firefighter Posted February 6, 2006 Share Posted February 6, 2006 I connected my laptop to my Yamaha receiver with very limited results. The first way was with a simple fm transmitter from the headphone port, low power and poor quality , I figured as much. The second way was to use a direct audio cable from the headphone port that split into left and right RCAs and connect that into the extra dvd inputs on the back of the receiver. The results were low power, quality was better. Is there a better way to get good quality sound with the proper volume response. I did make sure the I-tunes (default player on the laptop) player volume was near max as well as the volume control on the front of the laptop. Is it possible to put a phono amp between the laptop and the receiver. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shade Posted February 7, 2006 Share Posted February 7, 2006 Turning the volume controls all the way up on the software & the laptop is not necessarily the best thing to do. Depending on the sound card in the laptop, that can cause a fair bit of distortion. Try it again with the volume controls at 3/4 and play with it a bit. That said, it may still not be to your satisfaction. The headphone jack on the the laptop is meant for a pair of basic heaphones, and may not be capable of the sound quality you're looking for. If the above doesn't work out for you, you may want to look into some type of external sound card with a digital output. I know there are some usb spdif devices that are popular with the folks running music servers. I've seen a few threads here discussing them. Otherwise, for something readily available in a local store, Creative makes an external sound card for laptops. I'm not a big fan of creative, but it'll do what you're looking for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ranjith Posted February 7, 2006 Share Posted February 7, 2006 I second what Shade said. I tried hooking up my laptop as well and it sounded absolutely horrible. Then I tried using my roomate's external sound cart with digital output, and it sounded a lot better but still not up to par. I'm not sure you'll be very successful finding the old threads with the current search feature, but If my memory serves me right a forum member here by the moniker of "rplace" plays all his music through a server. He might be able to help you better if you could PM him. But I'm sorry if I've gotten that wrong, worth a shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted February 7, 2006 Share Posted February 7, 2006 I looked into this recently. There are good external soundcards out there for $100 or so. If your receiver has good DAC's, use a toshlink (digital out). If not, gte a soundcard with good DAC's (I think that the Audiophile 2496 is supposed to be decent). Try googling "soundcard external usb" Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobbyT Posted February 7, 2006 Share Posted February 7, 2006 If you have wifi capability in your laptop then get an apple airport express. I use one to listen to internet radio and it sounds real good. Well real good for streaming off of the net. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firefighter Posted February 7, 2006 Author Share Posted February 7, 2006 Thanks for all the replies. I guess I need to get my expectations right so let me ask this. Will all the above suggestions or any others give me the volume response that you get while playing FM stations? I'm sure I wont get CD or DVD quality but I do need a comparable. If I play music from my hard drive through the laptop with the previously tried methods, a -20 on the volume will compare to a -50 while playing an FM station, if that makes sense. What kind of volume should I get compared to the volume of FM? Thanks Jack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DTLongo Posted February 7, 2006 Share Posted February 7, 2006 "The second way was to use a direct audio cable from the headphone port that split into left and right RCAs and connect that into the extra dvd inputs on the back of the receiver." My laptop worked fine conected that way on CD's, audio files and Internet radio. It is a relatively new (less than 1 year old) Compaq. I'm out of town so I don't have its specs right handy. Maybe your problem is an older laptop with a perhaps older and weaker sound card. Yet, if it runs headphones OK, it should be able to run an aux or similar high-level input on your receiver OK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shade Posted February 8, 2006 Share Posted February 8, 2006 Thanks for all the replies. I guess I need to get my expectations right so let me ask this. Will all the above suggestions or any others give me the volume response that you get while playing FM stations? I'm sure I wont get CD or DVD quality but I do need a comparable. If I play music from my hard drive through the laptop with the previously tried methods, a -20 on the volume will compare to a -50 while playing an FM station, if that makes sense. What kind of volume should I get compared to the volume of FM? Thanks Jack. With a decent external sound card volume won't be a problem. Also, if you're using the digital output on a decent external card, playing back wav files (non-compressed audio) you should be able to get close or equal to CD quality. If you're playing back MP3s or some other compressed audio format you won't be able to get CD quality as some quality is lost during compression. Although if the files are compressed with a higher bitrate they can still sound pretty good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snilsen13 Posted February 9, 2006 Share Posted February 9, 2006 Look into a Squeezebox. You can get one for $250. You will love it. As a CD transport substitute it suposedly ranks up there with the best (unaffordable). -Steven Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted February 9, 2006 Share Posted February 9, 2006 Thanks for all the replies. I guess I need to get my expectations right so let me ask this. Will all the above suggestions or any others give me the volume response that you get while playing FM stations? I'm sure I wont get CD or DVD quality but I do need a comparable. If I play music from my hard drive through the laptop with the previously tried methods, a -20 on the volume will compare to a -50 while playing an FM station, if that makes sense. What kind of volume should I get compared to the volume of FM? Let me get this straight...you are getting good results with the RCA cable plugged into the headphone jack? But you don't like that you have to turn the volume up on the reciever? Is the volume at an acceptable level after you crank it up to -20, or do you still want more? What volume do you have the reciever when listening to a cd or dvd player? I think you're just over thinking the number on the reciever...it's there just as a reference for that particular source. And yes, it is a common trend for radio stations to be much much hotter than normal line level devices (which will correspond to you wanting to turn the volume down). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robster Posted February 9, 2006 Share Posted February 9, 2006 Hmmm.. Squeezebox,www.redwineaudio.com modifies those. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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