Audiophiles, I Summon Thee

I need some advice.  Here's the setup:

Mac Mini 2012, mostly 320 kbps MP3s —> 3.5mm headphone jack to RCA —> Onkyo TX-8555 –> Audioengine P4 speakers

The Onkyo receiver doesn't have digital inputs, hence my less-than-ideal analog connection.

Do I need a DAC?  Does it matter that I'm using lossy source material (i.e., would a DAC not add as much punch to lossy material as it would to lossless)?  Would a cheapo DAC help much (like this or this), or do I have to get into the $100+ range to make a difference?  This is a ~$200 receiver and ~$250 speakers, so I don't want to go crazy here and add a $150-200 DAC if I don't have to.

As an aside, I have a Music Hall USB-1 hooked up to this rig as the main source and really like the sound.

I have a question too!  We just bought a Stanton T92 and are experiencing that humming sound in our speakers.  Guessing we need a preamp.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  We are using a very old receiver from 1993, but it's a Pioneer, and my husband will not get rid of it.  We do want to get some new speakers, but don't have any ideas there either.

K8teebug wrote:
I have a question too!  We just bought a Stanton T92 and are experiencing that humming sound in our speakers.  Guessing we need a preamp.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  We are using a very old receiver from 1993, but it's a Pioneer, and my husband will not get rid of it.  We do want to get some new speakers, but don't have any ideas there either.

did you ground it?

i bought a few pairs of speakers at thrift stores.. you really get great deals

How do you ground it?  I am a total girl when it comes to this stuff…

Niiiiice… an audiophile thread.

I picked up the Sea Change mobile fidelity release last week and it's unreal how good it sounds. Wowser.

K8teebug wrote:
I have a question too!  We just bought a Stanton T92 and are experiencing that humming sound in our speakers.  Guessing we need a preamp.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  We are using a very old receiver from 1993, but it's a Pioneer, and my husband will not get rid of it.  We do want to get some new speakers, but don't have any ideas there either.

EDIT:

It looks like the Stanton T-92 has a phono or line input option.  Make sure you have this switch set correctly on your turntable.  use phono if your receiver has a phono input, otherwise use the line input. 

It also looks like your turntable does not have or require a ground wire.

http://www.stantondj.com/pdf/manuals/t92_manual.pdf

K8teebug wrote:
I have a question too!  We just bought a Stanton T92 and are experiencing that humming sound in our speakers.  Guessing we need a preamp.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  We are using a very old receiver from 1993, but it's a Pioneer, and my husband will not get rid of it.  We do want to get some new speakers, but don't have any ideas there either.

well, does the turntable have a grounding wire coming out the back?.. if it does then usually one connects/hooks it to a grounding rod (very small) on the back of the amplifier or what have you..

I am no audiophile though… some turntables have the grounding wire and some don't.. the humming could be due to some other factor but that is a definite possibility.

Thanks so much!  Alot of my friends who have direct drive turntables had to get a preamp to get rid of the humming.  It's supposed to have a built in preamp, but some of the reviews of it said it's not the best.  I will double check to make sure we have it correctly plugged in.  Good to know about the grounding wire.

K8teebug wrote:
I have a question too!  We just bought a Stanton T92 and are experiencing that humming sound in our speakers.  Guessing we need a preamp.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  We are using a very old receiver from 1993, but it's a Pioneer, and my husband will not get rid of it.  We do want to get some new speakers, but don't have any ideas there either.

If you didn't have a pre-amp you would barely able to hear the music from the turntable.  If your amplifier is from 1993 it most likely has a phono input, which would mean it has built in pre-amp. If you are using that you should be fine.

I have a Audio-Technica AT-LP120 turntable and it is actually pretty awesome.  And it is only 200 dollars.  

Aside from figuring out the origin of the background noise, vinyl sounds pretty terrific on the Stanton.  It was 300 and it's way better than the super old one we were using before.  Definitely the right investment.  Wanted to be able to put our vinyl on the computer if there was a blizzard and we wanted a winter project.

my main one is the Numark Pro TT-1 and its great.. I have two portable Numarks, an Aiwa I can't remember (not impressed with ).. another one I can't remember inthe basement that is not being used.. and I've set up about 5 friends with free turntables. Up to a few years ago you could find them on the street for free!

