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Topic: can a laptop soundcard drive my home music system (Read 4072 times) previous topic - next topic
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can a laptop soundcard drive my home music system

Hello 

I want to get a laptop (prolly a Dell Inspiron Dell Inspiron, to play my large collection of music files. I have a 500GB ext hard drive half full of mp3's.

I intend to connect the laptop to my Audiolab 8000A Amp and play through ProAc speakers.

I'd like to know if the laptop sound card (Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy® ADVANCED HD™ Audio- Full Version) will be sufficient to give me a good quality sound with my Hifi system.

Thanks,

can a laptop soundcard drive my home music system

Reply #1 –
It's still a sigmatel (or realtek, possibly), but it lets you use Audigy drivers. There will still be a lot of -72dB or so hiss, but if you can live with that you get the EAX reverb and surround upmix, instead of the cheesy realtek versions. If not, there are a number of PCMCIA and usb breakout boxes that you can connect to a laptop, many of which have -100 to -120dB of usable range.

If you like to crank it, and your system doesn't do any kind of reduction on it, you'll probably notice the hiss in a hurry.

can a laptop soundcard drive my home music system

Reply #2 –
Quote from: foxyshadis on
It's still a sigmatel (or realtek, possibly), but it lets you use Audigy drivers. There will still be a lot of -72dB or so hiss, but if you can live with that you get the EAX reverb and surround upmix, instead of the cheesy realtek versions. If not, there are a number of PCMCIA and usb breakout boxes that you can connect to a laptop, many of which have -100 to -120dB of usable range.

If you like to crank it, and your system doesn't do any kind of reduction on it, you'll probably notice the hiss in a hurry.


I do something similar from my laptop. Output via soundcard was pretty hissy, even at low volumes. I went with a moderate price solution USB DAC and I'm very pleased with the results.  See:

www.stereo-link.com

can a laptop soundcard drive my home music system

Reply #3 –
Quote from: foxyshadis on
... there are a number of PCMCIA and usb breakout boxes that you can connect to a laptop, many of which have -100 to -120dB of usable range.


Hello foxyshadis, thanks for the advice

I am in London and we never seem to find these things here.

I'm a bit new to this, perhaps you could tell me what to look for, that's available in England 




Hello garym, your idea looks good

You mean you just plonk this usb dac box thing, between laptop and amp.

Sounds too good to be true. Can I get 'em in England..??

can a laptop soundcard drive my home music system

Reply #4 –
Yep, the stereo-link USB DAC is very simple. I plugged the USB port into my laptop, plugged the Right and Left channel RCA analog plugs into my preamp input. Computer immediately recognized the DAC as the "soundcard" and I was in business in less than 2 minutes. I've been very happy with the outcome. I'm playing FLACs and MP3s through a dell laptop, with 500GB external USB harddrive, into ADCOM 5500 amp with Adcom Preamp and decent speakers.  I think these are only available via ordering from company via internet. Mine was delivered within a week of ordering. I'd be surprised if they didn't ship internationally. Other higher end versions of an outboard DAC exist, but this is a simple and moderate price solution that I'm  very happy with.

www.stereo-link.com

p.s. I have no connection to the company!  I may buy another one to run from my office computer to a small parasound xamp stereo in the office rather than using the inboard soundcard and PC speakers I'm currently using.

EDIT: this thing has a built in headphone amp with volume control as well. It works nicely but I don't need this in my setup. I'm strictly using this as an interface between home system and computer with music files. My CD player is getting dusty!

Quote from: anykey on
Quote from: foxyshadis on

... there are a number of PCMCIA and usb breakout boxes that you can connect to a laptop, many of which have -100 to -120dB of usable range.


Hello foxyshadis, thanks for the advice

I am in London and we never seem to find these things here.

I'm a bit new to this, perhaps you could tell me what to look for, that's available in England 




Hello garym, your idea looks good

You mean you just plonk this usb dac box thing, between laptop and amp.

Sounds too good to be true. Can I get 'em in England..??

can a laptop soundcard drive my home music system

Reply #5 –
Quote from: garym on
I plugged the USB port into my laptop, plugged the Right and Left channel RCA analog plugs into my preamp input. ... I'm playing FLACs and MP3s through a dell laptop, with 500GB external USB harddrive...


Hey garym, this is music to my ears..!! 

You're doing what I want to setup.

Dell laptop>stereo-link USB DAC>R&L channel RCA analogue to (in my case) my Amp>decent speakers.

I emailed the company last night, so I hope to hear from them when they open up on Monday morning. I have asked how the delivery costs would be to me in London.

btw, I have a home made Cmoy that a guy in Chicago made for me. Would that work just as well as the stereo-link method. I know I can set it up to try it out, but I thought I'd ask you first 
 

can a laptop soundcard drive my home music system

Reply #6 –
It should work the same way. This headphone amp is merely an external soundcard/headphone amp. May or may not work as well as stereo-link, depending on quality of components, etc. But it doesn't cost anything to hook it up!

Quote from: anykey on
Quote from: garym on

I plugged the USB port into my laptop, plugged the Right and Left channel RCA analog plugs into my preamp input. ... I'm playing FLACs and MP3s through a dell laptop, with 500GB external USB harddrive...


Hey garym, this is music to my ears..!! 

You're doing what I want to setup.

Dell laptop>stereo-link USB DAC>R&L channel RCA analogue to (in my case) my Amp>decent speakers.

I emailed the company last night, so I hope to hear from them when they open up on Monday morning. I have asked how the delivery costs would be to me in London.

btw, I have a home made Cmoy that a guy in Chicago made for me. Would that work just as well as the stereo-link method. I know I can set it up to try it out, but I thought I'd ask you first