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Getting good sound from MacBook via DAC.

Hello everyone,

I decided to go down the digital path and picked up a Bryston BDA-2.  I hooked up an Audioquest USB 2 cable from my MacBook to the BDA-2  to play music from my Itunes and it sounds awful.  What am I doing wrong?  I tried playing with the sampling rates thru the MacBooks Audio Midi set-up but no help there. it sounds compressed, over extended bass, lack of detail and soundstage, just plain awful.  

Ive been using the DAC with my Simaudio CD player with excellent results. I also have a WADIA 177 hooked thru the DAC for my IPod which sounds surprising good. I like the idea of using the MacBook and was thinking about getting a dedicated Mac Mini for music files.  
jetmek
erik_squires
16,892 posts
 
Try running on batteries. From several comments, the problems seem to come from the switching power supplies.
jetmek's avatar
jetmek OP
10 posts
 
No difference.  I'm thinking it has to do with the music file format in Itunes but Im not sure. 
sbank's avatar
sbank
3,391 posts
 
You aren't doing anything wrong, iTunes sound quality sucks, as mentioned the power supply on your mac doesn't help, spinning discs in your computer add noise,and it all adds up to not great sound. You can go a few routes, and all is far from lost...
FWIW, I did the same as you many years ago and learned from all the pain. I replaced mac with dedicated mini for music server, used all the major software(e.g. Audirvana+, Amarra, etc.), added USB isolators/filters, etc. 
The best route by far IMHE, and agreed with by many on computeraudiophile is to store your files on a NAS in another room, run ethernet into your audio room and use a dedicated single purpose renderer/streamer to bring your files to your DAC from the NAS via the ethernet cable. Read the Sonore microRendu review by Chris Connaker on CA (product of the year) and you will understand. Other products like Aurelic Aries and their Mini, Bluesound, Aurenders(at higher price points), and Melco all head in this direction although some focus more on internal storage than taking full advantage of an isolated NAS). 
There are plenty of threads describing how many here have switched away from PC & mac based solutions and got happier.
Cheers,
Spencer
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