Re: XLR cables in Japan, and DAC

["Lou Judson" inaudio]

Actually the optical output should always be on - as an output there  
is nothing for it to detect.

Powerbooks have had them for years! The combined output and input  
jacks would, I imagine, work as analog and digital simultaneously if  
anyone made a cable with both connections.

<L>

On Mar 5, 2009, at 4:01 AM, Greg Simmons wrote:

I got a MacBook about four weeks ago and have had great luck using  
the optical output into a Grace M902 DAC/preamp. I imagine it would  
be possible to use it to feed a lower cost DAC for monitoring.  
There's nothing to it - simply plug in the cable, the Mac detects the  
optical connection and switches to optical output. No drivers to mess  
about with, no control panels to open. Very elegant. The funny thing  
is that most recent Mac laptop owners don't  know that they have an  
optical output at their disposal - it's certainly not something Apple  
make a lot of noise about.