iPod Line Out vs. Laptop Headphone Out?

[xluben]

Which should provide better sound quality;

20GB, 4G iPod with Pocket Dock Line Out to PA2V2

or

Dell Inspiron 8600 Headphone Jack to PA2V2

I have been using the laptop headphone jack to PA2V2 for my home use, mainly for the occasional EQ benifits. But I was wondering if I would get better sound quality from my iPod's Line Out to the Pocket Amp? Also, is there any way to make the laptop's headphone jack into a 'line out' by changing computer settings?

Thanks for any insights.

[warpdriver]

I don't know about your particular laptop but I found the output of my laptop (Compaq) to be pretty mediocre. The best thing you can do if you want decent sound out of a laptop is to bypass your headphone out and buy a new soundcard. I'd suggest the M-Audio Transit, it has a decent quality sound straight out of its output. It's about $70-80 and doesn't need a power supply, it's gone lots of juice for even high impedance headphones.

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Transit-main.html

[mrarroyo]

If the Dell has the standard or even a Soundblaster Card I would say the Ipod lineout to the PAV2 sounds better.

[go_vtec]

iPod lineout will sound better. In addition, most of Dell labtop's headphone outputs hums.

[ScubaSteve87]

agreed with above, my acer headphone jack sounds not so good, line out ipod with high bitrate music can sound pretty good imho

[GordonHo]

what about ibm ?