Anyone else? Right now I'm thinking a decent USB cable and AQ Jitterbug out of my MacBook Air. If I go with an Aries Mini/Node 2, then optical.
LS50 Wireless connection preference?
I’ve got a pair of KEF LS50 Wireless speakers and am wondering what the best route is for connecting them? Right now I’ll be using a MacBook Air and can go USB but I may buy a Node 2 or Aries Mini and go optical or coaxial. I want to utilize the DACs in the KEFs though. Which route is the best way to go for sound quality? I’d rather not go analog or add anything else in the mix.
Thanks for any advice.
Thanks for any advice.
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- 11 posts total
the KEF LS 50 WIRELESS does not accept coax, only toslink for digital. analog RCA is all converted to digital by the speakers internal Dac. i would presume the quality of the analog signal provided by your source would have a bearing on the digital conversion by the KEF's. garbage in garbage out. the best connection in my opinion would be the Toslink from a transport or other digital source. |
What media software and streaming service do you use? The Node/Aries/Toslink combo sounds like it could be your best option. This way you can stay away from excessive “DA/AD/DA” conversion. Sometimes we can take one step forward and two steps back if we don’t pay attention to connections/processing. Older MacBook Pros have a mini-Toslink output, but that doesn’t help with your MacBook Air. You could get an AirPort Express, which is currently being discontinued, but it only supports 16/44 (not sure this is a limit for you) and only works with AirPlay. I’m eager to try an AirPort Express with an Empirical Syncro-Mesh. Allan www.In-Tone.com |
The other economical option is using a Chromecast Audio and use its optical output. It sounds real good if fed into a good (external) DAC and allows for streaming content from various cloud services like Tidal, Spotify, etc. It sounds almost as good as my Bluesound Node2 when fed through the same DAC. |
- 11 posts total