laptop: headphone out to RCA in -- good or bad?

[supervij]

My laptop (a Gateway M6319) doesn't have HDMI out, and doesn't have SPDIF out either. It does have a headphone jack, and I've just been given a headphone-to-RCA cable, which I'd like to use, since it was free, and since my Oppo player doesn't support FLAC files.

I did read about a $30 USB dongle that has RCA and digital audio out, so that's a route that I might take, depending on my question.

My use would be primarily for FLAC files, although I suppose I could use it for CDs, mp3s, etc., though I don't expect to do so. Can I expect any sound degradation in using this headphone-to-RCA cable to connect my laptop to my receiver?

cheers,
supervij

 

[lsiberian]

My laptop (a Gateway M6319) doesn't have HDMI out, and doesn't have SPDIF out either. It does have a headphone jack, and I've just been given a headphone-to-RCA cable, which I'd like to use, since it was free, and since my Oppo player doesn't support FLAC files.

I did read about a $30 USB dongle that has RCA and digital audio out, so that's a route that I might take, depending on my question.

My use would be primarily for FLAC files, although I suppose I could use it for CDs, mp3s, etc., though I don't expect to do so. Can I expect any sound degradation in using this headphone-to-RCA cable to connect my laptop to my receiver?

cheers,
supervij

Most laptops output speaker signals through the headphone jacks. You'll want a stereo Y-cable to hook them up.

If you want to listen dolby digital head to office depot(Only they carry them) and get a Sound Blaster Live 5.1 external USB sound card. You'll want to use Windows to run it if your system is Vista based so only install the driver. The creative software is useless. For 50 bucks it was well worth it for me.

 

[Adam]

I would think that the digital connection would be better, but I'd suggest buying that dongle from someplace to which you can return it (or borrow one from a friend) and checking out the differences for yourself. I got my parents one of the Turtle Beach dongles when their sound card stopped working, and it worked great.

 

[skers_54]

From my experience, a usb soundcard that outputs digital audio signals is well worth the 30 or so bucks. My old laptop only had analog outs and it was quite noisy compared to the digital connection on my current laptop. The difference between analog and digital is less pronounced on my new one though. Also, using a digital input would eliminate the ADC required to apply processing (if you think that process makes a difference. I don't). Adam's advice is great: buy a cheap usb card and compare it to the analog outs. Return it if you don't like it

 

[supervij]

Hey guys, thanks for the replies!

lsiberian, I should have been more clear. The headphone-to-RCA is actually a headphone-to-stereo RCA cable. Single headphone connector on one end, red & white stereo connectors on the other.

Adam and skers, maybe I'll have to try this USB dongle or sound card approach. Adam, I saw the link you made to the Turtle Beach dongle in another thread; that's what got me thinking along these lines. I'll have to hunt around for a store that will accept returns on briefly-used items -- that might be the hard part! skers, my laptop isn't noisy at all, so that isn't an issue. Plus, it's relatively new -- release date was about a year ago, I think. So maybe the sound won't be as bad as earlier laptops?

In the meantime, I'll have to wait til I get home tonight to try out the headphone-to-stereo RCA cable. If it sounds good enough, I might stick with it. Or convert the FLAC files to WAV files and throw them on a blank CD.

Is the headphone jack a low-quality audio out? I'm wondering just how much signal degradation I can expect if I use it. Has anyone used one and found a noticeable difference between that and a USB digital out?

cheers,
supervij

 

[skers_54]

Hey guys, thanks for the replies!

lsiberian, I should have been more clear. The headphone-to-RCA is actually a headphone-to-stereo RCA cable. Single headphone connector on one end, red & white stereo connectors on the other.

Adam and skers, maybe I'll have to try this USB dongle or sound card approach. Adam, I saw the link you made to the Turtle Beach dongle in another thread; that's what got me thinking along these lines. I'll have to hunt around for a store that will accept returns on briefly-used items -- that might be the hard part! skers, my laptop isn't noisy at all, so that isn't an issue. Plus, it's relatively new -- release date was about a year ago, I think. So maybe the sound won't be as bad as earlier laptops?

In the meantime, I'll have to wait til I get home tonight to try out the headphone-to-stereo RCA cable. If it sounds good enough, I might stick with it. Or convert the FLAC files to WAV files and throw them on a blank CD.

Is the headphone jack a low-quality audio out? I'm wondering just how much signal degradation I can expect if I use it. Has anyone used one and found a noticeable difference between that and a USB digital out?

cheers,
supervij

My "new" laptop that I referenced is about a year old as well, so I would bet it's pretty comparable to yours. The big issue with the laptop DACs is that they were designed to drive high-efficiency headphones rather than external audio components. Will yours degrade the sound quality? Hard to tell unless you test it. A quick test you could perform with your components is to play a cd from your player and compare that to the same songs from your computer. I assume you have your cd player connected digitally, so it should sound the same as a USB card outputing digital. That should give you a ballpark idea about how much improvement something like the Turtle Beach will give you.

When using your laptop's analog outs, make sure the volume is set below max (I used ~70%) to make sure the headphone output isn't clipping. IIRC, max volume corresponds pretty closely to the line output from a CD/DVD/etc. player but I don't think it has as much headroom. Using a digital output will eliminate the risk of overdriving the laptop's output and makes level-matching between your CD player and laptop easier.

 

[supervij]

Got back into town a while ago, and got the chance to give the cable a test:

I ripped the Tori Amos song, "God" (first half-minute or so is great for a quick listening test) into FLAC, and left it on my hard drive. Then I listened to the CD in my Oppo player -- sounded amazing. Then I hooked up the laptop to the receiver using the headphone-to-stereo RCA cable, and listened to the same song -- sounded a little less than amazing.

Through the laptop, there were audio artifacts going on throughout the song, as well as what I can only describe as a faint crackling -- low in volume, but noticeable, especially after listening to the CD in the Oppo. And this could be just my imagination, but the music through the laptop seemed a little constrained somehow. Anyway, this confirms that while the use of this new cable might be acceptable for casual listening, I'll have to find another method for enjoying listening to FLACs. Maybe the Turtle Beach dongle is what I need.

Thanks so much for your help and opinions, everyone!

cheers,
Vij

 

[Hi Ho]

Many laptops have less than stellar analog audio output. My Toshiba laptop has surprisingly good analog output. I actually use it to play fill music at live shows and it sounds superb with no noise or artifacts at all. The microphone input is a different story; noise and artifacts galore.

 

[Harrison476]

Many laptops have less than stellar analog audio output. My Toshiba laptop has surprisingly good analog output. I actually use it to play fill music at live shows and it sounds superb with no noise or artifacts at all. The microphone input is a different story; noise and artifacts galore.

hey Hi-Ho:

I just got a new toshiba laptop also. I got a mini-jack to rca (right and left) from monoprice, and tried it. It sounded pretty good but the spl output was very low? I had to turn the receiver way up to get a moderate listening level??
It also has HDMI out- great video however no audio.

 

[Hi Ho]

Did you turn the volume of the laptop up? When you plug in headphones (or the adapter cable) the volume level is independent of the internal speakers so even though you may have had the volume up for the speakers the headphone output may be turned down.

 

[lsiberian]

hey Hi-Ho:

I just got a new toshiba laptop also. I got a mini-jack to rca (right and left) from monoprice, and tried it. It sounded pretty good but the spl output was very low? I had to turn the receiver way up to get a moderate listening level??
It also has HDMI out- great video however no audio.

there are literally thousands of volume controls in windows.

Start with the Control Panel Sound area.

It's insane how many places a volume can be muted.