easiest connection between laptop & stereo receiver?

[peace brainerd]

I'd like to use my high-speed laptop connection to listen to radio webbroadcasts through my stereo system. It would be ideal if this ran continually while I was able to use my laptop normally. I did do some searching, but there is SOO much information out there. I guess i don't know quite how to narrow it down. It would seem that the simplest answer would be a pcmcia soundcard wired to the stereo, but I really don't know.

If someone could point me to the most appropriate thread here, I'll just delete this one. Thanks.

[sreten]

Hi,

presumably your laptop already has a soundcard of some sort, why not use that ?

/sreten.

[peace brainerd]

That's probably an excellent question. Last time i had wanted to accomplish this was five years ago with an older laptop. It too had a soundcard, but I recall going round in circles trying to get connected to my stereo. I wasn't able to simply jack a connection from the headphone outlet to the back of the stereo. I don't remember now what the problem was, but after seeking a lot of advice I finally just gave up. Five years on I would expect many more "off the shelf" solutions to this, but should I just try the headset jack connection again?

[peace brainerd]

Ok, I connected the headphone jack to the line inputs on the integrated amp. Line level seemed most listenable through the Tuner section. It's listenable, but still disappointing. Plenty of hum, but perhaps I need to get a better quality cable or ground the laptop to the amp.

This little excercise is starting to jog the memory. I seem to recall now that the soundcard in my old (ancient) laptop from five years back was so elementally bad that it sounded horrific piped into the stereo. This laptop is much better, but still pretty bad. It's a 2003 toshiba 24xx series with win me.

I'll leave this thread up for a while yet so that others may add advice or just chuckle at my ignorance. It's ok, I do it all the time!

.... well, good solid chassis to chassis ground did nothing for the hum.
Must be the cheap cable.

[zlast]

Hum...welcome the the world of connecting a PC to Audio...
(see this thread : Adcom GTP-400 ground loop )

You are sufferning from a ground loop between your PC and Audio gear. THis can be difficult to eliminate. I could not completely elimiate the ground loop problem (HUM) using different grounding technics for the equipment. I have ordered an outboard DAC with SPDIF to RCA, that way I can send optical out of the PC which should completely break the ground loop (no current carrying wiring between devices). The DAC should arrive shortly I will let you know if the problem is resolved. You should check, depending on your equipment you may be able to make this type (SPDIF) of connection directly, which would solve your ground loop issue.

[peace brainerd]

thank you zlast. I would be interested to know how it works... and if it was very expensive.

[zlast]

Actually the DAC was rather inexpensive (Monster Cable Entech Number Cruncher 203.2) Amazon has it for $39...you might also try plugging the AC adapter of your laptop into the AC outlet on the back of your reciever (assuming it has an AC outlet) This may significantly reduce the amount of hum...DAC arrives next week

[gmarsh]

If your receiver has a Toslink optical input, how about something like this?

http://www.turtlebeach.com/site/prod...udioadv/micro/

[peace brainerd]

I don't have an optical input in my amp. I did see those usb cards while searching this on the web. There are a few of them out there, but I suspect that their target is someone who would otherwise be satisifed with the fidelity of his internal sound card, but is interested in the "virtual surround" multi channel converting that this device injects into the mix. Every usb dac that i found had this feature. I'm looking for the best fidelity I can find.

[Gretsch6136]

I'm no expert but I would suggest that to plug your laptop into the same AC power source that your Hi-Fi is plugged into. This should give them both the same common grounding point and eliminate any hum from ground loops.

Second shot is to try another known good cable. Maybe the one you have has a dodgy plug or something.

Thirdly, how close have you got the laptop to the amp? Maybe the computer is emitting EMF which is being picked up by the amp, or the trannie in the amp is emitting the EMF and its being picked up by the computer??

Other than this, why don't you leave the computer at work and just put on a good old vinyl record?

Cheers,

Mark