General Forum

Re: Mac Mini, Beolab 5 and Beosound3000/9000

carlito — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:34:09 GMT

I have near the same setup as Soundproof and Bayrische - my Beocenter 2 is connected to the Beolab 5. The Sound is coming digital from a mac mini and controlled by ipod touch / ipad. This solutions works perfekt in the mainroom, but i have several Rooms with Beolab 3500 speakers, connected with Masterlink. The Beocenter 2 is configured as Audio Master. Now i will use a Beomaster 7000 as MASTER for open the Digital SPDIF input on the Beolabs and to feed the CD input with analogue signal from the mac mini.

How can i still use my Beocenter 2 for DVD and for Radio (Build in DAB)?

Which options for the Beomaster 7000 as AUDIOMASTER and the Beocenter 2 as SLAVE?

Thanks for any input

Re: Mac Mini, Beolab 5 and Beosound3000/9000

Ron Pruitt — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 10:40:26 GMT

Tres, tres cool. A very attractive and simple exection. Are u still pleased with the Beolab 5s? How do u like your video setup from the Nas? Do u get coverart for both audio and video on Ipad with this?

I am in the process of settting up a vacation property. Beo6 control, is in place but I miss my metadata that I am used to on my home crestron system. Therefore, am having Iphone/Ipad control programed at present(though having to use pre Os5 devices as no support as yet for 0s5 as I suspect you know). Any thought you can share are appreciated. Ron

Re: Mac Mini, Beolab 5 and Beosound3000/9000

spthomas — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 14:53:45 GMT

bayerische:

The Airport Express has a pretty lousy dac, so you would be better off using the straight headphone out on the iMac, or getting an external soundcard.

About DAC's in the BC9300 VS the iMac with/without soundcard... I'm guessing it will be a matter of personal opinion. The DAC in the BC9300 is probably a good quality one, so I wouldn't worry about that.

This is a bit of surprise because it seems in previous posts folks have expressed fairly low opinions about the DAC in the Mac, or any computer for that matter and that AE was better. I have read also you can use the digital out from the AE and get some better results. But soundproof's remarks got me thinking the core audio to firewire to DAC route might be more optimal. One advantage of AE over the built-in DAC is only music goes out, not all the other dings and dongs the computer makes, and the volume level out is constant and not regulated twice.

I don't have any complaints with the CD player in the 9300 although again various remarks get made about it not being as good of a system as the 9500 had etc.

Re: Mac Mini, Beolab 5 and Beosound3000/9000

bayerische — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 04:17:14 GMT

The Airport Express has a pretty lousy dac, so you would be better off using the straight headphone out on the iMac, or getting an external soundcard.

About DAC's in the BC9300 VS the iMac with/without soundcard... I'm guessing it will be a matter of personal opinion. The DAC in the BC9300 is probably a good quality one, so I wouldn't worry about that.

Re: Mac Mini, Beolab 5 and Beosound3000/9000

spthomas — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 17:11:29 GMT

I have a different situation but wonder if the Impact Twin box and Pure Music software would be beneficial for playing digital music:

I now have: iMacG5, iTunes->Airport Express-> BC9300->BL8000

Would this be better?: iMacG5, PureMusic->FW400 port->Impact Twin->BC9300->BL8000

I use airport express from iTunes not for distance but because it has a fixed line output for the BC9300 (rather than headphone out analog from iMac). It does drop out sometimes as people have said which is annoying.

From what I understand on this thread, this would be better because:

- Impact Twin better DACs than Airport Express

- Core Audio output from iMac better than Quicktime engine

Another thing I wonder- would a CD ripped lossless on the iMac sound better or worse through this method than played on the BC9300's internal CD/DAC circuit!?

Re: Mac Mini, Beolab 5 and Beosound3000/9000

soundproof — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 07:51:18 GMT

When I am in option 0 I need to prwss CD to get the output from the soundcard recognized by the BL5s. i then have the Beomaster in the loop.

When I am in option 1, the output from the soundcard takes presedence over everything else (s/pdif). But if I switch off the soundcard, then what comes down LINE is recognized. i have my surround processor delivering to the BL5s through LINE.

Please try Channel Ds Pure Music software. They give you a fourteen day trial period, you'll appreciate what their proprietary player delivers to the speakers.