Hoya….I think a DAC would definitely help.  I don't imagine the one in the MAC mini is very good.  You can find many for under $100.  I think audioengine even sells one that doubles as a headphone amp that may be in this price range.  Check out NuForce they are supposed to be good and pretty cheap I think.  You can always order a cheapo dac like the ones in your link from a place with a good return policy and send it back if it doesn't make a difference.

IMO, the best thing you can do to improve SQ is swap out your speakers. 

What do I know though.  I sold all my nice stuff a few years ago.  Won't get back into it until I have a dedicated room.

chaz wrote:
Hoya….I think a DAC would definitely help.  I don't imagine the one in the MAC mini is very good.  You can find many for under $100.  I think audioengine even sells one that doubles as a headphone amp that may be in this price range.  Check out NuForce they are supposed to be good and pretty cheap I think.  You can always order a cheapo dac like the ones in your link from a place with a good return policy and send it back if it doesn't make a difference.

IMO, the best thing you can do to improve SQ is swap out your speakers.

Thank you sir.  The audioengine DAC is $170, which seems silly given the rig I'm talking about.

Just so I understand the whole function of the DAC – a cheapo DAC probably wouldn't help much if I could run digital/optical out of the Mac and into a digital input on my receiver, right?  But because I'm dealing with a noisy analog headphone jack, I'm going to get improved performance just by using the cheap DAC to run digital audio out of my Mac via USB or optical and connecting to my all-analog receiver?

I really like the P4s - not a ton of oomph, but really accurate and clear.  With rowhouse living and a basement tenant, it's about all I can ask for.

HoyaSaxa03 wrote:

chaz wrote:
Hoya….I think a DAC would definitely help.  I don't imagine the one in the MAC mini is very good.  You can find many for under $100.  I think audioengine even sells one that doubles as a headphone amp that may be in this price range.  Check out NuForce they are supposed to be good and pretty cheap I think.  You can always order a cheapo dac like the ones in your link from a place with a good return policy and send it back if it doesn't make a difference.

IMO, the best thing you can do to improve SQ is swap out your speakers.

Thank you sir.  The audioengine DAC is $170, which seems silly given the rig I'm talking about.

Just so I understand the whole function of the DAC – a cheapo DAC probably wouldn't help much if I could run digital/optical out of the Mac and into a digital input on my receiver, right?  But because I'm dealing with a noisy analog headphone jack, I'm going to get improved performance just by using the cheap DAC to run digital audio out of my Mac via USB or optical and connecting to my all-analog receiver?

I really like the P4s - not a ton of oomph, but really accurate and clear.  With rowhouse living and a basement tenant, it's about all I can ask for.

Well, if the external DAC is better than the one in the MAC, in theory you should see an improvement.  Also the analog out of the MAC is probably pretty crappy so you'll be bypassing that as well.  If you could go digital out from the mac to digital in on the receiver, you be bypassing the DAC on the mac and using the DAC on the reciever., but does the mac even have a digital out? You say the reciever is all analog so based on that it does not have digital inputs.  Whether or not that would sound better than getting your own DAC depends on the quality of the one in the receiver.  Though considering the source material, the receiver and speakers you have, who knows if you would notice.  I think if you got a decent dac the biggest gain in SQ you would get would be bypassing the cheapo analog out on the mac.

chaz wrote:

HoyaSaxa03 wrote:

chaz wrote:
Hoya….I think a DAC would definitely help.  I don't imagine the one in the MAC mini is very good.  You can find many for under $100.  I think audioengine even sells one that doubles as a headphone amp that may be in this price range.  Check out NuForce they are supposed to be good and pretty cheap I think.  You can always order a cheapo dac like the ones in your link from a place with a good return policy and send it back if it doesn't make a difference.

IMO, the best thing you can do to improve SQ is swap out your speakers.

Thank you sir.  The audioengine DAC is $170, which seems silly given the rig I'm talking about.

Just so I understand the whole function of the DAC – a cheapo DAC probably wouldn't help much if I could run digital/optical out of the Mac and into a digital input on my receiver, right?  But because I'm dealing with a noisy analog headphone jack, I'm going to get improved performance just by using the cheap DAC to run digital audio out of my Mac via USB or optical and connecting to my all-analog receiver?

I really like the P4s - not a ton of oomph, but really accurate and clear.  With rowhouse living and a basement tenant, it's about all I can ask for.

