PC Music, Best method to choose? And how to connect.

[ahill698]

I'm stuck, whats the best way to get music from my Sony Laptop using lossless files, it has a 3.5mm jack or optical output. My budget is 350.00, ideally not too large speakers but would like it loud enough to be heard over several rooms.

I have access to a pair of B&W M1'S but dont know how to connect and also looked at KRK Rokit 5 actice speaker but same again i dont know how to connect.

Any suggestions?

 

[professorhat]

You'll be able to connect to the active speakers direct via a 3.5mm cable (like this one or this one depending on the connections available on the KRKs. NB - I'm not recommending these cables or Play.com necessarily, just to give you an idea of the lead you'll need).

For the B&Ws, you'll need at least an amplifier to drive them - lots of options can be found here and here in your budget.

With computer based music on a PC and with lossless files, it's probably a good option to add an external DAC (like these) which allow you to output from your laptop using the optical output into the DAC and then standard analogue outputs into the KRKs or the stereo amplifer as above. This will improve the sound quality as the DACs within built in soundcards on laptops tend to be pretty poor in comparison to a decent dedicated external one. As you can see from the link, they come in a variety of prices!

 

[ahill698]

Thanks Very much I'll explore those options.