I2S from Mini Mac

[hirez69]

I need to get I2S signals from Mac Mini Intel Core 2 Duo 1,83 Ghz.
I2S signals are available but i don't know exactly where to find them:

http://developer.apple.com/documenta...H207-TPXREF139

Someone thinks that the I2S signals are available on the SATA interface (?)

http://macminicenter.com/wiki/index....nternals:Riser

Can anybody help me?
thanks

[Corax]

Hi hirez69,

I doubt that you can easily access the IIS signals in your Mac Mini.
The IIS is, as a matter of fact, an interconnecting bus between integrated circuits dealing with the digital audio datas.

For external communication you'll find the S/PDIF interface which could be either an optical fibre or a "copper" connection using the traditional cinch connector (either one or even both found on CD-players).

If you really need the access to the IIS bus you possibly have to do some soldering. But prior to do so it is necessary to open the Mac Mini and identify which Audio CODEC is used. Then you can look for the datasheet and find out at which pins the signals are located.

After all I'm pretty sure that you'll never ever find the IIS bus on the SATA connector though.

Finally, as you can read at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I2S, the IIS bus will be found in almost all cases only inside of an audio equipment without any direct link (or even connector) to the "outside".

Anyhow, good luck for your "application".

[hirez69]

Hi Corax,

thank you for support.
As you suggest will try to identify the Audio codec.
My application?
i would like to connect The Mini mac I2S output to I2S input of my DAC directly.
Perhaps someone has already done.

Thanks again

[b-square]

I suggest a better alternative would be to use a USB to I2S device, such as the USB receiver from Twisted Pear. No need to destroy your Mini to do it.

[glt]

Or if you are thinking of HD sound (>48khz/16bit) then you can also use the toslink out of the mini

[Archwn]

Originally posted by b-square
I suggest a better alternative would be to use a USB to I2S device, such as the USB receiver from Twisted Pear. No need to destroy your Mini to do it.

Agree. PCM2707 from BB offers I2S out from usb interface. It utilizes spAct to recover clock freq. from the data line, same as their digital reciever chip dir1703 some say it sounds better than dir9001 which utilizes PLL.

2707 is Mac compatible according to its datasheet.

[planet10]

Originally posted by Archwn
2707 is Mac compatible according to its datasheet.

I haven't used it with mini, but it works fine with all the ones i have...

dave

[Clutz]

I've used a 2702 with a Mac Mini and it worked just fine. It's also worked on a Macbook, a Macbook Pro, a PowerMac G4 and a Mac Pro.

[b-square]

I'm a broken record on this one: the USB 1.1 Audio Profile is _widely_ supported and does not require any additional/special driver in any modern, major OS (apologies to Gilbert and Sullivan). The PCM2707 (and similar) will Just Work.

If you want something beyond 16/48kHz, I suggest using one of the numerous, often reasonably priced FireWire devices for the Mac.

[Archwn]

IIRC 2707 datasheet says it is not (fully perhaps) support some version of Mac OS on some languages (i dont use mac so i don't really know how they are classified)

Just for the record, from my experience, around 10% of Microsoft windows would have a problem with 2707 I don't know why it just ask for driver of usb dac and sadly its driver is not available anywhere even on microsoft website. So some of my friends end up installing a new windows just to get this dac work - they really have their guts.