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Connect speakers to a macbook pro

Brian

Brian

Eating fat, staying slim
Looking for some decent speakers for my son to use with a macbook pro. The priority is they are fairly accurate sounding.

Among powered speakers I just looked at Mackie but have never heard them. Alternatives?

What about connecting an amp and using LS3/5a? What would be a suitable amp for that approach? I have LS3/5a’s I can give him.

Cheers
 
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Brian said:
Looking for some decent speakers for my son to use with a macbook pro. The priority is they are fairly accurate sounding.

Among powered speakers I just looked at Mackie but have never heard them. Alternatives?

What about connecting an amp and using LS3/5a? What would be a suitable amp for that approach? I have LS3/5a’s I can give him.

Cheers
Click to expand...

Mackie are pretty well known, as in I'm no expert on pro musicians' gear but I've heard of them. Tannoy and Yamaha do active pro / studio monitors too, if it's familiar names you're after.
 
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LS35a would be perfect. For near field listening like that a good quality small integrated would be fine. A second hand Creek would work well, IMO.
 
Imagine a pair of LS3/5as would be great!

For best results might also be worth budgeting for a USB DAC or audio interface so you're not using the headphone jack on the Macbook.
 
Brian said:
Looking for some decent speakers for my son to use with a macbook pro. The priority is they are fairly accurate sounding.

Among powered speakers I just looked at Mackie but have never heard them. Alternatives?

What about connecting an amp and using LS3/5a? What would be a suitable amp for that approach? I have LS3/5a’s I can give him.

Cheers
Click to expand...
Budget? Size of amp matter? Yamaha 303D Receiver and Quad Vena1 or 2 into passives like your LS3. Chinese T Amp off Amazon if super compact form factor needed.

Actives, have a look at the Pro Audio places for ideas, often sell actives in singles so watch for that. Genelec, Adam and Yamaha are popular, a few Chinese clones are around and very good value. Couple shops linked to below I use, plenty others like Thomann, most do 30 day try before you buy.

You’ll need to work out what cabling he needs.

Serious Headphone rig might be an option he would be interested in.

https://www.studiospares.com/headph...itors/active.htm?product_list_order=price_asc

https://studiocare.com/collections/...oring_studio-monitors?sort_by=price-ascending
 
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Brian said:
Among powered speakers I just looked at Mackie but have never heard them. Alternatives?
Click to expand...

I lived with a pair of Mackie HR624 Mk1s for years. Used them on Partington super dreadnaught stands, driven using balanced outputs from a Wadia 15 DAC/Pre. Didn't get on with the standard type balanced cables typical with their use so had Tony @ Coherent make me some 3D versions years ago.

I ran them like this for 10 years, they could do things that my other systems, and most others I heard, could only hint at. They are a bit "warts and all" but absolutely convincing & engaging.
Some things worth noting:
1) they were near field only, they were loud enough to fill a room but never sounded right dong so. Not voiced for it, on axis listening only - I expect off axis response was the issue making them sound off listening at a distance. They are designed for near field and that us that.
2) In hi-fi terms, they were ruthless, rubbish sounds rubbish, not so much upstream components, but more that some recordings were next to unlistenable.

I loved them. I can't overstate that. No speakers less than a couple of grand driven with their optimal amp could hold a candle to them for any of the areas important to me. I finally sold them to Gruntpuppy here as the Wadia was moving on and I had lost the room they lived in. Took four years to part with them.

Apparently the Mk2 HR series aren't as sought after - I've never heard any, or their cheaper ranges. HRs were made in the US.
 
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timpy said:
I lived with a pair of Mackie HR624 Mk1s for years. Used them on Partington super dreadnaught stands, driven using balanced outputs from a Wadia 15 DAC/Pre. Didn't get on with the standard type balanced cables typical with their use so had Tony @ Coherent make me some 3D versions years ago.

I ran them like this for 10 years, they could do things that my other systems, and most others I heard, could only hint at. They are a bit "warts and all" but absolutely convincing & engaging.
Some things worth noting:
1) they were near field only, they were loud enough to fill a room but never sounded right dong so. Not voiced for it, on axis listening only - I expect off axis response was the issue making them sound off listening at a distance. They are designed for near field and that us that.
2) In hi-fi terms, they were ruthless, rubbish sounds rubbish, not so much upstream components, but more that some recordings were next to unlistenable.

