Hello. I'm am currently home auditioning an Audio Research Ref. Cd 9 which as a CD player is working flawlessly and sounds amazing. The unit is 2nd hand and the previous owner no longer has or cannot seem to find the CD with the drivers' on it for USB playback. I'm currently trying to test the DAC capabilities but have only been successful via toslink as the cd player/Dac is not all detectable in/via USB mode/connection.
I'm using a macbook air for this setup ( El Capitan 10.11.6) . I have searched the Audio Research website and found the owner's manual ( also missing ) which states that when using a Mac no special drivers are required but it's not working or discoverable at all. There is no current driver for Mac downloadable in their website as well. While searching some more I found that there was another user's manual( maybe depends on the year model, the one on audition is 2-3 yrs old ) which states there indeed is/was a Usb driver for mac contained in that CD. Can anybody help me out?. Any leads would be appreciated. It's a wonderful CD player but of course, I would want to get the most out of it ( or at least the audition ) and yes I have emailed Audio Research and waiting on the their response as well. Thank you.
Keep us posted on the reply from ARC. Happy Listening!
Well, I got my reply from ARC. Even if there was no interest or other replies at least the info relayed to me can aid someone in their decision on wether or not to purchase a CD 9 ( for use of the Usb function that is ). Basically, what ARC said to me was that the audition unit I have is circa 2013 which at that time the OS for Mac was Yosemite. Therefore it is no longer compatible with the newer El Capitan OS and there is no software nor software upgrade available for it but a hardware one involving the DAC chip and some other stuff worth $1900. However, the newer production units containing a "2.0" sticker at the back ( I guess version 2.0 ) is compatible with the newer operating systems. These units only began production this year according to them.
Unfortunately, I have found the same information, but have gone to the trouble of finding a copy of Yosemite 10.10.5 which I put on my Mac Mini and to my disappointment, the CD9 is still not recognized.
Thanx for that info. I was in the process of looking for a copy of Yosemite as well and downgrading my macbook air just to try the same. I 'll forgo that plan since it's a useless exercise anyway. As much as I love the Cd-9, maybe I'll try the DAC 9 instead and use my existing Cd/sacd player as a transport. Hopefully, it will sound pretty similar but with the USB flexibility.