Well, if the external DAC is better than the one in the MAC, in theory you should see an improvement.  Also the analog out of the MAC is probably pretty crappy so you'll be bypassing that as well.  If you could go digital out from the mac to digital in on the receiver, you be bypassing the DAC on the mac and using the DAC on the reciever., but does the mac even have a digital out? You say the reciever is all analog so based on that it does not have digital inputs.  Whether or not that would sound better than getting your own DAC depends on the quality of the one in the receiver.  Though considering the source material, the receiver and speakers you have, who knows if you would notice.  I think if you got a decent dac the biggest gain in SQ you would get would be bypassing the cheapo analog out on the mac.

the mac has a mini-TOSLINK out of the same jack as the analog 3.5mm line, I had been running a mini-TOSLINK-to-TOSLINK connect from the mac to a different receiver with an optical input.  the current  receiver does not have any digital inputs (optical or coax), only analog RCA inputs.

from everything i've read about 3.5mm analog out jacks on macs (and PCs for that matter), I think I'll get a nice performance boost from even a cheap USB DAC, but we'll see.  I ordered the behringer uca202 today.

HoyaSaxa03 wrote:

chaz wrote:

HoyaSaxa03 wrote:

chaz wrote:
Hoya….I think a DAC would definitely help.  I don't imagine the one in the MAC mini is very good.  You can find many for under $100.  I think audioengine even sells one that doubles as a headphone amp that may be in this price range.  Check out NuForce they are supposed to be good and pretty cheap I think.  You can always order a cheapo dac like the ones in your link from a place with a good return policy and send it back if it doesn't make a difference.

IMO, the best thing you can do to improve SQ is swap out your speakers.

Thank you sir.  The audioengine DAC is $170, which seems silly given the rig I'm talking about.

Just so I understand the whole function of the DAC – a cheapo DAC probably wouldn't help much if I could run digital/optical out of the Mac and into a digital input on my receiver, right?  But because I'm dealing with a noisy analog headphone jack, I'm going to get improved performance just by using the cheap DAC to run digital audio out of my Mac via USB or optical and connecting to my all-analog receiver?

I really like the P4s - not a ton of oomph, but really accurate and clear.  With rowhouse living and a basement tenant, it's about all I can ask for.

Well, if the external DAC is better than the one in the MAC, in theory you should see an improvement.  Also the analog out of the MAC is probably pretty crappy so you'll be bypassing that as well.  If you could go digital out from the mac to digital in on the receiver, you be bypassing the DAC on the mac and using the DAC on the reciever., but does the mac even have a digital out? You say the reciever is all analog so based on that it does not have digital inputs.  Whether or not that would sound better than getting your own DAC depends on the quality of the one in the receiver.  Though considering the source material, the receiver and speakers you have, who knows if you would notice.  I think if you got a decent dac the biggest gain in SQ you would get would be bypassing the cheapo analog out on the mac.

the mac has a mini-TOSLINK out of the same jack as the analog 3.5mm line, I had been running a mini-TOSLINK-to-TOSLINK connect from the mac to a different receiver with an optical input.  the current  receiver does not have any digital inputs (optical or coax), only analog RCA inputs.

from everything i've read about 3.5mm analog out jacks on macs (and PCs for that matter), I think I'll get a nice performance boost from even a cheap USB DAC, but we'll see.  I ordered the behringer uca202 today.

Check back after you put it in…i've got a fairly similar set up these days…but skipping receiver and using powered monitors.  Maybe I'll go the same route.  Getting a new imac in a few weeks for the family for xmas…

Stop having children and upgrade your receiver.  I can't imagine owning a receiver with no digital inputs.

vansmack wrote:
Stop having children and upgrade your receiver.  I can't imagine owning a receiver with no digital inputs.

I have a Yamaha receiver that I bought as a home-theater-in-a-box 7 years ago with plenty of digital inputs.  This Onkyo has better specs, aside from the inputs, and I only run a 2-channel setup now so have no need for all the home theater / surround sound bullshit.

Did you ever put the DAC in?  How did it work out? 
I have an imac outputting to a pair of cheap m-audio monitors via the headphone jack.  Last night was messing around and remembered I had an old usb audio interface laying around….one of these -

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Alpha?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=PPC&utm_campaign=none&gclid=CNbJx-Lt6LQCFQJx4Aod6AsAew

I installed it and ran the monitors from it and it was a HUGE difference.  Quite shocking actually.

yes, I'm using this cheapo USB DAC and it makes a huge difference:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/UCA202/