Moxxey,

It's easy to convert 3.5mm Optical to Toslink, but what you may need is to convert optical to SPDIF coaxial.  There's a box on eBay for $79 that does this. You may find others.  

I have good experiences with these converters; I have been using two for quite some time now with good results.

In the Netherlands they can be bought for about 20 euro (look at www.panda.nl for "converter toslink coax"); you should find something like the picture shown at the bottom of the post 

Bieele 

I've hooked up the Mac Mini (MKi) to the BV7-32 MKi via L+R connectors on the back.

Previously I had the iPod hooked up to these connectors.

The BEO4 selection is "PC".

The cable for this setup is approx. max. 10 Euros. 

The Airport Express has optical digital Toslink OUT through the minijack. You really should get a converter of the kind shown above, which will convert the optical s/pdif from the Airport Express to a coax s/pdif which you can connect to one of the digital RCA IN plugs on your BV7 MK III.

You will then get full quality transfer of your audio files, and these will first be converted by the BeoSys3 in your television. BeoSys3 has much better DACs than that found in either a Mac mini or in the Airport Express itself.

So you think you get better quality, by using 3 converters?

1 converter from the Express (ADC), 1 convertor from optical to coaxial, 1 convertor from the BS3 (DAC)

Just feed the analogue signal, like Coolskin suggested, and your done! Cheap, simple and the best solution, if you ask me.

Also, the digital signal is far superior to the analogue out - seriously, night and day difference. I haven't used an analog out signal from my Macs or Airport Expresses in at least a year, ever since making a comparison.

 

Coolskin:

I've hooked up the Mac Mini (MKi) to the BV7-32 MKi via L+R connectors on the back.

Thanks. I'm going to speak to my dealer. My old BV7-32 MKI had a mini-jack to scart cable and enabled me to select A.MEM for the Airport Express.

You might be wondering why I didn't keep the cable etc? As my computer was up in the home office and there was no way of controlling the Airport Express streamed content, I got bored of the system. Now it's controllable via an iPod Touch, makes it more interesting.

Only "PC" works for me. Other buttons on my BEO4 are occupied. 

A.MEM = BS3200, V.MEM = HDR1

At the moment I have Mac Mini from the stone age. It hasn't digital out unfortunately.