2. pc-audio
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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

Showing 3 responses by bdogsquad

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?
bdogsquad OP
10 posts
 
Ok, I think that makes sense about trying to go directly from the AE to my active speakers. At least I can see if that takes care of my distortion issue.

I got the Preamp in the first place because I also use my office system to records on my Rega P3 (Rega P3 > Bellari Phono preamp > Parasound Halo 3 > my Quad 12L actives). I added the Parasound because when just using the phono preamp, I wasn't getting as full a sound as I wanted, especially in the low end. Records sound a lot better now that I added the Parasound to the mix.

bdogsquad OP
10 posts
 
So I've taken the Parasound out of the equation. I gotta say, that I really didn't need it. The computer sounds better, and the records sound just as good as they did before. Only problem now is playing records and then switching to play stuff from the computer. I've got two different sets of cables that I'm going to have to plug and unplug accordingly. Any thoughts in that area?
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