best way to connect your laptop to home audio

[firefighter]

I've bought a new laptop and would like to connect it to my yamaha reciever, not a permanent install just something to play the music on the computer or since I have wireless maybe play internet radio. What is the best way to do this? I want it to be clean, no trash or hum. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks Jack.

[WMcD]

I use an ordinary cord from Radio Shack. It is a stereo mini-plug to two RCA phono. They come in various lengths. I started with a 6 foot, but this hardly matters. Less than $10. It connects the headphone out from the computer to an AUX or tape input to the receiver.

Start by setting the headphone level to something reasonable to listen to on phones. You may have to play a little bit with headphone out level and the volume control on the receiver.

It works for me very well. I listened to some streaming audio from an NPR station. The bar type RTA on Win Media player is interesting to look at, but optional.

You should be able to use this to listen to an iPod, or any other walk-person type device with a headphone out.

Let us all know what you find.

Gil

[DrWho]

Nothing wrong at all with the route suggested, but you'll quickly start desiring a better sound card since the built in audio on a laptop is generally far from "hi-fi" (especially considering the only output is usually the headphone out).

So anyways, the next step from here would be to purchase an external USB/firewire sound card. You can probably find a cheapy one somewhere that has digital outputs which you can then connect to your reciever and rely on your reciever's dacs. The other option would be to get a really nice card that has better DACs and run the analog line outs.

[nicholtl]

Dr. Who's method is probably the best route. To get an external soundcard and use a toslink or coax digital cable to connect to your receiver.

Another method would be to use something like Apple's Airport Express, which would communicate with your laptop via wireless internet (assuming your laptop has a wireless card already). You'd simply plug it into a socket near your receiver, and connect the two with a digital cable. Your laptop would then wirelessly stream music to the Airport Express unit, which would in turn feed your receiver a signal via the digital cable.

[DrWho]

Ah yes, the airport express. That's another great route to go and it actually sounds very decent as well. To be honest, I was very surprised when I heard it the first time on a huge dollar tannoy system at a friend's house...he had me totally fooled at first when he said he was playing CDs.

Just be careful getting the AE if you already use wireless phones in your house. You'll have to take special care to make sure the frequencies don't interfere with each other. That wireless distortion is really not a pretty thing to listen to. My friend likes the airport express so much he went ahead and changed all the phones in his house so that he could continue using the unit!

[nicholtl]

Very true. That's why Apple has a function (after you install the software and drivers, obviously) called "Enable Interference Robustness." Funny name, I know, but it does miracles in not jamming most cordless phones running on the standard frequency bandwidths.

[OU Sig]

exactly...I have an external sound card made by Creative that has optical outputs, and that is what I hook up to the receiver. I used to use the before mentioned method - works fine, but the SQ is ok at best - though with any MP3 lower than 192kbps, it doesnt really matter how you hook it up because the SQ isnt that great to begin with

[nicholtl]

That's why I rip ONLY at 320kbps.

[eno]

Check out Xitel Hifi-link. $50, sounds great and is easy.

[firefighter]

Thanks for all the replies. Which one of these items do you think would be the cleanest. I've been told here, that klipsch speakers (being so efficient) will pick up noise other than the intended media. Are any of the above devices better than the others? I really like the idea of the airport express.

Thanks again for all your input.

Jack.

[DrWho]

I think your best bet if you're looking for the cheapest route would be to find a simple external sound card with a digital output...that you can connect digitally to your yamaha and rely on its DAC.

The Airport express is a good alternative if you want wireless capabilities between your laptop and reciever. It'd allow you to work on your laptop where you're sitting while streaming music at the same time...otherwise you'll need to find a place beside your reciever to set the laptop (and then you'd have to get up and fiddle with it to change a song or anything like that).

For the absolute most insane quality, an external card with an expensive DAC would be the best option...but if we're talking mp3's then forget it (even at 320kbps).

Btw, there are music compression formats out there that aren't lossy (in other words, they make the file smaller without losing any data...thus no sound degradation). I believe FLAC is one such method.

[Guest Anonymous]

I have an M-audio Sonica Theater that costs about a 100 bucks. Its a great external sound card that has 1 digital co-ax output. I would match this sound card up to any creative product 7 days a week. I have an internal soundblaster audigy2 plat zs and the m-audio blows it away. I would suggest this route mainly beacuse its cheaper and hard-wiring your product generally reproduces better sound.

Best,

George

[raypenn]

----------------

On 6/19/2005 3:56:08 AM DrWho wrote:

The Airport express is a good alternative if you want wireless capabilities between your laptop and reciever. It'd allow you to work on your laptop where you're sitting while streaming music at the same time...otherwise you'll need to find a place beside your reciever to set the laptop (and then you'd have to get up and fiddle with it to change a song or anything like that).

----------------

I use an M-Audio firewire audiophile external soundcard. I think that it is designed for mixing different sources, but I use it only for stereo from the internet. I use a 15 foot firewire cable to go from my laptop to the card which sits next to my amplifier. That lets me sit back and control playback, volume and equalizer settings from my normal listening chair - wired (not wireless) remote control.