Connecting PC to AV Amp for Music. AV Receiver Cambridge Audio 640R.

[admin_exported]

Having just upgraded TV to flatscreen with connection to use as PC monitor I am getting a bit carried away with the idea of parking my old lap top on the rack by the TV to show off Digital photos.

While I am at it I thought I would explore the world of digitaly stored music but I am not sure how best to connect the lap top to the amp. Presumably a jack from the headphone socket to phono would work, but it seems a bit Mickey Mouse. As the amp is equipped to take digital inputs (optical or coax) I wondered if there was a way of utilising this as I feel that the Amp would make a better job of ultimately producing an analogue signal to the speakers than the Lap Top would of converting digital to analogue.

I have read in past issues about the benefits of using a DAC, like Cambridge Audio DAc Magic, and may well go this route in the future, but at this stage this is a bit of an experiment, so I would like to hold back on spending too much right now, unless the DAC, with my Blue Ray player, could repklace my CD player.

Questions:

1) Is there a way of connecting Lap Top to Amp other than Headphone Socket?

2) If I were to buy a DAC Magic could I sell my CD Player (Cambridge Audio 640C v2) and use my Blue Ray Player (Panasonic DMP-BD55), routed through the DAC, for CDs, with comparable results?

 

[Andrew Everard]

Sort of depends on whether your laptop has a digital audio output.

If not, and it's wi-fi'd, you could use something like Apple's Airport Express to do the thing wirelessly, but the headphone socket to line-in on the receiver is the fast and dirty (and cheap) way of doing it.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Andrew,

Thanks again (you helped me with another query a couple of days ago) I will try it out using the Headphone Socket, and if I get on with it think about the DAC later.

What do you think about getting a DAC, getting rid of the CD player and using the Blue Ray to play CDs?

Having read the brief comments in this months issue I am quite keen on the idea of a DAC, but I am a bit short of rack space until I can persuade "she who must be obeyed" that we really don't need the VHS recorder any more because its only current use is as a large electronic clock!!

According to Cambridge Audio's web site using the DAC gives a better performance than the 640C alone. What I don't know is how much of the quality comes from the electronics and how much from the mechanical bits?

Thanks again,

Phil Wedgwood