[DKaz]

I am having trouble figuring out exactly what I should when it comes to my laptop. Basically all I want/need is to get a quality digital aduio signal out of my laptop (spdif) to send to my home receiver or possibly a DAC/AMP in the future. Any suggestions?

 

[DKaz]

Any help? Anyone . .

 

[wgr73]

Creative makes a laptop card with SPDIF out/in....its the Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook

 

[labrat]

Deleted.

 

[Dorito123]

X2 on the M-audio.

 

[Shiki]

There's an Edirol UA-1EX for sale here.

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f43/ed...-stuff-216731/

It has SPDIF out.

 

[slwiser]

Stay away from using your internal computer's S/PDIF. Unless our computer is Mac oriented it always oversamples 44.1 kHz signals (CD music) to 48 kHz which is not desirable for real high end sound reproduction. In light of this check out USB to S/PDIF solutions; i.e., Hagtech.com's HagUSB or Empirical Audio's (Steve Nugent) various solutions (Pacecar), M-Audio solutions, etc. Computer audio is an afterthought not very well designed and executed in the Intel/Windows environment but you can get the USB to work very well for you with the right equipment. You can check out my sig for how I do this.

Headamp's Pico does USB to I2S conversion internally and is one of the reasons it has the sound that it does and has been highly tauted. It stays away from a second conversions of the S/PDIF from USB. I2S is the internal DACs internal digital language so to speak. The Pico can be a single solution for you as a start into the great hobby.

Here is a review of something you may find interesting in this context:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f5/com...inidac-291801/

 

[furball]

Most laptops don't have digital out.

Your best bet would be to purchase a USB external soundcard.

EMU 0404 USB version is really nice, and cheap. Has great specs.

If you have the money, I would recommend the Benchmark DAC1 USB. One of the best DAC's currently out there.

 

[DKaz]

Thanks for all of the help. I do not have a super-high end receiver or speakers, so I am leaning mroe towards the these three suggestions:

1) M-Audio Transit
2) Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro
3) Edirol UA-1EX

Which do you guys think would be the best and why?

 

[brainsalad]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DKaz /img/forum/go_quote.gif I am having trouble figuring out exactly what I should when it comes to my laptop. Basically all I want/need is to get a quality digital aduio signal out of my laptop (spdif) to send to my home receiver or possibly a DAC/AMP in the future. Any suggestions?

What kind of laptop do you have? Make & Model

 

[krmathis]

Streaming to an AirPort Express might be one solution. It has an optical S/PDIF, which can be used to feed an external DAC