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DAC and setup advice - Wireless Streaming
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| keithos27 |
Hey everyone. I need some help/advice on a particular setup I'm trying to go for...
Right now I have a DJ booth in my apartment that is bascically two Technics, a Xone 92 mixer, and 2 Mackies. I also have a MacBook Pro that I keep all of my music on and is my main computer for school.
My goal is to be able to stream wirelessly the songs in my iTunes application over to the Mackies. Someone recommended I do the following (and I'm by no means an audio guru so please correct me/made recommendations if I'm wrong some place):
- Use an AirPort Express and plug it in close to the booth (I have an AirPort Extreme base station).
- Then use the mini optical port and feed that into a DAC.
- Have a DAC then convert the signal and run a balanced signal into the Xone 92 (not sure what kind of cabling that would be? Right now I'm using XLR to run the Mackies from my Xone 92).
Does that sound correct? If so, what DAC and cables do I need? What setting would I have to place my Xone on to have this work?
Thanks for reading,
Keith |
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| SPAWNmaster |
| i dont think you can do this without mad latency. |
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| keithos27 |
| quote: | Originally posted by SPAWNmaster
i dont think you can do this without mad latency. |
latency as in the time i press play and the time i hear the song?
if that's the case, that's fine... i'm not trying to mix off this or anything... i just want to take advantage of my mackies and use them for my everyday listening pleasure as well. |
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| DJ RANN |
| Seems to be a really long way round. Why don't you just use analogue (copper) cables, rather than optical, DAC etc? |
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| skip |
there are no balanced inputs on the xone, except for the mic inputs, which can't be used for line level signals (afaik at least).
other than that i really don't know what this equipment is that you're talking about, but if it does transfer audio wirelessly then just connect the one that sends the signal to your macbook and the one that receives the signal to some of the xone's inputs. it should be easy as that. |
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| keithos27 |
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ RANN
Seems to be a really long way round. Why don't you just use analogue (copper) cables, rather than optical, DAC etc? |
because the two aren't close to each other... and i'd rather have a wireless setup for later when i go desktop (rather than laptop). |
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| DJ RANN |
| quote: | Originally posted by keithos27
because the two aren't close to each other... and i'd rather have a wireless setup for later when i go desktop (rather than laptop). |
Don't mean that - I mean to go from the airport to the mixer/speakers. Why all the hassle with the optical and the DAC once you have the airpot in the booth? |
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| keithos27 |
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ RANN
Don't mean that - I mean to go from the airport to the mixer/speakers. Why all the hassle with the optical and the DAC once you have the airpot in the booth? |
oh. i guess wouldn't optical be a cleaner sound? or is digital to dac to analogue just a waste? this is going off a friend's recommendation who knows way more about audio equipment than i do. |
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| skip |
| quote: | Originally posted by keithos27
oh. i guess wouldn't optical be a cleaner sound? or is digital to dac to analogue just a waste? this is going off a friend's recommendation who knows way more about audio equipment than i do. |
i can't understand where you'd need the optical cable if the airport thingy has rca (or even miniplug) outputs. just place the airport thingy near your mixer and connect it with normal rca cables. |
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| SPAWNmaster |
| just an extra tidbit...realize that no matter how clean your signal chain is, even if it's 90% digital, the analogue connections will render that redundant so it's kind of pointless. |
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| DJ RANN |
Every time you convert a signal in to another format there is some loss of quality. You would have the airport converting it first to digital, then to optical then the DAC would convert the light to digital then to analogue for your speakers.
You will be much better off in terms of quality just going with analogue connections, and also save yourself $$$$$'s
Just get decent rca cables.
For furure reference, the most important two words in audio engineering are SIGNAL PATH. The shorter, and less connections/electronics/whatever the signal has to go through, the closer it will sound to the original source (i.e. better.:D ) |
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| keithos27 |
okay thanks :)
now with respects to connecting from the airport to my mixer... aren't RCAs split L/R... the airport only has 1 connection... what do i use to make that work?
also, what's the best cable i can get (to help keep that signal path as good as possible)? |
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