In article , Mark Lewis
wrote:
I am buying a laptop to use with a hifi eg iPlayer or YouTube through
line out to amp.

Would a low end 300 quid Dell give the same results as a more expensive
laptop or are there quality issues with the choice?

What would be a good choice of laptop dedicated to that use ie plugged
in most of the time to the hifi?

My experience is that it simply 'pot luck' when relying on internal sound
hardware. In fact *none* of the four 'IBM type' machines I've used in
recent years gave satisfactory results that way. I'd recommend:

A) using an external USB DAC. Preferrably one that does the new transfer
modes like asynch/isochronous.

B) Get one which has no fan, or rarely needs a fan to come on.

I'd also recommend using Linux, but that is more optional. :-)

Slainte,

Jim

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