Getting the most out of laptop audio output

[Mohaniias]

Hi everyone. I'm in college and am just starting to invest in some hardware of my own now that I don't have access to my parent's systems. Since I'm in a small apartment I have decided to go with Harman Kardon Soundsticks III and Sennheiser Momentums for the price and quality (After much deliberation I have decided on these for my needs so please don't critic and fill me with last minute doubt unless there are products VASTLY superior for the same price). Anyways after investing in all this fancy audio equipment I keep looking at the headphone jack on my laptop and wondering just how much quality I am losing by running it through there. I was just wondering what if any changes I can make to boost the quality of output from my laptop without any additional heavy investment (at least not yet =).

 

[Bryceo]

There's not much you can do

 

[Adam]

Hi, and welcome to the forum!

It's hard to say if you can improve it without knowing if your headphone jack is very good (the one on my MacBook Air kinda sucks), but you can always try a USB sound card and see if that improves the quality for you. There are simple, inexpensive ones like this one for $8 at Amazon (shown below) that has generally very good reviews. Another well-reviewed product is this Behringer unit for $30. There are actually several out there, and I know that you can search yourself (you did a nice job with your set-up!). If you have any questions about them, just let us know.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

I am not sure of your budget for this but I found that an outboard DAC worked best in my office system.

I used the Music Streamer 2 and it was a nice addition and a reasonable price.

"Technically, the MS II is an external sound card for computers. To improve your computer's sound quality the MS II takes over the job of processing the digital music stream from the computer that is critical to producing great sound".

Amazon.com: HRT Music Streamer II High Resolution USB D/A Converter: Electronics

HRT Music Streamer USB D/A Converter Follow-Up December 2010 | Stereophile.com

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Hmm, you in college and have a laptop - chance are it's made by Apple.. Right?
If so, forget about outboard dacs - you'll have to spend at-least $170 to get any improvements

Audioengine D1 - Audioengineusa.com

What will improve the audio quality is different speakers/headphones.
Let us know if you interesting in following this route, your budget and we will give you few ideas and recommendations.

HRT makes good dacs (according to many) but they lack headphone amp..

I do have this behringer dac - it's ok, and it's an improvement over really crappy onboard dac which still ships with some computers, but it's does pretty mediocre job as headphone amp

 

[bikemig]

There are more expensive usb dacs than the ones Adam recommended but the Behringer is a good place to start. One problem is that the dac will feed the speakers (and hopefully help out the sound quality since the dacs in most laptops are fairly inexpensive) but it won't help when listening through your headphones unless the dac has a headphone amp.

The Senn Momentums are really good headphones. Since they are low impedance (18 ohms) and fairly sensitive (at 110 dB), you don't need an amp (and any amp you do get will need to work with these headphones). They are designed to work with headphone outs, iPods, etc.

It sounds as if you haven't bought your speakers yet. I like the HK soundsticks but I think you can do better at that price (and that is where I would put my money to work). I'd check out the Swan D1080s: Swan D1080 IV active desktop loudspeaker system

 

[ParadigmDawg]

Hmm, you in college and have a laptop - chance are it's made by Apple.. Right?
If so, forget about outboard dacs - you'll have to spend at-least $170 to get any improvements

Audioengine D1 - Audioengineusa.com

What will improve the audio quality is different speakers/headphones.
Let us know if you interesting in following this route, your budget and we will give you few ideas and recommendations.

HRT makes good dacs (according to many) but they lack headphone amp..

I do have this behringer dac - it's ok, and it's an improvement over really crappy onboard dac which still ships with some computers, but it's does pretty mediocre job as headphone amp

Are the DACs in an Apple better than the HRT? I didn't know that but then again, I try to stay away from Apple stuff.

 

[ImcLoud]

Hmm, you in college and have a laptop - chance are it's made by Apple.. Right?
If so, forget about outboard dacs - you'll have to spend at-least $170 to get any improvements

Audioengine D1 - Audioengineusa.com

What will improve the audio quality is different speakers/headphones.
Let us know if you interesting in following this route, your budget and we will give you few ideas and recommendations.

HRT makes good dacs (according to many) but they lack headphone amp..

I do have this behringer dac - it's ok, and it's an improvement over really crappy onboard dac which still ships with some computers, but it's does pretty mediocre job as headphone amp

I say go with the d1 dac, I have a few of them, they work awesome.... You can get them for under $140 on ebay

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Are the DACs in an Apple better than the HRT? I didn't know that but then again, I try to stay away from Apple stuff.

HRT is just dac (good one) but does'nt have headphones amp and 3.5mm port Apple built-in dacs are pretty good - it's been tested and documented many times, I cant say if it's better than hrt or not

Above mentioned D1 is much more flexible device and arguably better class product. I got it new from manuf site for $150 with coupon I found online

 

[ParadigmDawg]

HRT is just dac (good one) but does'nt have headphones amp and 3.5mm port Apple built-in dacs are pretty good - it's been tested and documented many times, I cant say if it's better than hrt or not

Above mentioned D1 is much more flexible device and arguably better class product. I got it new from manuf site for $150 with coupon I found online

Got it, I actually wished I had of gotten the D1 when I built out my near-field office set up. Once I added the sub, volume control was an issue which the D1 would have solved.

 

[Mohaniias]

Thanks for all the feedback. Actually unknown to me, as I was getting ready to buy the HK III my Dad pointed out that he had an old 2.1 boston acoustic 6 series 2 system and an old but very nice marantz receiver in our basement storage from before he redid our basement system. So it's safe to say I'll be using those instead. While I was originally planning on just having the HKs on my desk now I plan on wiring the BAs and the receiver to the TV in my living room. My dad also pointed out the Logitech Bluetooth wireless speaker adapter selling for pretty cheap. The Bluetooth would make a lot of things easier especially switching between music and the TV without messing with wires. Now I know Bluetooth has come a long way from where it used to be for music, but how much of an effect do you think the adapter would have on my sound quality? Also the same question as how to improve my audio output only now most likely via Bluetooth?

 

[bikemig]

There are plenty of streaming devices if all you want to do is to stream music to your av receiver from the computer. You could go with an apple express or an apple tv if you want to use iTunes and each run around $100; there are other products that can do this as well.

 

[Mohaniias]

Thanks although the way the college wifi works for some reason apple tv can't use airplay. Wifi based adapters don't really work here so I'm thinking Bluetooth would be the best bet.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Thanks for all the feedback. Actually unknown to me, as I was getting ready to buy the HK III my Dad pointed out that he had an old 2.1 boston acoustic 6 series 2 system and an old but very nice marantz receiver in our basement storage from before he redid our basement system. So it's safe to say I'll be using those instead. While I was originally planning on just having the HKs on my desk now I plan on wiring the BAs and the receiver to the TV in my living room. My dad also pointed out the Logitech Bluetooth wireless speaker adapter selling for pretty cheap. The Bluetooth would make a lot of things easier especially switching between music and the TV without messing with wires. Now I know Bluetooth has come a long way from where it used to be for music, but how much of an effect do you think the adapter would have on my sound quality? Also the same question as how to improve my audio output only now most likely via Bluetooth?

BT can't stream HQ audio, unless it supports something like apt-X extension
apt-X - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Mohaniias]

Thanks to clarify would I just need a Bluetooth adapter that supports apt-x or would I also need a bt transmitter with apt-x for my comp. to get good quality?

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Thanks to clarify would I just need a Bluetooth adapter that supports apt-x or would I also need a bt transmitter with apt-x for my comp. to get good quality?

or just find much more common airplay hardware/software