Printed from www.pcpro.co.uk
Posted on March 25th, 2009 by David Fearon
How to connect your PC to your hi-fi
It appears there’s some confusion, even among a few of my colleagues, about audio and PC speakers and amplifiers and stuff like that. Specifically, whether you can plug a PC into normal stereo speakers, whether it will work if you do and how to do it. We’ll start with a few simple facts in handy question-and-answer format.
Can I use normal living-room stereo speakers with my PC?
Probably not directly, but essentially yes. There’s no fundamental difference between PC speakers and normal speakers, except that PC speakers have a built-in amplifier. To use standard hi-fi stereo speakers you just need an amplifier to drive them. So, either get yourself a separate hi-fi amp and speakers, or take the cheap option and plug your PC into the stereo in the living room.
How do I do that then?
If you take a look at the back of your stereo or TV surround-sound receiver, you’ll almost certainly see a couple of spare plugs labelled something like ‘Aux’. You can directly attach the audio output of your PC into one of these. Usually, inputs to your hi-fi are RCA (also called phono) connectors, with separate white and red plugs for the left and right stereo channels like this:
The output from your PC is likely to be a single, 3.5mm audio output jack. If you have multi-channel HD audio there will be several jacks but you want the green one, which will probably be labelled with an arrowed icon showing it’s an output like this:
All you need to connect the PC to the stereo is a 3.5mm-to-RCA stereo cable, which costs a few quid from somewhere like Maplin.
I can’t see an ‘Aux’ connector on the back of my stereo
Not the end of the world. You can put your PC’s audio output into almost any analogue input of a hi-fi amplifier. It doesn’t matter if it’s labelled ‘CD’, ‘tape in’, ‘aux’ or something like ‘A/V’. They’re just convenient labels – they all take the same line-level audio signal. As long as there are two RCA plugs, one red and one white, and they’re labelled as an input or grouped in with the other inputs (in other words it’s not an output like ‘tape out’) then you can use it. So for instance on the back of the A/V receiver pictured above, you could use the ‘tape in’ inputs.
There’s only one analogue input you can’t use:
Can I use the phono input?
No, sorry. The phono input of a stereo (sometimes labelled MM or MC, for ‘moving magnet’ and ‘moving coil’) is for a record player, and it’s designed to accept the tiny electrical signal that’s generated by the needle moving in the grooves of a record. If you attach the PC audio output to it, you’re unlikely to do any damage but the sound will be hideously distorted. So don’t. Note that, annoyingly, the word ‘phono’ is also applied to RCA cables. But phono cables and the phono input are different things.
Right, I’ve found a spare input on the back of my stereo.
Good. All you need to do now is plug the 3.5mm audio jack into the green output of your PC, and the Phono connectors into the left and right sockets of your chosen input at the back of the stereo.
Now switch on your stereo and turn the volume down. As in, down to almost zero. That prevents all sorts of issues ranging from spilt tea to burst eardrums if you’re stupid enough to put your ear right next to the speaker (never, ever put your ear right next to a speaker: you’ll end up partially deaf when it suddenly cuts in at full volume). Now press whatever button you need to press on the front of the stereo to select the input you’re using.
Finally, try playing some music on the PC, or clicking the volume slider in Windows to get the ‘bonk’ sound. If you can’t hear anything, increase the volume slowly. If you still can’t hear anything, don’t turn the volume up to full, turn it back down again. It’s probably something simple at fault. Prime candidates are accidentally having the audio muted in Windows, or having the wrong output selected in Windows’ audio properties.
Can I use a digital output?
A hefty proportion of PCs these days have some sort of digital audio output, which will potentially give you better quality than using the analogue output. To make use of it though, you’ll need a stereo with digital inputs that’s able to convert the digital ones and zeroes into an analogue signal that the amplifier can use to drive your speakers. Either that, or an offboard DAC (digital-to-analogue converter) to mediate between the two.
There are two types of digital audio output you might find on your PC. Both use the same digital format (known as S/PDIF for the Sony/Philips digital interface format). But one uses electrical signals while the other uses light. They’re known, not surprisigly, as electrical (sometimes coaxial) S/PDIF, and optical S/PDIF.
If your motherboard has a digital coaxial output, it’ll be coloured yellow. But don’t take that as proof positive because other things like composite video outputs can also be yellow – you’ll need to check in your notherboard manual.
Optical digital outputs will have a little socket with a kind of bung in them. Pull it out and you’ll probably see it glowing red in a terrific sci-fi kind of way. Optical digital connections need a cable called a TOSLINK cable, the name of which is derived from ‘Toshiba Link’ and looks like this:
Laptops
The great thing about optical digital outputs is that they can be integrated into laptops. They’re often disguised as 3.5mm audio jacks, and are actually dual-use. You can plug a 3.5mm electrical audio cable in to get an analogue audio output, or you can get yourself a TOSLINK-to-3.5mm adapter and plug it in like this:
That means that you can use your laptop as a kind of handy media-centre jukebox, ripping all your CDs to it. I did this a few years back and it’s a hell of a lot more convenient than digging CDs out.
If you’re determined to use a digital output from your PC/laptop but your stereo doesn’t have either a coaxial or optical digital input, you can get yourself an offboard DAC like this one.
38 Responses to “ How to connect your PC to your hi-fi ”
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March 25th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Nice one I think I’ll get myself one of those DACs then………ohh wait they cost £250+…..maybe not then.
Cool guide though.
March 25th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
A very easy to use and coherent guide that explains all the potential pitfalls clearly. Thanks!
March 25th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
I am using a USB to Optical converter on a laptop that works very well, turning the laptop into a great media player. Suppliers are becoming harder to find though.
March 25th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Good point that I forgot to mention Dave. I used a Terratec Aureon USB for a while which worked well, had electrical and optical outputs and only costs about £45 or so – http://www.terratec.net/en/products/technical-data/produkte_technische_daten_en_3232.html
March 25th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
M-Audio do an excellent range of sound cards with 2 x RCA stereo output.
The sound, running though my amp, is much improved over the onboard 3.5mm jack and converter.
March 25th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
A third way, for those relevantly equipped is to use the HDMI port. Works well enough for me anyway.
I understand that this is pretty uncommon now, but is likely to be come more so.
March 25th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
@alan
Most AV Amps have on-board DACs, and usually have both coax and optical inputs.
March 25th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
Come-on PC-Pro, this advice you might expect from a site without ‘PRO’ in its name. PC-Basic stuff. Why not give out advice on less obvious computer setup, Like:-
SSD drives, tested, reliability, speed, best price on the web. Why are SSD drives not standard on all laptops. Surely the ‘Tough Book’ laptop has one?
What hardware/ software creates bottle necks.
How to over-clock a graphics card
64 bit operating systems vs a 32 bit. Pro’s and Cons. What happened when 32 bit took over from 16 bit (how ever long ago that was).
ADSL2+ routers, how does it make downloading faster than older ADSL, are they faster, what next.
How do you compare dual core processors with triple/ quad core? Is a 2GHz quad better than a 3GHz dual core?
How do you back up your outlook data (MS Office)? Can it be done automatic? Why Dont Microsoft make it easier?
Open Office vs Ms Office. Do many business use Open Office?
Computer crashes, why, what are the most common reasons and fixes? Computer experts top 20 tips to fix common problems.
All just examples of more interesting articles that could be worth reading. As many of us have been holding out on a new computer for Windows 7. We need to be up to speed when Windows 7 arrives. ( I’m hopping its as early as August this year).
March 26th, 2009 at 9:01 am
For really good sound quality invest in a pro audio card. These start at around £60 for entry level PCI cards. I have an ESI Maya44, but there are cards from EMU and M-Audio as well. Be warned though, these are dedicated audio cards and don’t come with any special support for games, check specs meet your needs before you buy. The ESI for example, is the only one with a headphone output in this price range.
March 26th, 2009 at 11:24 am
Buster, I want to know answers to those questions too. You should write a magazine!
March 26th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Thanks for some good basic information that I find very helpful. However, what about a simple way of streaming audio to your home hifi if the PC is in a different room. I know there are devices like squezebox etc, but they are pretty pricey if all you want to do is send music from PC to HiFi.
Any advice on a simple cost effective solution would be great.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Buster, people need to start from somewhere. Just because someone is an experienced user does not meant they are an expert in every aspect of interfacing with them etc. I would have been able to get this to work without the article, but it has given me more options, answered questions that I had, and alerted me about potential problems. It has therefore increased my knowledge and been helpful, even though I did not strictly need it.
March 26th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
In answer to JoeH, first try Audioengine AW1 for bluetooth hifi streaming, or as I use presently Hifast FM streamers. Look on eebbay for the latter and make a low offer for the open buy now options, they sell, new, for much lower than the straight asking price, I bought three as xmas presents. Both these are presently the best (and almost unique). My pc feeds a home cinema through optical links through Ccrreative i/p o/p pci expansion boards, and I make (small and large) speakers as a hobby – if not you could pay a fortune.
March 26th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Thanks a million Dave J. I’ll look into those options
March 26th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Sorry, I should clarify that the Hifast (Hifastonline) HFM7U auto-replaces the pc soundcard to xmit in full 20/20 FM, then hands it back when unplugged. Check out the analogue i/p version also, the HFM7F. Don’t tell everyone though, they may get banned because of airwaves pollution. Luckily our neighbours don’t listen to 108MHz.
March 26th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Aren’t PC speakers magnetically shielded?
