Can I Connect Laptop to Stereo?
Discussion
Your onboard sound from the laptop is crap by default. Most laptops use the Ac97 codec of a variant of.
This is because there is no point in putting a decent soundcard into the lap top because the speakers do not have sufficient displacement in the cabinets to make them sound 'full range'.
It is very possible to get digital or CD quality audio out and the route to do this is to buy either USB powered speakers or a USB powered sound card (external) which may cost a bit more.
Even if you use the 3.5mm jack plug as you are still using the onboard sound system, the quality will be useless. By using a USB system, you are taking the unmollested digital 'source' and converting it into decent quality analogue. The External Audigy boxes also have SP-DIF output for use with digital amps if you want to go the whole hog digitally.
My friend is a DJ and he has 12000 tunes on mp3 which he plays at his gigs. He runs 2kw of sound through his PC based mp3 system, and if it fails he uses a Creative Jukebox (20gig) to get him out of trouble
The Audigy is a good choice for the money, but there may be better boxes for less money now as we built this rig 2 years ago.
This is because there is no point in putting a decent soundcard into the lap top because the speakers do not have sufficient displacement in the cabinets to make them sound 'full range'.
It is very possible to get digital or CD quality audio out and the route to do this is to buy either USB powered speakers or a USB powered sound card (external) which may cost a bit more.
Even if you use the 3.5mm jack plug as you are still using the onboard sound system, the quality will be useless. By using a USB system, you are taking the unmollested digital 'source' and converting it into decent quality analogue. The External Audigy boxes also have SP-DIF output for use with digital amps if you want to go the whole hog digitally.
My friend is a DJ and he has 12000 tunes on mp3 which he plays at his gigs. He runs 2kw of sound through his PC based mp3 system, and if it fails he uses a Creative Jukebox (20gig) to get him out of trouble
The Audigy is a good choice for the money, but there may be better boxes for less money now as we built this rig 2 years ago. The other option would be:-
http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=204&product=10769
http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=204&product=10769
jimmyjimjim said:
The other option would be:-
http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=204&product=10769
Perfect, like I said there might be something new! A bit pricey though.
Frankly, I didn't bother looking up prcies, because I suspected that it would be a tad pricey; creative do have a habit of over pricing their latest and greatest.
If you can hold off on buying it for a few months, it'll drop nicely, when they produce an updated version.
I do seem to remember someplace like tomshardware reviewing the usb soundcards and mentioning bandwidth limitations, and cpu overhead, which make me think that the pcmcia soundcard route might be the way to go.
Unless of course you plan on getting a desktop at some point....
If you can hold off on buying it for a few months, it'll drop nicely, when they produce an updated version.
I do seem to remember someplace like tomshardware reviewing the usb soundcards and mentioning bandwidth limitations, and cpu overhead, which make me think that the pcmcia soundcard route might be the way to go.
Unless of course you plan on getting a desktop at some point....
As a short-term solution, pop into Maplins and buy a 3.5mm to 2-phono lead. Plug the 3.5mm end into your laptop's headphone socket, and the 2-phono end into your stereo's AUX input.
I plug mine into a decent amp/speaker separates system by this method, and find the quality more than acceptable - not sure I'd notice any improvement by adding a USB/PCMCIA soundcard.
Incidentally until recently I used the same setup for a regular DJ residency slot, and was very happy with the sound quality. If/when the laptop crashed, I had an iPod in reserve - a slightly weird experience to have 300 people dancing to a tiny MP3 player, but seems to work fine.
>> Edited by blueski on Tuesday 4th January 11:23
I plug mine into a decent amp/speaker separates system by this method, and find the quality more than acceptable - not sure I'd notice any improvement by adding a USB/PCMCIA soundcard.
Incidentally until recently I used the same setup for a regular DJ residency slot, and was very happy with the sound quality. If/when the laptop crashed, I had an iPod in reserve - a slightly weird experience to have 300 people dancing to a tiny MP3 player, but seems to work fine.
>> Edited by blueski on Tuesday 4th January 11:23
Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff