Laptop to Stereo connection.??

[gingersmarty]

Hi All,

Just a quick question, having just got spotify premium, what is the best way to connect the laptop to my cyrus system, i presume its via a cable( currently using an E-bay special via the headphone output on the laptop), does the quality of the cable make much of a difference?,( i can feel the lid being loosened on that can of worms!!!).

Sean.

 

[professorhat]

Cable quality will definitely make a difference in this case, so a good quality 3.5mm to RCA phono cable (like the Chord iChord) should help improve things.

What laptop do you have? Do you know if it has an optical out - sometimes the headphone socket doubles as an optical line out as well so this is worth investigating. If so, you could look to adding an external DAC which would then run into your Cyrus setup and could well provide good improvements.

 

[pwiles1968]

Do you have any form of optical input in to your amp? if you want a cheap way of connecting a laptop you could try one of thease the problem with laptop outputs are that they are generally quite noisy, I found a large improvement going from a HP cable connection to an outboard DAC in my AV amp.

 

[idc]

Does the cable quality make a difference? In terms of construction yes, particularly the quality of the connector. So an ebay special is fine, as long as it connects securely. Regarding buying more expensive optical etc cables, some say there is a sound quality difference and some do not. Also, in terms of sound quality, so far from what I have read and experienced, optical is the noisiest and USB is the most limited in terms of data transfer. But the general consensus is that such differences are very minor at the moment with present technology. If a USB 3 comes out this may change, but probably not significantly.

Overall though you will get far more from the above two suggestions than from a different cable.

 

[professorhat]

Well, remember we're talking about an analogue 3.5mm to RCA phono cable at the moment, not an optical cable (I'm not going to get anywhere near an optical cable discussion!). So unless the laptop has an optical out, the best you can do with what's supplied is upgrade this 3.5mm to RCA phono cable.

However, I knew I'd forgotten something and, as pwiles1968 has said, you could get an external USB soundcard with an optical output, then hook this into an external DAC / the internal Cyrus amp's DAC (if it has one) to improve the quality.

 

[John Duncan]

Irrespective of the quality of the cable, it's very likely that the headphone output of your average laptop is fairly rubbish, especially when you have it plugged into the power supply - my (non-cheap-as-chips) Sony Vaio sounds like a washing machine out of its headphone socket when it's plugged into the mains (and much less so on battery only).

I'd take steps to get the audio circuitry out of the laptop, either by getting a USB sound card or streaming to a wireless client like airport express or squeezebox.

 

[gingersmarty]

just to add as some people think it may make a difference in how i approach things the cyrus stuff is,

cd8x

pre xvs

x-power.

sean

 

[John Duncan]

Then indeed the cable is the least of your worries. You should be thinking seriously about a DAC in that setup if you want the best out of it (though as I say a streamer will be a good start).

 

[Anonymous]

idc:
... USB is the most limited in terms of data transfer. But the general consensus is that such differences are very minor at the moment with present technology. If a USB 3 comes out this may change, but probably not significantly.

To be precise, USB 2 is more than adequate for music at high resolution in terms of the maximal datastream it can sustain, no need for USB 3. Problem lies in the USB Audio definition, with 48k/16 bits as the highest sampling rate that made it into the official specification, With higher than CD quality files becoming available (96/24) USB Audio (and the current USB DACs based on the original spec's) has a problem.

 

[professorhat]

Is this only for Spotify or are you looking to move to a computer based music setup? Just checking as some of these suggestions seem to be getting quite pricey and it really depends what you're looking to achieve as to whether these are worth it e.g. just a quick listen to Spotify to see if you like a new album, then probably not, but if you're looking to use it as a main music source as a few others do
here, then we're strolling into external soundcard / DAC territory.

 

[John Duncan]

Agreed, was getting carried away vicariously spending other people's money...

But I still say that getting sound away from your computer is a good idea, either with a modest external soundcard (M-Audio Transit is a good place to start for about 50 quid) or by streaming to an airport express or similar (£79 and upwards)

 

[gingersmarty]

I'm pretty much open minded, i have begun to think the future is becoming more digital/pc based. If i could maintain good quality sound i think i would be tempted down the pc route. A brief google has thrown up Chord Gem and a dongle for bluetoothing the pc, any views on this as a start.

Is the longer term typical HIFI, meaning expensive?

Sean

 

[John Duncan]

You can more than maintain quality, you can exceed that of even quite expensive CD players for relatively modest outlay (in my experience). I think the Chord Gem is a bit expensive though for what it is - there are cheaper options which use USB or optical to the same end (search here for Beresford and DACMagic, or if you're feeling adventuorus, Benchmark, Lavry and Stello, or even Cyrus' own DACs or DAC-equipped amps).

But first thing's first - get the audio signal away from your noisy laptop, otherwise you'll think you've plugged in a hairdryer. A fifty quid external soundcard (plus the cable you mention to begin with) is the least your reasonably stellar system deserves, or alternatively Airport Express and Squeezebox are relatively affordable ways into doing the same thing via wireless streaming - you'll find opinions on all of the above (many of them mine, the zealot that I am) elsewhere on the forums.

cheers

JD

 

[gingersmarty]

thanks for all the great advice,

for my information i get the sound card, this plugs into the laptop, then any of tha dacs mentioned plug into the sound card, is this right?

sorry to sound dim

sean.

 

[professorhat]

Yup, if you get an external USB soundcard with both an analogue (RCA phono) and a digital output (be that USB, optical or coaxial), this then gives you the option to at first just run a standard RCA phono cable from the soundcard to the amp which will improve things over your current setup. You could also then, if you wish, add the external DAC, in which case you'd run the digital output of the soundcard to the DAC and the DAC then hooks into your amp using standard analogue RCA phono cables.

 

[John Duncan]

 

[gingersmarty]

finally, i couple of examples of good external sound cards,

thanks Sean

 

[John Duncan]

In ascending order...

Creative X-Fi Go
M-Audio Transit
Firestone Audio Fubar II
Beresford TC-7520 (?)
Cambridge Audio DACMagic

All of those will work as USB soundcards, though the higher up the list you go, the more they look like actual hifi and have things like optical in as well...

 

[gingersmarty]

thanks again,

Sean