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I have a laptop with only headphone out & mic in sockets. How do I get a usable signal into an amp with phono inputs?
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Already tried that option. I just get a load of noise and poor quality sound, hence the question :-)
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you need to turn the sound down on your laptop as you will be overloading your amplifier
i assume you are plugging into auxillary on your amp and not a record deck input which would go through a pre amp
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When I turn the sound down, I just get a load of hissing plus other interference and no sound. When I turn it up to full, the sound being prodiced largely hides the hissing and interference, but it's still there in the background. I'm using the video input as it's the only free input. With the input from the PC removed (i.e. the wires connected, but the miniature jack unplugged from the laptop), the output from the amp is clear and there is no noticeable output - no hissing or any other type of extraneous noise, proving that the PC is generating it.
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Try and find out if your laptop has SPDIF output - you'll see a red glow from the headphone socket if it has. If so, then you can connect it to an optical input on your amp via a suitable cable - should get rid of the elctrical interference problem.
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>I'm using the video input as it's the only free input.
Do you mean VCR/DVD input?
Kevin...
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I mean VCR, the DVD input (called DISC) on my amp, is already in use for the DVD player. The CD input to the amp has a CD player conected.
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You can use a phono to 3.5mm jack adapter cable and fiddle with the laptop output.
But if you want to do it seriously at line level you could use a usb connected sound "card" like the
us.store.creative.com/Sound-Blaster-XFi-Notebook/M/B001BS3A3E.htm
Its headphone out can be configured for line out;
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Had a similar problem a while back with our laptop using the headphone output.... wanted to stream Youtube music videos with sound on a 450w PA.
Nothing I did with laptop or amp levels sorted it. Substituted a portable CD walkman and an IPod using their headphone outputs to test where the problem was and they were both fine.
Odd.
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headphone out & mic in
Assuming your equipment is not faulty, the problem is the mismatch between the two signal levels. The headphone output audio will be a much stronger signal than the mic input is designed for, because mics produce weak signals.
If you can do a bit of soldering and wiring etc, you can make an adapter to fix it. There may already be one available. But I have usually made one when necessary.
I use a small plastic box from the likes of Maplin, of size not less than about 50mm(L) x 35mm(w) x 20mm(H) and put a 3.5mm jack socket in each end. Inside the box are 3 resistors for each channel to attenuate the signal by about 10 - 20 times.
With suitable design (below) you can make it such that it does not matter which way round you use the input and output of the box. Thus you don't need labels. Also it is easier to wire sockets and buy a lead or a sex adapter than bringing out a flying lead and soldering on a jack plug.
Think of a Y shape, made from 3 small resistors. The upright is 100 ohms or use 47 ohms and the two upper legs are each 1000 (1k) ohms. For stereo you need one of these for each channel with the same value 100 or 47. Unless you strap the two inputs and also the outputs on the two sockets and settle for mono. Then there is just one.
A wire links the bottom of both the Y's and the input and output lows/grounds.
Your output headphone 'hot' output goes to the left Y upper. Your mic input signal comes from the right Y upper.
Here is how it works. Your headphone output signal flows via the left 1K and down to ground via the 100 ohms. The signal across the 100 ohms, is one 11th of what you are putting into the left upper of the Y. If this is still too much, you can reduce the 100.
It works either way round because each socket 'in' looks the same.
The resistors can be strung together in a bit of a Heath Robinson manner as long as nothing touches and shorts. Once it is working you can even drop blobs of glue to keep things apart.
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Couple of proper ways to do with it if you can't get the headphone jack to work properley. I use my headphone jack on the odd occasion I need to connect laptop to hifi with no issues.
Also, try running the laptop off the battery, rather than the mains, may reduce interference.
Ways around:
If you use Itunes, you can buy an Apple Airport Express which will WIRELESSLEY stream music from your laptop to the Airport Express (which is connected to your amp via phono)
or
You need a USB Digital to Audio Converter (DAC) which will convert the digital music to analouge.
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>> Ways around:
>> If you use Itunes, you can buy an Apple Airport Express which will WIRELESSLEY stream
>> music from your laptop to the Airport Express (which is connected to your amp via
>> phono)
Someone suggested this on a previous post, but as I'm not remotely interested in Itunes I wanted to know whether it worked with any streamed output. No-one answered my question so I'm none the wiser.
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No, I'm not that serios! I live abroad and all I want to do is to play the radio through the amp.
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You want an internet radio that you can plug into your hi fi amp?
tinyurl.com/376rd9t
Proper connections, none of this headphone o/p stuff.
John
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The vast majority of radio and music websites provide live streaming of whatever is being transmitted - handy if you wish, for instance, to listen to a football match involving two teams from different areas to where you live.
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>> The vast majority of radio and music websites provide live streaming of whatever is being
>> transmitted - handy if you wish, for instance, to listen to a football match involving
>> two teams from different areas to where you live.
>>
Yep, that's what I want to do, but I want to get the sound from the laptop (the receiver of the streaming) into the amp.
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>> You want an internet radio that you can plug into your hi fi amp?
I was being a bit economical with the truth! I actually subscribe to a proxy server so that I can get television as well - iPlayer thinks I'm in the UK - so a radio alone is not enough. And I do occasionally play other content on the PC that I want in better quality. But it's an idea anyway, thank you, I hadn't thought of it.
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ok, some sort of USB DAC seems to be required. You can pay pennies and get rubbish or you can pay an absolute fortune. The hi fi biz seems to have noticed that computers exist in the last 12 months or so and big names are bringing out seriously expensive kit. Somewhere in the middle there may be something to tempt you. I'll leave you alone with your keywords and Amazon :-)
John
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Indeed, as I said quite a long way up the thread.
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Indeed Z but going straight from the question to the answer is no fun. Unless you're the one asking the question :-)
John
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No. 'fraid not. Mike said "How do I get a usable signal into an amp with phono inputs? "
This thing goes straight to the speakers. Good idea but not what the man asked for.
John
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Decent input from laptop to amp - Alastairw
