Best connection from Laptop to DacMagic...

[admin_exported]

I was wondering what the best connection would be from a laptop to my DacMagic?

 

I know I should use the Coax input on the DacMagic but what is the best method to obtain a Coax output from my laptop?

 

Thanks

 

Garry 

 

[Dave_]

well with a lot of laptops the headphone jack doubles as an optical out so would go with that, if you tell us what laptop you have i'm sure some of guys will be able to confirm whether it does have an optical out or not

 

[Anonymous]

Hello!

I have a question about the connection to DacMagic. I have a laptop (HP-Compaq NX9420) and I was wondering if my computer supports optical out (doubling as headphone jack - as said in the previous post). I think it doesn't (since headphone is "electrical" and optic output is "light")... it would be logical if it would double as coax output...The only digital outputs I have are IEEE 1394 and USB.

Anyhow, what is the best way to connect DacMagic with my computer? USB?

And one more question... Can I use my cables that connect my seperates as coax-cable? (i.e. VDH D102 MKIII) Or is this some special type of cable?

Thanks,

Nejc

 

[Anonymous]

Hi, some computers have a headphone port that doubles as an optical connection however I'm afraid your is just the headphone connection. You should therefore connect the DM to the laptop using USB, then use a regular hi-fi RCA interconnect to connect the DM to your amp (unless it has XLR balanced inputs in which case use those).

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Octopo! You're helping me out again!

My amp recieves RCA and I know that DM outputs RCA (this isn't my problem). I was asking for DM (coax) inputs, since I have digital TV with coax-out. Should I buy some diferrent cables or are RCA cables OK?

Thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

No you'll need digital co-axial cable.

 

[Anonymous]

Any recommendations?

 

[Anonymous]

Depends how much you wanna spend, Chord Codac/Prodac / QED Performance / IXOS?

 

[Anonymous]

What about Van Den Hul? Since I have D102MKIII for interconnects and CS 122 speaker cables... I am very pleased with VDH...

Budget is about 50 pounds... maybe a little bit more

 

[Anonymous]

Well there is the VideoLink if you want to keep it all one brand. Digital cables have much less of a character than analogue cables so you probably won't be able to tell many of these cables apart. If I was to recommend one around £50 though it would be the Chord Codac.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks again Octopo!

 

[Anonymous]

I'm also interested in finding out if my laptop has got that digital input. Is there a website I can check?

I have a Toshiba Equium A100-147.

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

You need to look in the specs of your laptop and look for a optical / S/PDIF / toslink interface or connection. In your case momo72 it seems not.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks.

Well in that case, I'll go USB then. Looks like I don't have much choice, do I?...