a great deal of that depends on the signal source. usually, as most people do it the audio cable's may not be "properly" terminated, some sources will react to this badly while others are more flexible. as far as i know the mac's sound inputs don't present a real "load" for the signal, and it should ideally have one between 1k and 10k ohms for a line level (tape) input.
if you draw the signal from a headphone jack it should be terminated with 40-150 ohms or so, if you are pulling it from the speaker outputs there should be a 4-16 ohm load unless the speakers are connected in which case they will definitely "color" the sound. i would suspect that impedance mismatch is responsible for a lot of the coloration and other problems that some people see (and some outputs will work best if ac or capacitor coupled while some would like a dc return line, i.e. no series capacitor before the termination or load resistor). these issues will be most pronounced on older equipment but may occur on newer equipment as well. of course there are other potential issues including the jack being a little oxidized (which can definitely produce some level sensitive distortion) and possibly cracked solder joints on some sound inputs (or on the sources for that mater). to a lesser extent these distortion sources can affect the sound output if fed to an external amp, and of course if not the quality of the mac speaker and amplifier come into play. overdriving or under driving the input can also be a problem. i haven't done much sound recording on the mac, but these are potential problem sources and there are likely others as well. the quality of the cables used can also have a definite effect, particularly the cheaper ones. William Ove wrote: > > On Oct 12, 2004, at 5:07 PM, G-List wrote: > > > > ...well, it's maybe not as easy as getting the right software. I did > > some vinyl-to-CD conversions earlier, on my 8500. Even after manual > > tweaking and editing, the sound was not good enough for most music. > > Sounded tinny and constricted, much worse than the LPs. Simply because > > the analog-to-digital HARDWARE in that Mac wasn't very good. > > It's hopefully better in newer Macs, but for really good results I > > suspect we would have to get better digitizing hardware, on a PCI. > > That is an interesting observation. I have been digitizing vinyl since > the Quadra 840, and have always felt that the Mac's digitizing ability -------- -- Republicans don't seem to realize that they are no longer individual members of a coherent "party," but are merely part of a mean-spirited and dangerous movement that is threatening to sweep away democracy as we know it. <http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7054.htm> -- G-List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- We have Apple Refurbished Monitors in stock! | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-List list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
