[foudordi]

Hi everyone!
Very nice forum, I found loads of info. Now here is my first post.

I use a macbook pro and an iPhone as my main audio players.
I also watch movies on my laptop.

Right now I have a pair of On Ear Bose which don't sound too bad, but I'm going to order a Sennheiser 595 + an JVC HU-DH1 to get Dolby Headphone when playing my movies.

However, I'm still concerned about the quality I'll be able to get from my macbook. It's a unibody, so the sound is not as crappy as with the former alu macbook pro (it was truly awful). But still, I don't think the integrated audio chip is fantastic.

So as far as I understand, with movies I'll get a nice sound, because the JVC decoder will to the job from digital data (through the SPDIF port, thus bypassing the macbook's chip).

But what about music? Will the JVC still perform well, and if so, will I be able to disable the Dolby Pro function (which doesn't seem to be great for music fidelity), and still get a nice audio processing?
Or will I have to plug my Sennheisers directly to the macbook for music and get a lower-quality sound?

In other words, do I really have to buy an expensive external sound card to get the full potential of the HD595 with my MBP?

Any opinion?
Thanks!

[mrbenn]

you need one of these:

BEHRINGER: UCA202
£25 - dont let the low price put you off

an external usb soundcard - has optical out to go into jvc unit
or just run through behringer

[foudordi]

No actually the macbook pro has a built-in digital output (it's the headphone port and it does both).

I guess my question is, can the JVC SU-HD1 replace a DAC? These are very expensive so it would be nice to have an improved sound for my music with the JVC without having to buy an ibasso D10 or something.