[macvoiceover] Re: fwd: Connecting a 5.1 sound system to a Mac pro

  • From: David Poehlman <david.poehlman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: macvoiceover@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 8 Aug 2009 05:40:18 -0400

Note, According to another source, the mac pro has optical digital audio connections.

I may be wrong about this, but I thought the Mac Pro came with optical audio output, in which case all that's needed to connect to a 5.1 surround sound system are the right connectors. This is entirely out of my field, and I also am suspicious that the information reported here is not quite correct -- since the Mac Pro is a rather old quad core desktop processor used for very computationally intensive purposes. I'd guess that this is more likely to refer to a MacBook Pro of unspecified size.

Robin could get an external device with sound card for better recording quality including 5.1 support. A number of sources make Mac-compatible models, including M-Audio. I believe that Cheryl on your list got some other sound card for recording purposes on her Mac Mini. However, the sense of this forwarded message is that what's wanted is to play music on an existing 5.1 sound system -- and all that may be needed is the appropriate connectors.

I'm pasting in part of an old article that conveys the sense of my thoughts -- that what is needed is a mini-to-optical toslink connector. But as I said, this is out of my field:

<begin excerpt>
Questions Answered 4: Optical Output on the Mac
Does it work with pro audio apps?
By Dave Nagel
A reader has several questions about the optical output on recent Macs, specifically about how the Toslink port works with pro audio applications and surround/multi-channel mixing.

Question 1. The first question is a simple one: Do all Intel-based Macs have optical audio outputs? Yes they do. Workstations (the quad- processing Xeon machines known as Mac Pros) come with standard Toslink ports, from which you can connect your computer to a home theater receiver or other device with a Toslink port. They also have Toslink in ports, so you can capture audio from various sources just like you would with a standard line-in jack. There aren't all that many pro/semi-pro audio devices that send out an optical signal, but they do exist, like some types of DJ gear.

Apple's non-workstation-class machines also have optical out ports. These include the MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac and Mac Mini. The optical ports on these machines are actually combo ports. That is, they can be used with standard 1/8-inch miniplugs, or they can be used with mini-Toslink plugs--both in the same port. The miniplug ports require, of course, a mini-Toslink adapter, like the one shown below.
<end excerpt>


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  • » [macvoiceover] Re: fwd: Connecting a 5.1 sound system to a Mac pro - David Poehlman