Audio, hi-fi and car audio - Getting Hifi Speaker Sound out of PC

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Getting Hifi Speaker Sound out of PC

Anthony James wrote:
"james" wrote in message
...
OK, I asked a previous question earlier about whether I can connect
3.5mm minijack output on my PC soundcard to my hi-fi speaker.

There's nothing to stop you taking the audio line-out from a sound
card and putting it into one of the inputs on your hi-fi amplifier.

However, PCs tend to be very 'noisy' inside and you may notice a lot
of pops and whistles as other activity in the PC interferes with the
sound outputs. I'm just about to move to an external USB sound card
to get rid of this. Creative have been mentioned elsewhere in replies
but also have a look at the Philips Aurilium. USB1 can supposedly run
into bandwidth problems with multichannel sound so look for one of the
newer USB2 cards (like the Philips.)

If you've an AV amp some sound cards have an optical digital out which
you could take to the optical-in on the amp. The price of AV kit
means this may be more
cost effective if you've got optical out already and are buying the
kit new.

Finally, if you want a nice interface to play back music away from the
PC the Slim Device Squeezebox (www.slimdevices.com) is a great
solution.

I suffered quite a bit of noise from the, lets say, crappy, soundcard
integrated on my motherboard. I fixed the problem by using an offboard DAC
and an optical link to the PC. Sound is clear and in some circstances
"better than CD" :-) but no inteference at all. Get a cheap 90's DAC off
eBay and feed it into your amp.

--
Will Reeve

Getting Hifi Speaker Sound out of PC

"Anthony James" wrote in message
om
"james" wrote in message
...
OK, I asked a previous question earlier about whether I can connect
3.5mm minijack output on my PC soundcard to my hi-fi speaker.

There's nothing to stop you taking the audio line-out from a sound
card and putting it into one of the inputs on your hi-fi amplifier.

However, PCs tend to be very 'noisy' inside and you may notice a lot
of pops and whistles as other activity in the PC interferes with the
sound outputs.

It is true that activity inside a PC can cause noises in the sound, but its
not always true that using an external interface makes those noises go away.
For example, noise due to video card bus domination can affect external
audio interfaces just as easily as internal ones.

History shows that one of the first external digital audio interfaces, the
Zefiro was highly susceptable to noises due to PC operation and design.

Some people seem to think that the digital noise inside a PC is exceptional.
In fact virtually every hi fi DAC and CD player has the same noise running
around inside it. Particularly the CD player has at least one motor and a
3-D actuator mechanism. Most have a motorized tray. They almost all are full
of TTL signals with fast rise and fall times. Some even have switching power
supplies. What makes the CD player quiet sonically is not the absence of
sources of interference, but rather the care taken to avoid contamination of
its audio outputs.

It is the care taken to avoid contamination of audio outputs that makes a PC
quiet or noisy, sonically. One way to obtain this care is to upgrade to a
better audio interface, whether internal or external.

It is a false claim that putting common line-level audio circuitry inside or
outside the PC case necessarily makes an audible difference.

I'm just about to move to an external USB sound card
to get rid of this.

Depending, depending this might make things better or worse. Choose your
interface carefully, but don't choose it for sound quality based on where
the circuitry is mounted.

Getting Hifi Speaker Sound out of PC

In article ,
Alex Rodriguez wrote:

Therefore I'd like to know of another way of connecting my hi-fi speakers to
my PC. Cost plays a big part in my decision so what is the cheapest way of
achieveing this with decent results? Powered hi-fi amp? High-power
soundcard?

Get a cheap reciever and use that to power your speakers.

Agreed. I'd suggest checking with a local thrift store / charity
shop. They often have simple low-end receivers available for very
little money.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

Getting Hifi Speaker Sound out of PC

noisy sound inside pcs

No they don't. I do exactly this with my sound card (Echo MIa), and
it
is of extremely high fidelity, and has never made even the slightest
pop or whistle. If you are getting extraneous noises, it is very
likely you are running your sound card on an inadvisedly shared
interrupt. It certainly isn't normal behaviour.

