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Digital music questions

I'm somewhat new to hi res digital audio and I'm looking for some tips. I have been building my system and have purchased McIntosh c2700, which has a DAC built in, a 462 amp, and B&W 802d4s. Using Apple Music, I have been streaming music through a Macbook Pro via a USB cable to the DAC of the c2700 preamp.

The McIntosh preamp states the streaming quality is 44.1 kHz, which seem to be the low end of high-res streaming. I currently have so many subscriptions, including Sirius XM for the cars and Apple Music for my family, and more recently Nugs for concerts, (not to mention video subscriptions...seems it never ends), so I was hoping not to add another paid subscription.

That being said, am I leaving a lot on the table? Would a dedicated streamer sound a lot better than the Macbook Pro? Are there streamers without DACs, so I can use the McIntosh DAC without purchasing redundant equipment? I understand I cannot use Apple Music to get high res audio to the preamp, as they only provide it through Apple equipment at this time. Can I get a streamer that uses the DAC of the c2700 preamp? Finally, do I then need to add another subscription, such as Tidal or Qobuz, to get high res audio? 

Thanks....it's a lot of questions, but I'm sure someone here can help!

cmb13

Showing 3 responses by femoore12

femoore12's avatar
femoore12
683 posts
 

@cmb13 I have a C2700 with the DAC2 module running into MC275s. Do you know which device is decoding the streaming music? Is it the laptop or the C2700? If it’s the laptop then it will never get beyond 48kHz. The DAC2 module is capable of hi-res files up to 32 bits and 384kHz through a USB connection. Roon software will let you use the laptop to stream Qobuz, Tidal, Spotify and any downloaded Apple music files you have on the laptop to the C2700 and use that Dac to decode. I started off using a Mac mini set up this way and it worked great. It also gave me time to set up my system using a dedicated streamer using the C2700 dac. I still use the Roon software (it’s brilliant) and let it manage all my music files. It’s also cheaper to try this software than spending thousands on a high end streamer to figure out if you can hear a difference in your system. 

 

femoore12's avatar
femoore12
683 posts
 

@cmb13 If you are connecting to your MacBook to stream, then it’s the MacBook internal dac that is decoding the files. The only way to switch that in the mac without software like Roon, is through the midi utility and I know mine didn’t see the C2700 dac module. The Bluesound Node is a good way to start and I think you can bypass the internal Bluesound dac to use the module in your C2700. 

femoore12's avatar
femoore12
683 posts
 

@yage @cmb13  This why I use Roon on my Mac mini. I set it up as a Roon core and connected it to my C2700. The C2700 now shows the correct sampling rate. However, I don’t stream Apple Music through my system. Just the music I’ve purchased and downloaded from Apple, HD Tracks, etc. It also works correctly streaming from Qobuz and Tidal. I got tired of messing with the Midi utility. 
 

I previously had a Schiit Modi dac that the Apple Midi utility saw when it was plugged into the USB port or headphone port. I still had to select it in the midi utility. 

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