[mr_bill]

Hi Apple experts,

I have a simple question:

I have been running a Logitech Touch into a dac for many years.
I just bought an Ayre QB-9 and am going to try a MacBook Air into the new dac (which only has USB input).  From there, the dac will run into my integrated.  The new Dac won't be here for a week.

My question:  Can I just connect the MBA to the Dac and play music?

Do I have to configure the MBA in some way or 'tell' it to output USB, etc?
I want it to play Pandora and access my Rhapsody account.  Eventually, I may put my music on it and run a shell like Audivirna, but for now, just simple.

Thanks,

[avta]

Yes you can. I suggest you use a good quality usb cable. This is the one I use. http://www.audioquest.com/usb-digital-audio/carbon . There is quite a bit of discussion online about usb cables and many options. Enjoy the dac. I have one as well and find the sound very pleasant.

[srb]

You will need to go into Applications > Utilities > Audio Midi Setup and choose the Ayre USB DAC under Audio Devices.  https://www.ayre.com/usb-dac-apple.htm

When you get to putting your audio library on the Mac, one of the benefits (beside improved sound quality) with an add-in playback engine such as Audirvana is that it will automatically adjust the sample rate to each songs native resolution.  Otherwise if using iTunes by itself you would have to change the sample rate and open and close iTunes each time to maintain bit perfect output.

Steve

[mr_bill]

Awesome and great help guys - thanks!

[JLM]

Steve, that might be old advice.  On my 2012 iMac and 2014 MacBook Air (both running OS 10.9.5) I go to:

- system preferences
- sound
- outputs (then select)

[mr_bill]

It is a newer MBA - 2014, so I'll try this.

[Crimson]

Either method works fine, but using AudioMidiSetup also allows you to match bit depth and sample rate of the source file, something that iTunes will not do on it's own.

[bixby]

Not sure if you have tried it yet, but the Ayre runs without the need for computer USB power.  Using a USB cable without the 5 V power leg yields a nice improvement in sound quality.

[mr_bill]

Thanks for this note.  I haven't tried it but did just receive a new LH Labs Lightspeed 2G cable with separate power and data and I figured I'd just hook up the data portion and leave the power connector off completely.  I read a review on the QB-9DSD last night and saw that it powers USB internally and I did not know that before.  Probably another one of the reasons it performs so well.

[bixby]

Great, let us know if that works.  You might need the ground leg though.

[mr_bill]

The Lightspeed cable doesn't work with just the data leg hooked up on a squeezebox touch as source.
I bet that power leg unhooked has something to do with it. When I switched to a crummy computer USB cable it worked fine.

Since the Touch only has one USB output I prob won't be able to use the Lightspeed cable with the Touch.
I'm going to try the MBA too this aft.

[mr_bill]

I hooked up the power leg of the Lightspeed through boot up and it worked. I used an iPhone charger for the power leg. After up and running I can disconnect the power leg and it continues fine!
Don't know if understand why but works now. 

[bixby]

Cool on getting the touch to work, probably need power to do some sort of handshake.