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My office setup

I recently put together a small office system and I'm trying to get the best quality of sound when I play music from my iMac Intel Core 2 Duo computer.

I am currently playing my music wirelessly through my AirTunes and then running a monster cable to my Parasound Halo 3 preamp. From the preamp, I'm using a couple of Mogami balanced cables to go to my two Quad 12L active speakers.

The sound is ok, but I have been noticing some distortion, even when I'm playing Apple Lossless files. I was wondering if anyone knew how to maximize my sound quality with this setup. I am not looking to buy a lot of extra components, but I just wanted to know if there was an easy fix to this problem?
bdogsquad
sfar's avatar
sfar
1,758 posts
 
If I understand your description correctly, you're going wirelessly to an Airport Express and then using an analog stereo-mini to dual RCA cable to connect to the preamp, is that correct?

If that's it, the weak link is that you're using the internal digital to analog converter in the Airport Express. It would be much better to use an external DAC with a Toslink input, connecting to it with a digital Toslink cable from the same port on the Airport Express. Then the analog outputs from the DAC would go to your preamp.

Virtually any external DAC you can buy would be a big improvement over the tiny chip in the Airport Express. Finding a used DAC or one of the inexpensive imports on ebay would be a place to start.
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bdogsquad OP
10 posts
 
Thanks guys. You are right Sfar, I am going wirelessly to my Airport Express. I didn't know that it had a internal DAC. I will look into getting an external DAC. Do most come with this Toslink input that you're referring to?
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