Output sound to external DAC

[HAWC145]

Hello all,
I am new to the forums and my laptop.However I have one question about my sound,

Is it possible to take the sound from my laptop without is passing though my laptops DAC (Digital to Analauge converter) and feed the sound into the DAC on my Cyrus CD player 6XP (2010 Edition) and then onto my amplifier, so I can experenice the higher quality from the CD players DAC rather than my computers.

The ports I have on my laptop are:

1x Headphones out
3x USB
1x Card Reader
1x Microphones In
1x VGA out
1x Network out



Thanks


Harry Cross

 

[CommonTater]

Hello all,
I am new to the forums and my laptop.However I have one question about my sound,

Is it possible to take the sound from my laptop without is passing though my laptops DAC (Digital to Analauge converter) and feed the sound into the DAC on my Cyrus CD player 6XP (2010 Edition) and then onto my amplifier, so I can experenice the higher quality from the CD players DAC rather than my computers.

The ports I have on my laptop are:

1x Headphones out
3x USB
1x Card Reader
1x Microphones In
1x VGA out
1x Network out



Thanks


Harry Cross

Short answer ... probably not.

However, there are some high quality dacs on the market that will connect to your computer by USB or Firewire and deliver mind blowing good sound... There's a lot of them and at a very wide range of prices, so do some google searches....

But do let me caution you... unless you have exceptionally good audio gear the audible improvements are likely to be lost to plastic speaker boxes, weak power supplies and poorly designed sub-woofers....

DAC vs Soundcard on high end gear such as McIntosh Audio... "WOW"
DAC vs Soundcard on $199 home theater in a box... "Why did I waste my money".

 

[not so gray matter]

If you want a decent laptop sound card, grab a Sound Blaster X-FI USB 5.1. It may not be able to do what you want but it made my sound go from ugh (Realtek) to nice (SB).

Newegg.com - Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 SB1090 5.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz USB Interface Sound Card - Sound Cards

Stats:

Channels: 5.1
Sample Rate: 96Khz
Digital Audio: 24-bit
SNR: >100dB
Ports: Line In, Line Out (5.1), Headphones, Mic In, TOSLINK SPDIF Out

 

[CommonTater]

If you want a decent laptop sound card, grab a Sound Blaster X-FI USB 5.1. It may not be able to do what you want but it made my sound go from ugh (Realtek) to nice (SB).

Newegg.com - Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 SB1090 5.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz USB Interface Sound Card - Sound Cards

Stats:

Channels: 5.1
Sample Rate: 96Khz
Digital Audio: 24-bit
SNR: >100dB
Ports: Line In, Line Out (5.1), Headphones, Mic In, TOSLINK SPDIF Out

As DACs go that one's pretty good for the price ($60)... but like all creative products it has some frequency response issues in the low-bass range. (i.e. they tend to cut off at 100hz, not the audio standard of 20hz)


If his amplifier has TosLink or SP/Dif inputs he could try this guy...
http://www.hdtvsupply.com/pc-toslink-adapter-converter.html

I've not seen it in action but since it's digital to digital I don't see where there'd be a problem.

 

[HAWC145]

Am I better just taking a lead from the headphones on the laptop to a Cyrus amp.

I ahve some pretty good speakers (£500+)

 

[CommonTater]

Am I better just taking a lead from the headphones on the laptop to a Cyrus amp.

I ahve some pretty good speakers (£500+)

Well, that's a way to check it out... You may find the sound is better than you expect... I've got two machines here feeding amps through the speaker jacks and it's plenty good enough for these old ears.

One word of caution, though... a lot of these computer jacks output a rather high level signal... use the AUX jacks and you should start with your Windows mixer volume control at about 1/4 and bring it up very slowly... you are looking for full output without overdriving the amp.

EDIT: I just looked up the product pages for Cyrus ... VERY nice equipment.

 

[Aphelion]

EDIT: I just looked up the product pages for Cyrus ... VERY nice equipment.

Heh, I did that as well, even the low end stuff is fairly high end.


I was going to post that the Cyrus 6XP looks to be amplifier rather thana CD player and that the best digital solution was to get an external USB audio device/interface with digital outand run it directly into the amp. But everyone (including Dr. Spud ) covered that right off.

Ap

 

[CommonTater]

(including Dr. Spud)

Seriously, though... I'd like to find a Canadian dealer for that gear... I'd love to try the 6XP on my Cerwin Vegas....

 

[HAWC145]

Canada Cyrus

Seriously, though... I'd like to find a Canadian dealer for that gear... I'd love to try the 6XP on my Cerwin Vegas....

Well,
I have had a look on Cyrus's website and the ONLY dealer in your country is:

Europroducts Marketing Ltd

720 Sixth Street
Suite 386,
New Westminster
British Columbia
V3L 3CS
Canada

Phone No: 001 604 5226168
Fax: 001 604 6776263

Email[email protected]
Websitehttp://www.europroducts-canada.com/

 

[CommonTater]

Seriously, though... I'd like to find a Canadian dealer for that gear... I'd love to try the 6XP on my Cerwin Vegas....

Well,
I have had a look on Cyrus's website and the ONLY dealer in your country is:

Europroducts Marketing Ltd

720 Sixth Street
Suite 386,
New Westminster
British Columbia
V3L 3CS
Canada

Phone No: 001 604 5226168
Fax: 001 604 6776263

Email[email protected]
Websitehttp://www.europroducts-canada.com/

And they're only 1400 kilometers away...

Bummer.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

My ears tell me that the usb which unfortunatly is the only connection with your laptop as well as mine have for this purpose produced a ton of jitter and I could hear the usb breathing through my very high res. system! This was through a Cambridge Audio DAC magic. Note: I'm an audiophile and I live for this stuff. Changing over to a music server with a sound card with optical outs solved this dilema. Stay tuned as huge advancements are coming in hi-end audio for our computers.....of course with a high cost if this is what you want and can benefit from.

 

[HAWC145]

As well I have an older computer (desktop) running windows xp

It has a line out, is that line out to my amp any good

 

[CommonTater]

As well I have an older computer (desktop) running windows xp

It has a line out, is that line out to my amp any good

Yep... all you need is the right cord... 1/8" male stereo phone plug on one end, 2 RCA males on the other.

 

[CommonTater]

My ears tell me that the usb which unfortunatly is the only connection with your laptop as well as mine have for this purpose produced a ton of jitter and I could hear the usb breathing through my very high res. system! This was through a Cambridge Audio DAC magic. Note: I'm an audiophile and I live for this stuff. Changing over to a music server with a sound card with optical outs solved this dilema. Stay tuned as huge advancements are coming in hi-end audio for our computers.....of course with a high cost if this is what you want and can benefit from.

It's not the USB connection it's Win7... There are some seriously latency problems that even these old ears can hear... high end audio is only going to make it more apparent.

High end computer audio... XP is the OS of choice.

This I can confirm as I just had to put XP back in my HTPC as the only way to fix the problems (and in the face of a family rebellion...).

 

[HAWC145]

Yep... all you need is the right cord... 1/8" male stereo phone plug on one end, 2 RCA males on the other.

Would you recogmend any cables for under £20.00

 

[CommonTater]

Yep... all you need is the right cord... 1/8" male stereo phone plug on one end, 2 RCA males on the other.

Would you recogmend any cables for under £20.00

Wires is wires a $20.00 cable is not significantly better than a $6.00 one... the big criterion here is making sure it's long enough.

Plus... it appears we are on opposite sides of the ocean, so what you got over there ain't likely to be what we got over here...