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connecting to mac mini

antaios, modified 1 Year ago.

connecting to mac mini

Youngling Posts: 0 Join Date: 10/11/21 Recent Posts

Hi everyone,

 

I own a 7350A smart active sub woofer and am connecting it to my mac mini via 3.5mm to XLR but it doesn't satisfy me.

Whenever i tocuh the 3.5mm end of the cable, lots of disturbing sounds come out of the speakers and to fix that i always have to turn the cable in every angle. 

I wonder if this is normal on all analog cables? I let the vendor know about this issue and they sent me another cable with the same brand and model but the result was same.

The mac mini is brand new with M1 chip as well. So i don't think it's 3.5mm out is faulty.

What would you recommend to solve this problem?

Is it possible to make a digital connection with this setup?

Thanks

lukester, modified 1 Year ago.

RE: connecting to mac mini

Jedi Master Posts: 296 Join Date: 4/22/10 Recent Posts

yeah, 3.5mm is not the best connector.
I think you'd need to get a proper soundcard, better connection, much better sound quality.
Soundcard with digital connection is even better. For a few meters cheap spdif is good enough, or you get proper AES.
For a digital setup you'll need GLM adapter + volume knob. Most reliable setup i've ever had.

ampsarus.1, modified 1 Year ago.

RE: connecting to mac mini

Youngling Posts: 2 Join Date: 4/21/21 Recent Posts

Hello,

I also use a mac mini M1 but I have never plugged anything into the headphone jack.  

That macintosh jack is single ended analog, -10dBv, or  .775V.  General use 400 ohm headphone pos.

Your 7350 wants to see balanced analog, +4dBu, up to 20 or 24 dBu, so it is not surprising the results are not satisfactory.

As far as the noise is concerned, idk about crackles... You can use a box from Radial called a J+4 to deliver +4 balanced analog..

Better is to use AES signals, GLM, and the Genelec volume control.  I use the mini TB> Lynx Hilo TB3 > AES out to monitors but at the very least you should be using something like J+4.  They are noisy and pretty much suck, IMO, but they are better than not having.  .775V won't cut it with +4 gear, sorry.

Hope that helps!