Re: Mac Mini, Beolab 5 and Beosound3000/9000

kimchr — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 09:18:59 GMT

@bayerische Thank you for clearing that up. The autosensing on spdif works like a charm when I select the cd source. The CD on my Overture stopped working years ago, but thats just perfect now. When I hit CD my Ouverture turns on, the bv7 turns on it's display and the BL5s fire up. As soon as they get a spdif signal from my Twin Impact / mac mini beatiful tones fill the room.

I have not made a comparison on the Twin impact versus a signal straight from the mini. I went ahead and bought the Twin Impact when I saw the danish musicshop www.aage.dk offer it at 1999 DKK, aprox. Euro 270. I found it to be a bargain.

Next step is to rearrange my living room. The pictures of Soundproofs listening room above and his description match my livingroom almost exactly. I'll give Soundproofs layout a try and I think I might start a seperate thread about it.

Re: Mac Mini, Beolab 5 and Beosound3000/9000

Beology — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 04:42:33 GMT

Thanks Major for your input.

I do understand that AAC files are superior to mp3s so Im hoping for someone who has done a direct comparison with that format(i.e. high "quality" itunes) and lossless. I suspect however that I'll be doing as you suggest/have done- going lossless.....

Bayerische- Let us know how you go if you do get the soundcard, and if there is an improvement.

Thanks guys.

Justin

Re: Mac Mini, Beolab 5 and Beosound3000/9000

bayerische — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 04:11:23 GMT

Hi Kim, the BL5's only listen to the SPDIF when you select "CD" as a source. This is the only limiting factor in using this configuration... I would love to simply use "AUX" as that is a source I have now open. I have the BV10, and I couldn't have it connected as the Videomaster, because it doesn't carry the "data info" or something similar in the Powerlink cables, thus making the BL5's unaware of what source they are being fed with.

I'm still confused about wheather or not to get the extra soundcard. I'm just blown away by the awesome sound I get playing directly from the mac mini's optical digital out and converting the signal to coaxial. I can't hear any difference from CD...

But since the soundcards are pretty inexpensive, I guess I'll try it at some point.

Re: Mac Mini, Beolab 5 and Beosound3000/9000

TheMajor — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 22:37:20 GMT

Beology:

On a side topic.... do you have any/many music files you have at 256 kbps AAC that you play through the Lab 5s? If so, how do they hold up compared to lossless? I have a mixture of lossless AIFFs and AACs and don't want to try and get all AAC files as lossless, unless they are poles apart.

Hey Justin

After reading about Soundproofs comments about lossless above, I decided to rip a few CDs in lossless for my iPhone. I can't comment on the Beolab 5s but I can hear the different between 320Kbs on my A8 earphones and lossless on my iPhone. With the beolab 4000s it is very clear the difference. I think the Beolab 5s will clearly show a marked improvement. I just spent the last few days re-ripped all my CDs from 320kbps to lossless (around 900-1000kbps).

Re: Mac Mini, Beolab 5 and Beosound3000/9000

kimchr — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 16:56:45 GMT

I was inspired by this thread to buy the tc connect impact twin. Now I have connected it to my mac mini and I even got audio through to my BL5. Very cool...

What I still haven't managed is to have the BL5s autosense the digital spdif signal from the impact twin. From what I understand the BL5 should autosense digital input and output that even if anything is already playing through powerlink.

My BL5s are connected to a BV7-40 mkIII with powerlink mk2. The BL5s have serials starting with 20. I have an Overture connected to the TV, but I do not use it much.

I get digital audio with option 4, but then I have to switch option to use the TV or the Overture. I'd really love if I could use the same option and still control volume both with my B&O and the mini mac

Any suggestion on what I need to do are greatly appreciated.

/Kim

Re: Mac Mini, Beolab 5 and Beosound3000/9000

Beology — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 19:08:33 GMT

Thanks for your help Soundproof.....got it sorted now (in my head at least)

On a side topic.... do you have any/many music files you have at 256 kbps AAC that you play through the Lab 5s? If so, how do they hold up compared to lossless? I have a mixture of lossless AIFFs and AACs and don't want to try and get all AAC files as lossless, unless they are poles apart.

Apple store convenience....

Regards

Justin

Re: Mac Mini, Beolab 5 and Beosound3000/9000

soundproof — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 07:39:58 GMT

1. Core Audio is how Mac's natively handle all audio formats. It's designed to meet the requirements of the professional film and music industries. (Core Video).

http://developer.apple.com/technologies/mac/audio-and-video.html

This is available to professional downstream components using the FireWire out, or particular soundcards that are installed in workstation versions of the Macs.

