I've just bought a DACMagic today. 

Does Sampling rate the higher the better? Is that the general rule? My laptop sampling rate is 48 But I believe I can set it to 96. Will this be better??

Can someone please give me some insight...

Many thanks.

Congratulations wowmix. I hope you will enjoy your purchase, and that it does what you need without any trouble.

As to sample rate. You should go to your Audio MIDI Setup application, which you'll find in the Utility Folder. Before you open it, close iTunes.

Open Audio MIDI Setup, and check that it sees your DacMagic - if not, then select Output Device, and you'll probably see the device, if you have it connected.

Then set 24bit as your wordlength, and 88.2 or 96kHz as your sample rate. If most of your music files are in Apple Lossless, then these will be encoded in 16bit/44.1kHz, but upsampling to 88.2 (doubling the rate), will be OK, and you can compare the two. Most people find that upsampling delivers a smoothing of digital sound that is quite pleasant. BeoLab 5s upsample to 24/96kHz as default, to provide another example.

Your DacMagic should recognize the sample rate chosen.

However, and this is important, do remember to either close iTunes before you set the rates in the panel, or else to close and reopen iTunes afterwards. If not, iTunes/QuickTime will operate to your previous setting, and not to the new one. The Audio MIDI Setup panel controls the output format of the audio from Macs - and has to be set manually, unfortunately, at least until Snow Leopard comes this fall.

Good luck, and don't hesitate to fire away if you have any other questions. I will recommend that you rip your music to Apple Lossless or at least 320kbps AAC in the future!

Cheers!

Thank you soundproof. 

I've just realised that I cannot output 96kHz. So I've some research and apparently USB only supports up to 48kHz. Am I correct on this? If so tomorrow I will go out and get an optical cable.

With regards to Optical cable, does it make much different on the quality of the cable? I far as I understand it just transfer digital data so it shouldn't matter too much on the quality of the cable...

Most Apple stores carry the minijack Toslink to regular Toslink connector optical cable, and that should cost you about 20-30 Euros, no need for anything more expensive.

The USB connection to DacMagic accepts 44.1kHz and 48kHz samplerates. If you are listening to a DVD, that is usually 48kHz, where CD-music or rips from CDs are 44.1. You can set the rate to those, as applicable. Avoid using 48kHz for CD material.

The optical connection will let you use sample rates up to 96kHz - but I've just looked at the spec's for the DacMagic and see that your analog signal will be automatically upsampled, so there's no need to do the upsample in the computer. When you get your Toslink cable, that will give you a wider range of sample rates - but your output rate from the DacMagic is fixed.

FWIW, if you are only listening to CD-quality audio or less, you're best setting your Mac to 16-bit 44.1 kHz. If you're using the volume control built into your Mac, set it to 24-bit 44.1 kHz.

Otherwise, I would set it to 24-bit 88.2 kHz, as this is precisely double the sample rate of CD, reducing any sort of quantization issues which may arise from sample-rate mismatches.

When going from 44.1 kHz to 96 kHz, on-the-fly sample-rate conversion must take place, which is really not particularly good, even in some of the best professional equipment...

And as I wrote in the earlier post, the DacMagic will automatically upsample the signal (to 24/192 if you look at the spec's), so just feed it the native sample rate of your files, which is likely to be 16/44.1 I take it?

Hi All,

I love the DacMagic - its lifted my music collection no end!

The problem I have is that I've placed it in a cupboard so have to go in an turn it on everytime I listen to iTunes over my Airport Express.

This is especially annoying when listening to iTunes in a link room since the cupboard is in the living room.

Does anyone know of a way to switch it on and off remotely? I got so used to hitting a button on my Beo4/5 + play on my Macbook Pro = music!

How about turning it off from the plug socket???! You can even get time scheduled socket switch!

Its plugged into a 9 gang power splitter so switching off at the wall isn't really an option if I want anything else to work!

The timer switch is an idea but I was looking for a more intelligent solution than simply being on from, say 7pm to 1 am every night!

Perhaps there's another brand of DAC which offers this facility (and auto-switching of input source too!)?

Perhaps some of you have experience of just leaving the DACMagic on 24/7 and have had no problems?

I don't have long left to return it so any advice would be great!