Using Laptop to play music through HiFi - Quality

Toki

I have a Dell Inspiron 15R which I have started using to play my music through my HiFi via a 3.5mm lead from the laptop headphone socket to the auxillary (RCA) input on my HiFi.

However I notice the sound quality is not as good through this setup. For example, if I play a CD through the laptop using WMP (flat graphic equaliser and no enhancements) the quality is nowhere near as good as through the HiFi directly. Why is this? Would a sound card make a big difference?

I used this comparison as I realise MP3's will not sound as good as a CD due to compression.

Thanks in advance.

googler

You're already going through a (not very good) sound card, and that's the problem.

For £15 or so, get a Behringer UCA202 - this takes an audio feed out through a USB port, and gives you two audio outs L&R to connect to the HiFi.

For alternatives to the Behringer, search for 'USB DAC' and possibly look for professional audio products rather than domestic.

fwor

One reason is that a headphone output and an aux-in are neither matched for signal level nor impedance. Another is that headphone output circuits in laptops are typically cheap and not designed to give high quality sound.

A good quality sound card with line-out should give better results, and I believe you can get them USB-connected, so should work on a laptop Ok.

I find I get best results from a sound card with a digital (S/PDIF) output, which is fed into an external DAC, and from there to the amp. If you have an AV receiver it probably has at least one digital audio input that can be use for that.

Toki

googler wrote: »

You're already going through a (not very good) sound card, and that's the problem.

For £15 or so, get a Behringer UCA202 - this takes an audio feed out through a USB port, and gives you two audio outs L&R to connect to the HiFi.

For alternatives to the Behringer, search for 'USB DAC' and possibly look for professional audio products rather than domestic.

fwor wrote: »

One reason is that a headphone output and an aux-in are neither matched for signal level nor impedance. Another is that headphone output circuits in laptops are typically cheap and not designed to give high quality sound.

A good quality sound card with line-out should give better results, and I believe you can get them USB-connected, so should work on a laptop Ok.

I find I get best results from a sound card with a digital (S/PDIF) output, which is fed into an external DAC, and from there to the amp. If you have an AV receiver it probably has at least one digital audio input that can be use for that.

Thanks to both of you, I don't have a top of the range system so will go with the Behringer UCA202 and see if that improves things. Can only seem to get it for £22+ though. Thanks again!

Hammyman

Toki wrote: »

However I notice the sound quality is not as good through this setup. For example, if I play a CD through the laptop using WMP (flat graphic equaliser and no enhancements) the quality is nowhere near as good as through the HiFi directly. Why is this? Would a sound card make a big difference?

Absolutely. Built in and onboard soundcards are mediocre quality. The Creative X-Fi in my desktop walks all over the onboard - the definition and the high end response are just way better, the onboard sounds muddy and wooly.