Sounds Good

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Whats your personal prefferance for best sound out, headphones or speakers (for the iMac)?

I cant decide if i want speakers or headphones. Ive got some Technic headphones for this pc which i spent around £35 and the sound is the best ive heard in a while.

Technics / Bose ?
Do's a 5.1 system etc.. work with iMacs?
 

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I prefer Speakers, but for certain living conditions, headphones would be better due to noise issues. The iMac G5 iSight and the new Intel iMacs have SPDIF Digital Out. The Speaker output doubles as either a normal Analog out or Digital SPDIF out.
 
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that means nothing to me? it better for a digital output than a standard jack?
 
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BlooGrape said:
that means nothing to me? it better for a digital output than a standard jack?

Digital output is the best you can get out.....but you have to have the correct speaker config and basic overall set-up...depends how fanatical you want to go....digi out to surround sound would be awesome!

Standard jack is just pure stereo like the signal is split left and right channel, which is still great paired with the right speakers.

EG: if your doing lot's of audio pro stuff you would go for digital audio over straight stereo, although you may want a mix of both.

The inbuilt speakers at the bottom of my iMac are ok but the sound doesn't have much depth.
 
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thanks pulse..
im looking to play itunes and alot of dvd's ith freeview tv. so sound isnt crucial but would be nice to hear clear and loud as it would be my bed view lol
 

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Get a low-cost 5.1 amp with optical input, especially if you're going to be watching DVDs on it. Most of the time the analogue stereo would be enough - correct me someone if I'm wrong but I believe the iMac doesn't "natively" support 5.1 so games won't utilise the full surround system. BUT it does support 5.1 digital audio straight from a DVD so movies will be played in full surround.

I've just dug out my old small Sony 5.1 amp, hooked it up with the digital optical cable (SPDIF) to the iMac and bought a pair of cheap Gale bookshelf speakers (30 quid, Richer Sounds). The improvement in quality is dramatic, eventually I'll set up the satellite speakers but for now stereo will do nicely :)
 
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can you recommend any 5.1 wireless systems that have the SPDIF output?
 

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I'm not sure I follow you - SPDIF output is from the iMac, do you mean SPDIF INPUT? In which case, by wireless do you mean wireless from the amp to the speakers or some form of wireless optical link from the iMac to the amp?
 
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now you lost me lol, i want good speakers, 1 bass, 1 ontop, one each side of monitor and two wireless ones on the wall behind me
 

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Ahhhhh gotcha :) so the only wireless bit is for the rear speakers. I'll have a poke around and see what I can find, have you looked at the Richer Sounds website?
 
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nope, but on my way now. *thumbs up for your advice*
 
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BlooGrape said:
can you recommend any 5.1 wireless systems that have the SPDIF output?
logitech is the only company with wireless rear speakers that have come to mind for me
 
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ok.. hmmmz... are the speakers on the iMac good enough? maybe i should scrap the wireless system and go for wireless headphones from Sennheiser?
 
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Decided to buy some wired Technic headphones again, hope these put a rock in my ears!
 

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