Fellow Outlaws,

The other day, I was using Rhapsody running through optical out to an optical in of my 990. I have 2.1 sound (Polk Monitor series left/right + Polk powered subwoofer). What I've noticed is that the subwoofer doesn't seem to be doing anything when the music is going through the 990 set to the CD option.

I ask because for instance, when I run Netflix through my Xbox 360 and play a Cheers episode, you can hear all the speakers being used to play "Where Everybody Knows Your Name".
And it sounds great. Play the same thing from the Macbook through the optical & it loses a lot of the sound. The sound distinction between the two connections is very obvious, this is not a "golden ear" type of distinction.

Is there an adjustment I can make where I can produce the sound from the macbook pro so it will use all 3 speakers?

Would a DAC help? I've got a Cambridge DAC Magic lying around but don't want to go through the trouble of hooking it up if it will provide no benefit.

Best,
Twitchy

Is the 990 set to upsample 2.1 for the CD input? If it is set to stereo output it might not use the sub especially if your speakers are set to large.

Interesting. It was set to PIIMusic. I set it to upsample and noticed an improvement in the sound but still no punch but afterwards I could not change it away from upsample. I had to change the input to analog, then switched the sound to 5 channel stereo, then set it back to optical 5.

I think 5 channel stereo is giving the punch I was looking for. Also, my front left/right are Polk Monitor Series towers but for whatever reason they just seem to be missing some bass that I can hear with the subwoofer for music anyway.

Thanks for the help.

When you want to switch stereo modes using the remote all you have to do is press the "Stereo" button repeatedly to cycle through the various formats. Make sure the input you are using is configured for the format you want to hear and then all you have to do is swap to it. None of the Dolby or DTS modes will work well for a two channel system as they are designed to take two channel and make it into 5-6-7 channel. I would expect to lose some information to the mains if that were the case because some of the sound is being routed to non-existent speakers. Make sure the Macbook is configured to output the 2.1 signal. Not being familiar with Apple products I can't give specifics but it must have a sound output program you can adjust. It sounds like the Macbook isn't putting out the LFE channel and if the crossover is set above 60 hz you would lose a lot of the bass signal.

Thanks for the info. I can't find such an output setting on the Mac. All
the sound output shows under settings is sound output to set to digital
optical. I did try the Stereo button and that seems to help. Also, I set the
Equalizer to Rock from Flat & that seemed to provide a little color to my
"Genius Classic Rock Mix"...reminds me of the 80s.

I would think that digital optical is a surround capable format and that if you set the 990 to a digital format for that input you could get at least 5.1 sound. Maybe you could also try a differnt cable from the Mac to the 990.