Optical connection in to Mac mini

[Steedie]

Hey guys,

My dad's got an old set of Logitech Z5500 speakers that are currently hooked up to an old 2009 iMac via optical (back in the days when Apple used a headphone/optical connection in the same connector)

He's recently moved to a new Mac mini, which doesn't have an optical connection, and I'm wondering what the best way to connect them up would be? Be it some kind of converter or something else.

At the moment he's stuck using his iMac for music as he doesn't want to lose the speakers, but he really wants to ditch it as it takes up so much space on his desk now

Thanks

 

[shiver]

Interesting, I hadn't realised they had dropped those combo jacks. Seems to have only been in the last couple of years?

My guess would be a macOS compatible USB DAC with optical out. Many cheap ones around that work out of the box and can just be chosen as the output device in macOS.

 

[Steedie]

Yeah was since 2018 apparently on the mini.

Just seen the new Sound Blaster X3 from Creative. USB-C DAC, looks pretty smart actually. Will have a look at other USB DAC options, but not many of them are USB-C, and as my dad is pretty bad with tech at the best of times, I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible, so an adaptor for a DAC would be something else to confuse him

 

[yashiro]

Sound Blaster Omni Surround 5.1 will do the job and is probably cheaper. Not sure if either will properly passthrough AC3 audio from the Mac though, you will have to look into it.

 

[Combat squirrel]

Call digit 3 dock, essential for a Mac mini and seen one for sale on MM I think, that has optical out and works well.