I've got a Shuttle XPC and was using the onboard sound. Since this
has a single PCI slot (which is already in use). Shuttle XPCs are
known for this as well and part of the problem is likely to be the
close proximity of everything inside them.

The sound card you've mentioned is almost certainly excellent but it
also cost nearly as much as my Shuttle and 2.5times the list price of
the USB sound card i've bought.

snip
It is the care taken to avoid contamination of audio outputs that makes a PC
quiet or noisy, sonically.
and this isn't something that is very often a priority for a PC and
thus not something the designers are likely to have focused on. In a
CD player the manufacturers have full control and can ensure that
internal interference doenst occur. With a PC the user can stick a
graphics card with a gert big fan on it immediately adjacent to the
sound card.

It is a false claim that putting common line-level audio circuitry inside or
outside the PC case necessarily makes an audible difference.

maybe not in terms of a 'breakout box' but keeping the audio digital
until it's outside the box (by putting it over USB) has been effective
in my case.

Getting Hifi Speaker Sound out of PC

Laurence Payne wrote in message . ..
I'm afraid you've just confirmed one of the limitations of
ultra-compact computers.

There are a few. Unfortunately there hasn't been a lot of
intermediate ground between a full tower/desktop and something like
the shuttle for kit that takes 'desktop' rather than 'notebook' parts.
Since i'm using powered speakers the seperate sound card is actually
pretty convenient as it gives a volume control.

Getting Hifi Speaker Sound out of PC

FWIW, I've had trouble in the past with noise on the line-outs, on
both a desktop and a laptop, and in both cases it was cured (to an
acceptable degree) by wiring a common mode choke in series with the
line out - I used a 4-winding 4.7mH unit (50c from a disposals shop).
Split into separate left and right pairs, then immediately take all 4
wires through the choke, then through unbalanced shielded cable to the
amp. Of course that won't help if the noise is actually inside the PC,
but don't assume it just because it's a compact PC - the proximity can
equally well cause ground issues that DO respond to a common mode
choke.

I also had one case where a serial out from the PC to an external Midi
synth (in "Host" mode, where it accepts serial data at 38.4kb/s)
caused noise in the audio system even when nothing was happening. this
was cured by a similar common mode choke in the serial port cable.

On Mon, 29 Nov 2004 09:52:28 -0500, "Arny Krueger"
wrote:

"Anthony James" wrote in message
. com
"james" wrote in message
...
OK, I asked a previous question earlier about whether I can connect
3.5mm minijack output on my PC soundcard to my hi-fi speaker.

There's nothing to stop you taking the audio line-out from a sound
card and putting it into one of the inputs on your hi-fi amplifier.

However, PCs tend to be very 'noisy' inside and you may notice a lot
of pops and whistles as other activity in the PC interferes with the
sound outputs.

It is true that activity inside a PC can cause noises in the sound, but its
not always true that using an external interface makes those noises go away.
For example, noise due to video card bus domination can affect external
audio interfaces just as easily as internal ones.

History shows that one of the first external digital audio interfaces, the
Zefiro was highly susceptable to noises due to PC operation and design.

Some people seem to think that the digital noise inside a PC is exceptional.
In fact virtually every hi fi DAC and CD player has the same noise running
around inside it. Particularly the CD player has at least one motor and a
3-D actuator mechanism. Most have a motorized tray. They almost all are full
of TTL signals with fast rise and fall times. Some even have switching power
supplies. What makes the CD player quiet sonically is not the absence of
sources of interference, but rather the care taken to avoid contamination of
its audio outputs.

It is the care taken to avoid contamination of audio outputs that makes a PC
quiet or noisy, sonically. One way to obtain this care is to upgrade to a
better audio interface, whether internal or external.

It is a false claim that putting common line-level audio circuitry inside or
outside the PC case necessarily makes an audible difference.

I'm just about to move to an external USB sound card
to get rid of this.

Depending, depending this might make things better or worse. Choose your
interface carefully, but don't choose it for sound quality based on where
the circuitry is mounted.

Tony (remove the "_" to reply by email)