I loved them. I can't overstate that. No speakers less than a couple of grand driven with their optimal amp could hold a candle to them for any of the areas important to me. I finally sold them to Gruntpuppy here as the Wadia was moving on and I had lost the room they lived in. Took four years to part with them.

Apparently the Mk2 HR series aren't as sought after - I've never heard any, or their cheaper ranges. HRs were made in the US.
Click to expand...

My current plan is to pair them with a Myryad MDP 500 or Thule Spirit - it'll be interesting to compare balanced to unblanced on the Thule, and overall the Thule to the Myryad - How's your MDP 500 going, Tim? I have to say, that for £27 off eBay (with a 30 day return warranty!) it's one of the best bargains I've had.

[edit] a hafler integrated for a fiver comes close though - as does the ion obelisk one for a fiver two days ago.
 
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Honestly, unless the MBP has a decent soundcard (rare in laptops), good speakers will be a waste of time unless he uses a dac.
 
Tried my Dan Clark Ether 2 cans from my MBP, wouldn’t drive them particularly loud but did sound good.
 
Durmbo said:
Honestly, unless the MBP has a decent soundcard (rare in laptops), good speakers will be a waste of time unless he uses a dac.
Click to expand...

Preferred way of doing it, I reckon. The Macbook pro's audio out port is one of those sneaky ports that's also an opti-out - so perfect for driving a dac/pre. The tight-arsed amongst us (Hello! how is everyone this morning?) will choose to go with a well-priced AV Pre/Pro to do this, because high-end equipment is available to do this at a fraction of new price. As an example of this - I have a simaudio moon attract 5.1 here which will act as a 2.0 pre-amp with a high quality DAC and balanced outputs - cost me £200, original price was $6500us. If it wasn't such a big bugger it would be my pre of choice to drive the Mackies.

If passive speakers are preferred, then AV receivers are also available at darned good prices. Onkyo 1009 for £300, anyone? Less recent "decent" kit is available for around £50 upwards. One thing I love about the AV industry - standards become obsolete practically overnight, meaning significant regular price drops.
 
Thanks for all the replies, love this forum. Some reading to do today.

I’ll add a dac into the mix, I am assuming one can be connected to a usb out from his macbook and then rca into an amp. I suppose I could even look at a dac/amp.

I don’t know a thing about AV amps so I’ll start with some reading.
 
Brian said:
Thanks for all the replies, love this forum. Some reading to do today.

I’ll add a dac into the mix, I am assuming one can be connected to a usb out from his macbook and then rca into an amp. I suppose I could even look at a dac/amp.

I don’t know a thing about AV amps so I’ll start with some reading.
Click to expand...

the audio out on the macbook pro is also an opti out - just run that into a DAC. iirc you'd need a mini-toslink to toslink cable - something like this:

71iUFhle3fL._AC_SL1500_.jpg
 
GruntPuppy said:
the audio out on the macbook pro is also an opti out - just run that into a DAC. iirc you'd need a mini-toslink to toslink cable - something like this:

71iUFhle3fL._AC_SL1500_.jpg
Click to expand...
Thanks. I have an adapter somewhere that will connect to an Opt cable to do that.

I just clocked a couple of decent looking amps at the auction site but I’m going to hang on a couple of days. My lad knows someone with what he thinks is an ideal setup, so he’s going to find out exactly what it is, hopefully tomorrow.
 
Brian said:
Thanks. I have an adapter somewhere that will connect to an Opt cable to do that.

I just clocked a couple of decent looking amps at the auction site but I’m going to hang on a couple of days. My lad knows someone with what he thinks is an ideal setup, so he’s going to find out exactly what it is, hopefully tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Good luck with the hunt :D If you can't find your adapter, that cable is only 6 quid odd on a well known retail site.
 
Brian said:
Looking for some decent speakers for my son to use with a macbook pro. The priority is they are fairly accurate sounding.

Among powered speakers I just looked at Mackie but have never heard them. Alternatives?

What about connecting an amp and using LS3/5a? What would be a suitable amp for that approach? I have LS3/5a’s I can give him.

Cheers
Click to expand...

The little iLoud micro monitors

https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/iloudmm/
 
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