I Need A Sound Card For Mac

Hi there, I'm playing usually Pianoteq with my Audio Technica ATH M50x just through my Macbook's headphone jack. Now, I have purchased an audio interface - Presonus iOne. It is very hard to judge but I have the feeling that when I play via the Presonus iOne Audio Interface the sound of Pianoteq is SLIGHTLY better, a little more clean. It is almost not noticeable, yet I do feel it's juuuuuust a little bit better. Is this a placebo effect or could it be that the Presonus Audio Interface gives me better Pianoteq sound than my built-in Macbook sound card? Again by the time I switch from built-in to audio interface in settings and play the same notes it's hard to judge, yet my feeling remains that it's slightly cleaner through the box.

In other forums I read that it's not true and there is no quality improvement with an audio interface in this price range vs the built-in MacBook Pro sound card. Thanks for sharing your experiences! I use a 2013 Mac Pro that has the same built-in DAC as the MacBook Pro (or so I have read somewhere). I plug my keyboard in a Roland Duo-Capture Ex, a similar device to your PreSonus. I need to because my old keyboard only has MIDI in/out cables, no USB. I can’t hear any difference with the same headphones between the two outputs.

Why Get A Sound Card

Today’s mass produced DACs are very capable and have similar characteristics. Only if you pay a lot for audiophile DACs can you expect to hear a difference, I think, and this is mainly because you can program different filters that can change the output, along with the (mostly useless in Pianoteq's case) capability to support very high sample rates. Your Audio Technica has 38 ohms impedance so no large mismatch. One reason that may come to mind is that the combined amplification of the Mac and the PreSonus may give you more volume, and it is hard to match by ear when comparing the two (louder always sound better) One slight advantage of using only the MacBook is you are directly executing Core Audio code while the PreSonus adds its own driver overhead to it (but it’s not much really). Hello All, In the past two weeks, my trusty Apogee Duet (firewire) audio interface stopped working, and I bought a new Apogee Duet 2 USB interface to replace it. As such, I had to make a decision: Do I (1) simply use the line out 3.5 mm headphone on my MacPro tower, or (2) do I replace the audio interface with a new one? To be totally frank, I could not swear I heard a difference when running Pianoteq through headphones running straight out of my MacPro.

However, when I ran the computer's line output into my stereo system, there was a noticeable loss in ambience of other types of recordings. The difference was enough that, after a week of playing without my original Apogee Duet, I sprang the $595USD for a new Apogee Duet 2 USB audio interface. The new unit arrived two days ago, and I couldn't be happier! Dark unsolved mysteries. True, Pianoteq sounds about the same as it did with the old Duet and with the MacPro's line out audio fed into my AKG 702 headphones. However, I do NOT regret paying the high price for the new Duet 2 in terms of sound for my overall audio needs. So, the short answer is this: If you are not terribly particular about the sound and/or do not have the high-end studio-grade electronics and monitors to hear the difference, you will most likely NOT hear a difference taking the audio line-out signal from your computer.

The converse is also true, but only if you have a system whose resolution is high enough to make use of the audio interface. Hope this helps. (Don't sweat the small details.) Cheers, Joe EDIT: Could I have gotten away with a less costly audio interface? Probably yes. But the Duet 2 also contains a pair of microphone pre's with 48V phantom power, with +75dB worth of gain and very, very low noise. In reality, it's the latter that made me spring for the extra money, because there is more to the world than just Pianoteq!

Why Use A Sound Card

Hi lovelovemale, My experiences. I think that audio interface is necessary when you want to record external sources (instruments or voice). If you are satisfied with Mac sound card, using headphones playing Ptq, stick with it. It is probably a high spec computer (I am glad using Mac mini late 2014, no one has complained about my Ptq sound). If it can help you, I say ( based on your own comment ”It is almost not noticeable”), be glad and listen to your Ptq-music, not equipment. Well, that’s what I think about it.