV does however have a digital output, which could be connected to a higher-quality DAC if you really wanted very good sound.

Alex,

Thank you for replying to my question.

So, even if I go HDMI out from the Apple TV to a BV8 and then have BL3s connected via the PL output on the BV8, I'd still be subject to Apple TV's DAC and it's poor quality?  I ask as it would seem that music in the Apple lossless format would be flowing digitally right to the BL3s, but maybe the BL3s don't have a digital to analog convertor that's inherent to them and this is required somewhere in the set up.

My goal is to try and avoid a BS3 or other "receiver" like device with this particular AV set up.

Mark 

BL3's definitely don't have an digital input/onboard DAC - need to fork out for BL5's if you want that

Alex,

Thank you for replying to my question.

So, even if I go HDMI out from the Apple TV to a BV8 and then have BL3s connected via the PL output on the BV8, I'd still be subject to Apple TV's DAC and it's poor quality? 

=== 

I may have to correct what I wrote in the BV8 thread, concerning HDMI. The spec's for the BV8 say that "HMDI Input senses audio and video. Main usage is high quality video."

The spec's also state that stereo decoders are A2 + Nicam. I therefore can't say whether the TV will process the HDMI audio out properly from an AppleTV. Must check it out on my own. Would be ideal if it did!

Soundproof,

Sorry to be hitting you with questions in two threads, but thank you for the clarification and for all your insight.  I sure hope that the BV8 can do good audio out from an HDMI source otherwise my idea behind designing this all digital media AV set up without a receiver is flawed.

Anybody else with insight as to how the BV8 processes audio coming in via the HDMI port and whether or not it can output well via the PL link?

 

 

Puncher,

I realize that the BL3s don't have a digital input with onboard DAC, but what are your thoughts on my proposed AV set up (i.e. the HDMI from the Apple TV coming in to the BV8 and going out to the BL3s via PL connectors)?

 

 

TIA,

Mark 

BeoNut1:

Puncher,

I realize that the BL3s don't have a digital input with onboard DAC, but what are your thoughts on my proposed AV set up (i.e. the HDMI from the Apple TV coming in to the BV8 and going out to the BL3s via PL connectors)?

TIA,

Mark 

Sorry Mark but I'm going to have to stand down on this one - I don't know enough about the decoder/DAC in the Apple TV to give an informed opinion. On the other hand I would certainly give it a listen first before spending any more money on extra .hardware. As always your own ears are the best judge.

Would you please go into more detail on connecting an external soundcard to mac computer?

 

Dario 

Puncher recommended this above, and it looks very good. USB from MAC to the unit, and then you just take the analog signal from it to your BeoLab speakers, and the unit provides you with a volume control.

http://www.emu.com/products/product.asp?category=610&subcategory=611&product=15186 

 

Another excellent DAC is the Stereo-Link

BeoNut1:

Soundproof,

Sorry to be hitting you with questions in two threads, but thank you for the clarification and for all your insight.  I sure hope that the BV8 can do good audio out from an HDMI source otherwise my idea behind designing this all digital media AV set up without a receiver is flawed.

Anybody else with insight as to how the BV8 processes audio coming in via the HDMI port and whether or not it can output well via the PL link?

 

Mark,

I think I can answer your question.  I have an Apple TV take 2 connected by HDMI to a television.  It is essentially just like a DVD player or any other source that is connected by HDMI.  Alex is correct.  The sound is lossless when streaming from iTunes.  However when you play audio or video that is already on the Apple TV, it is at line level through the HDMI just like a DVD player.  In either case, you will get sound through any speakers that are connect to your TV.

Are you planning on using Apple TV as a music source from iTunes also?  If yes that will work also and will sound the same again as a DVD or CD player.  You will also get album art and photos on the screen. 

I also have a DAC connected to the Toslink optical connection on the Apple TV.  The output from the DAC goes to a Beocenter 2 AUX connector.  The sound is terrific and is the best when you rip CDs into iTunes using lossless in the preferences. 

Bill

 

Dave Moulton:

Another excellent DAC is the Stereo-Link

http://www.stereo-link.com/cart/home.php

We've worked with the designer, Ron Genereaux, and recommend him and his products highly.  

I hope this may be of help.  

Best regards,  

Well I don't think you can get a better recommendation than.

 

Craig