Playing laptop through hifi

[admin_exported]

Hi,

I have a friend who is keen to be able to play music from his laptop through his hifi. Although I'm very into hifi I have no experience with this and have a few questions.

My first thought was to connect the laptop to a Beresford Caiman DAC (via USB?), and then to the amp and so forth in the usual manner.

However, I have just googled the question and someone has stated that laptops have a DAC themselves? One would imagine a pretty poor one if this is the case.

What is the best way of bypassing this inboard DAC, and getting a digital output that can then be fed to an outboard DAC.

He essentially wants to be able to plug his laptop in, load up Spotify, and play music through his hifi.

Thanks in advance.

 

[John Duncan]

You're on the right lines. Laptops can be very noisy electrically, so whilst they do have DACs built in (and a headphone socket to play audio out of), it's very difficult to get a good audio signal from one whilst it's plugged into the mains - getting the audio away from the interference inside one is therefore a Good Thing.

The Beresford has a USB input, which basically makes it the soundcard for the PC, which in my experience goes a long way to doing so, though is not 100% successful (though it may be perfectly acceptable to your mate). Note that there are plenty of other DACs which might be a bit cheaper than the Caiman - the vanilla version, the Musical Fidelity V-DAC, various Fubars etc etc.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your reply.

So just to clarify, if one was to connect a laptop to a DAC via a USB cable, then the rest of the hifi system as usual, you would gain respectable sound quality?

One last question. Is there any settings that you have to change on your laptop in order to 'send the signal down the USB' as opposed to the laptop just playing the music in it's normal manner? Or is it simply the case that if you have the system setup as explained above then when you click to play a music file it will simply play through your hifi as desired?

 

[John Duncan]

joeparnell:
Thanks for your reply.

So just to clarify, if one was to connect a laptop to a DAC via a USB cable, then the rest of the hifi system as usual, you would gain respectable sound quality?

Yes, very much so. I've done this with both a DACMagic and a Fubar IV with stunning results.

joeparnell:Is there any settings that you have to change on your laptop in order to 'send the signal down the USB' as opposed to the laptop just playing the music in it's normal manner? Or is it simply the case that if you have the system setup as explained above then when you click to play a music file it will simply play through your hifi as desired?

In my experience the DAC has been recognised immediately and It's Just Worked. However, it's possible that it may not automatically switch over, in which case you would need to go into your audio settings and make sure the DAC is selected as the audio source. Precisely what settings need to be made ought to be obvious (there'll be a new audio source which may say 'USB audio Device' or, as in my case, 'C-Media USB Headphone Set'), but will depend on your particular DAC and PC (or indeed Mac) combination. But once that's set, you're away.

 

[Anonymous]

Brilliant!

Thanks alot for that buddy!

 

[smuggs]

i rang accer and they told me that with the mains in it could make the laptop give off some noise up to 26db and it would be better running of the battery. The thing i asked was about the soundcard and the dac inside and he said (as if i was a 5 year old) that if you take the sound out usb/hdmi then the dac is bypassed and it would require a dac i.e from a home cinema amp or a standalone dac. Then i asked him about the soundcard and he say that on my laptop it will always run through it but on a meaning if i muted the sound on the laptop no sound would come out but he said that if you taking a digital feed out it is just going through it and the signal is almost 100%. Jd does any of that sound right or is he just feeding me a load of bull.

 

[John Duncan]

smuggs:i rang accer and they told me that with the mains in it could make the laptop give off some noise up to 26db and it would be better running of the battery.

Correct, until your battery runs out...

smuggs:The thing i asked was about the soundcard and the dac inside and he said (as if i was a 5 year old) that if you take the sound out usb/hdmi then the dac is bypassed and it would require a dac i.e from a home cinema amp or a standalone dac.

Correct.

smuggs:Then i asked him about the soundcard and he say that on my laptop it will always run through it but on a meaning if i muted the sound on the laptop no sound would come out but he said that if you taking a digital feed out it is just going through it and the signal is almost 100%. Jd does any of that sound right or is he just feeding me a load of bull.

Not sure I get the last bit - 'it will always run through it'? What will? 'if you taking a digital feed out it is just going through it' - again, what are the 'it's in that sentence?

 

[smuggs]

what i have tried get my head round is when i get a dac i am going usb out of my accer laptop to the dac and then to the stereo amp by inters which is great easy. Then people keep saying you need to bypass the internal sound card for better sound. But the tech guy from dell and accer which i have spoke to have both said that you cant bypass it but can go through it at no real quailty loss. So what i was thinking is that if you hit mute on the laptop the sound would not come out the usb.

 

[The_Lhc]

FWIU if you use a USB connection to the DAC you are bypassing the internal soundcard. The DAC effectively becomes an external soundcard.

 

[John Duncan]

smuggs:what i have tried get my head round is when i get a dac i am going usb out of my accer laptop to the dac and then to the stereo amp by inters which is great easy. Then people keep saying you need to bypass the internal sound card for better sound. But the tech guy from dell and accer which i have spoke to have both said that you cant bypass it but can go through it at no real quailty loss. So what i was thinking is that if you hit mute on the laptop the sound would not come out the usb.

Well right this second I'm running a Fubar IV via USB on Windows XP, and when I mute the PC, the sound still comes out of the Fubar. This may not be the case for all OSes or DACs, but does that answer the question?

 

[John Duncan]

As an aside though - there's a difference between muting the PC and changing the volume on your media player - for example, if you turn down the volume on Spotify, then the volume *does* go down through the DAC. Does that make sense?

 

[Nadeac]

I always thought a laptop never had a hardware DAC ,but conversion was taken care of via a special windows file {cant remember what its called }

Also thought thats what the like of FOOBAR2000 is for, it makes a sound file bypass that windows file?

Mark

 

[JoelSim]

joeparnell:
Hi,

I have a friend who is keen to be able to play music from his laptop through his hifi. Although I'm very into hifi I have no experience with this and have a few questions.

My first thought was to connect the laptop to a Beresford Caiman DAC (via USB?), and then to the amp and so forth in the usual manner.

However, I have just googled the question and someone has stated that laptops have a DAC themselves? One would imagine a pretty poor one if this is the case.

What is the best way of bypassing this inboard DAC, and getting a digital output that can then be fed to an outboard DAC.

He essentially wants to be able to plug his laptop in, load up Spotify, and play music through his hifi.

Thanks in advance.

Check whether your friend's CDP has a digital in socket. If it does you can stream through the DAC on the CDP. That's what I do.

 

[smuggs]

thanks thats what i thought its either they have no idea or my laptops are not that good but i tried it with hdmi and it did not work. But after scan forums i have found that usb finds/installs a driver which allows the soundcard to be bypassed nice one lads

 

[smuggs]

yes. and i keep spotify on 75% do you lose SQ the higher you go say 100%