2. I would strongly recommend finding a Mac mini, as you would probably find it limits the use of your MacBook Pro to just have it connected to your system, far away from you. The Mac mini can be placed inside a cabinet, and can then be controlled and updated using an iPad, a laptop, iPhone, etc. Screen Sharing on Macs lets you do most configuration and maintenance task as if you were controlling the Mini directly, over your network.

Some MacBook Pros do have FW out. You can pull an optical toslink signal to an Impact Twin, but then you might want to consider using a straight conversion, as originally proposed. The point is that your speakers are capable of such fine resolution that you want to ensure the best possible signal reaches them, and using FireWire out to a soundcard, and then going to your speakers, ensures that.

3. By direct connection I take it you mean taking a signal from the Minijack out from a Powerbook, and then going to AUX in on the BS3000 or 9000. I would be wary of damaging the speakers when inserting and removing the plug, unless the speakers are off. And you are then leaving the decoding of the audio signal to the cheaper DAC inside the Mac, which has been shown to be a very noisy environment as far as jitter is concerned. Stereophile/Cambridge Audio had a discussion about that which can be googled. Note that this discussion deals with USB out, which is much better than using Minijack out.

http://www.stereophile.com/content/cambridge-audio-azur-dacmagic-da-converter-manufacturers-comments

The mini is used for playback of a variety of video-files, including BD which has been extracted from the originals, using Plex which is multi-format capable. I send the audio for that to a surround processor, the pre-outs of which is connected to the LINE IN on the speakers.

Audio from the STB goes to the same surround processor via coax s/pdif, but can also be accessed directly through the Beomaster, when I only want 2-channel sound which is fed to the Beomaster via analog from the STB. That audio then reaches the BL5s through the Powerlink.

Re: Mac Mini, Beolab 5 and Beosound3000/9000

Beology — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 06:58:24 GMT

Soundproof and others thanks for your input so far.....

I may have to try and see if I can use the BS 3000 as intended. Since we are drawing everything up with no exposed wires - I need to have things perfectly planned before the cabinetmakers final drawings. At least I know the 9000 is a fall back.... but we need to see if the 3000 will work.

Since I have your attention perhaps you'll indulge me further.....

1) Core Audio?? IS this a Mac mini specific thing? Additional software? Couldn't find anything on the web explaining this.

2) Can I use a Macbook Pro instead of the preposed mac mini (ie use the Firewire output). I can't see anything about Firewire audio capability for the Macbook Pro where as the mini does have a listed muti-channel firewire out.... Would a non-firewire output to the impact twin degrade sound quality?

3) Is a direct connection (ie. powerbook audio out to B&O cable-> BS3000/9000->powerlink-> BL5) inferior to the digital connection proposed? IF so, how much of a difference is there?? Sorry for the questions. I see some comments regarding this but end up a little confused and want to know how much of a real world difference there is.....

Thanks again in advance. Good choice in TV by the way Soundproof. I have the Pioneer KRP500M. Fantastic with Blue rays. Do you have the TV hooked up to the speakers as well? I may have to get directions for that too..... maybe in the next instalment to save your fingers...

Regards

Justin

Re: Mac Mini, Beolab 5 and Beosound3000/9000

soundproof — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 05:08:23 GMT

We're a little off the topic of the thread now. I just wanted to demonstrate that it's possible to use a B&O audiomaster in the way that the OP intends. My only concern being whether the BeoSound he intends to use, which has an integrated cd-player, can be used in this manner. I'm using a Beomaster 7000, where the CD-coax is supposed to come from "outside" the unit anyway.

The discs do limit the downward dispersion significantly compared to ordinary speaker constructions. Previously I used to have two small tables to each side, but I have moved those into the other listening room, where I have traditional speakers. I couldn't discern any difference between those tables and this new one with the BL5s, and when I'm in complete audiophila nervosa mode I just push the table to the side, it's very light.

Here's a photo of the tables I used previously, one on either side.

@ Beoboiinoz

The screen is a Pioneer Kuro plasma, which I bought as they came out. And the picture is still so good that I haven't considered replacing it. If I do, it will probably be for a projector. At the time, the Kuro screen was significantly better than other available screens, money no object.