Upgrade your listening with a better DAC - no more hiss!

[J.R. Rogers]

I finally got fed up with the hissy, compressed sound from the headphone jack on my MacBook Pro and ordered an outboard DAC and headphone preamp. The DAC handles the digital audio conversion, turning bits into music. A pretty important job, wouldn't you say? I have no idea how good the one is in the MacBook Pro... because you can't hear it thanks to the hiss-happy compressed flat preamp that everything is pumped through. The Audioengine D1 moves all of the audio processing outboard via USB, using a premium 24-bit DAC and adds a high quality headphone preamp. The D1 will drive large headphones with ease. It's also useful if you've got a set of powered monitors and you want better audio from your computer. It has a gold-plated set of line-outs and an Optical input for standalone use. And, it's USB powered so the included USB cable is all you need - no outboard power supply necessary. Very nice build quality with a smooth volume control and even includes a microfiber carry bag.



The bottom line - Hiss GONE. Significant improvement in dynamics and clarity and just generally better sound through the headphones. I purchased this only to try to clean up the noise that I was hearing and was surprised at how musical it was, and how much more clear the audio became. Definitely worth the money if you regularly listen to music on your laptop or computer. Thank you Shoreline Music!

JR

[rick-slo]

They can improve things. I use the headphone output of my RME Fireface 800 on my DAW computer and the headphone output of my REM AD-2 on my regular computer. Also, give Grado headphones a try.

[sdelsolray]

Originally Posted by J.R. Rogers

I finally got fed up with the hissy, compressed sound from the headphone jack on my MacBook Pro and ordered an outboard DAC and headphone preamp. The DAC handles the digital audio conversion, turning bits into music. A pretty important job, wouldn't you say? I have no idea how good the one is in the MacBook Pro... because you can't hear it thanks to the hiss-happy compressed flat preamp that everything is pumped through. The Audioengine D1 moves all of the audio processing outboard via USB, using a premium 24-bit DAC and adds a high quality headphone preamp. The D1 will drive large headphones with ease. It's also useful if you've got a set of powered monitors and you want better audio from your computer. It has a gold-plated set of line-outs and an Optical input for standalone use. And, it's USB powered so the included USB cable is all you need - no outboard power supply necessary. Very nice build quality with a smooth volume control and even includes a microfiber carry bag.



The bottom line - Hiss GONE. Significant improvement in dynamics and clarity and just generally better sound through the headphones. I purchased this only to try to clean up the noise that I was hearing and was surprised at how musical it was, and how much more clear the audio became. Definitely worth the money if you regularly listen to music on your laptop or computer. Thank you Shoreline Music!

JR

Audioengine products are quite nice and fill a niche with needed quality and reasonable prices.

On my iMac at the office I use an external DA converter, a lightly used Lucid DA9624, an excellent converter that I got for $125. I run SPDIF out of the iMac into the Lucid then run balanced XLRs to powered nearfield monitors. The Lucid ramps the analog signal up to +4 dBU nominal which is what the monitors expect to receive. The software controls on the iMac for volume don't work when it is configured like this. I have to use the two analog attenuators, one on the DAC and the other on the monitors, to control the volume of the music.

[Taylor-Taki]

I have a hiss problem that's doing my head in! I use a profire 610 to plug my guitar into my Mac - is this the same kinda thing or something else? Do you still use an audio interface?

[J.R. Rogers]

Originally Posted by Taylor-Taki

I have a hiss problem that's doing my head in! I use a profire 610 to plug my guitar into my Mac - is this the same kinda thing or something else? Do you still use an audio interface?

This basically just replaces the headphone/line output on the computer with a better one. I use the same interface (ProFire 610) for recording, and the inputs on mine are very clean. Are you plugging your headphones into the Mac or into the ProFire when you're recording? I was plugging into the Mac and the hiss was driving me nuts too. I don't think I've tried the headphone outputs on the ProFire.

JR

[Taylor-Taki]

Originally Posted by J.R. Rogers

This basically just replaces the headphone/line output on the computer with a better one. I use the same interface (ProFire 610) for recording, and the inputs on mine are very clean. Are you plugging your headphones into the Mac or into the ProFire when you're recording? I was plugging into the Mac and the hiss was driving me nuts too. I don't think I've tried the headphone outputs on the ProFire.

JR

Into the profire but I'm gona see if it any better thru the mac