Tuesday, September 05, 2006

How to connect PC to Stereo?

I want to use my stereo to play back the music on my PC. How do I connect them?

The best way to connect a PC to a stereo depends on a few things.
Do you want the connection to use digital audio or analog audio?
Do you need stereo or surround sound?
Is your Sound card good enough to give you the results you want?

It is possible to use an adapter or a cable to do this directly from the soundcard. The results depend on the sound card.
A good example of a cable to go direcly from sound card to Stereo is our M2RCA "Ultimate iPod cable". It has the standard RCA connectors at the Stereo connection end, and the usual 1/8" (3.5mm) mini jack connector at the computer end to plug directly into most sound cards in PC's and Macs.
See here:
http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/ipod-cables.htm

For an easy, good sounding connection over USB, a Xitel "Hi-Fi Link" is a great way to go.
It connects to the computer using USB and sidesteps your sound card, so those with inexpensive sound cards will still get very nice results.
See here:
http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/HFL-A1-X1.html

For more professional results, or digital audio, M-Audio has a number of USB and firewire interfaces with two or more audio channels and combinations of Digital and analog audio. They have great driver support for the recording musician and the HTPC geek as well.
See here:
http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/preamps.html

For the ultimate in sound quality most people use PCI cards and we carry the best cards in their price ranges, M-Audio, RME and Lynx Studio Technology.
See here:
http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/sound_cards.html

If you need more information on the topic, please see our PC to Stereo main page, here:
http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/PC-to-stereo.html