Laptop, USB sound card with Optical out ... Hmmmm?

[Rob_rector]

Well I tried this out and it works pretty good.

I have a spare laptop that I wasn't using. So I hooked it up with a cat5 cable, just to keep it from dropping the wireless connection. I hid it behind my audio cabinet (still gets plenty of air circulation).

I then bought one of these on eBay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/External-7-1-USB-Sound-Card-Optical-Audio-Adapter-Cable-/120507418254?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c0ecd468e

I hooked up the optical out to my Adcom GTP-860 II optical input. It actually sounds pretty good. I think an external DAC would be a little nicer, but for a $20 device I can live with it to stream music from the computer. I have a lot of stuff in FLAC format, so it saves me from burning a ton of CD's on the stuff that is just for general listening.

Oh yeah to play the music I use MediaMonkey and stream them from my fileserver I have in the closet. I control the laptop using my wireless laptop and Microsoft Remote Desktop .... it works pretty good

I just wish I could figure out what DAC is in the GTp-860 II .... anyone know??

 

[sholling]

If you're running digital to your receiver then you are more than likely using the receiver's DACs.

 

[Rob_rector]

If you're running digital to your receiver then you are more than likely using the receiver's DACs.

Yeah I am using the preamp DACs. I'm just not sure what Adcom uses in the GTP-860 II preamp for their DACs.

I was just commenting that I think using something like a DACMagic might sound better than using the small box I am using to get the digital signal out of the PC, but I dunno .....