I.e. if I plonk my HiFi speakers on my desk (which I’d like to do) are there any issues regards magnetic fields and the PC / LCD / flash memory?
Or did it only used to be a problem for floppy disks and tape media?
March 26th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Buster: We have in fact covered most of those topics in past features (as opposed to blog posts). Some of them we’ve not looked at for a while though and there are some good ideas there – I’ll make sure your suggestions are added to the list for our next features meeting, so thanks for that.
Adam: PC speakers were historically magnetically shielded so you could put them next to your CRT monitor without distorting the display. Flash memory and LCD displays won’t be affected at all. In theory you shouldn’t get a hard disk too close to a speaker though, so if you’re using a hi-fi speaker setup, keep it a foot or two away.
March 26th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
To Adam, the origin of magnetic shielding and speakers was due to the temporary, or at worst permanent damage to a cathode ray based (i.e. vacuum tube or CRT) tv or pc monitor or display. At best it causes picture distortion, bleaching or colour distortion due to simple deflection of the electrons during their flightpath. At worst it can permanently push or pull your colour mask out of alignment, and the tv may never recover. More modern CRT tv’s use a degaussing coil at power up to try to iron out residual effects of this nature. However, as far as I am aware, and someone recently challenged me on this and I realised I was not 100% sure, the present range of TFT, LCD displays are immune to this because they use a backlight like a simple neon tube and then layers of “solid-state” RGB filter material which responds to an electrostatic field. So hifi speakers should not affect a non-CRT display. I have not thought about plasma displays yet – I would keep magnets at a distance unless observing carefully. Please correct me if this is wrong in any way.
March 26th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
A number of cheaper hi-fis now have a 3.5mm socket as the auxiliary in port. In this case, you just need a 3.5mm jack-to-jack stereo lead (generally no more than a fiver), and that’s it!
March 26th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
JoeH, I don’t know if its still available but I bought a Phillips Streamium (SLA 5520) a couple of years ago for about £80. Its a small box that plugs into your Hifi and accepts streaming audio from any UPnP Media Player – such as the Windows Media Server in Vista Home or Ultimate editions. Philips also include their own UPnP server with the device if you don’t have one. Apart from the odd tendency to refuse to wake up now and again without pulling and replacing the power lead, and being a bit slow to retrieve album listings from my (quite large) collection, this is a sweet and quite good sounding solution (because its streamed, your audio weak point is the DAC built into the Philips rather than the one built into your soundcard…)
Another cheap way to achieve “streaming” from your laptop is to buy a £20 FM transmitter for MP3 players (made famous for iPODs, the iTrip etc.), plug that into the audio out from your PC, and use your various FM radios around the house to achieve a cheap and cheerful “party mode” streaming effect… Works well, unless you have very thick walls!
March 27th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Griffin iMic external sound card works a treat on my (Windows) laptop, way better sound than the headphone out and they’re dirt cheap on eBay right now I’ve seen some <£25 and if you use MediaMonkey freeware you can have a play with FLAC and lossless files etc. without making CD’s, and stream from Spotify too, a whole new world of fun
March 30th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
It surprises me how hard this problem actually is in the real world. I have my computer on one side of the room and an expensive NAD system on the other side. How hard can it be?
However, I want to be able to listen to my music without relying on the computer being switched on, and I don’t want a 5m cable to trip over.
So in practise I walk an iPod across the room, and rely on an expensive NAD dock to provide some sort of sonic excellence.
A better solution would be to have a media server. Problem is what do you have to plug into the hi-fi? I looked at the Philips Streamium mentioned above and unbelievably it does not have a line out, merely a digital output to feed into a DAC.
Thinking hard about it what is required is a Digital input in my CD player so that you can use the on board DAC.
I think the very first post nailed it. Digital music is currently too costly and complicated for most domestic situations. I refuse to buy into a ‘platform’ and require something that is OS agnostic. While Apple and Microsoft insist on lock-in I’m not playing the game, and will stick with CDs.
April 3rd, 2009 at 1:44 pm
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April 6th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
No Si Aqui No Hay Amor…
Take That is an English pop group started by Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Jason Orange, Mark Owen, and, formerly, Robbie Williams. All perform primarily on vocals though each have some instrumental talent/song-writing capability….
April 9th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Nice, but couldn’t you also get a Graphics card with HDMI, because that does both Audio and Video? Or am i just a complete idiot?
May 8th, 2009 at 10:20 am
this site was a great help i now have my stereo speakers conected to my pc. Thanks
May 16th, 2009 at 11:47 am
Hi
I followed instructions by plugging 3.5 plug and rca audio of my stereo under video1. My problem is that sound is only coming out in one speaker instead of two. I plugged red and black rca of my amplifier. Both speakers work when my tv is plugged in.
Please help. thanks
May 18th, 2009 at 11:14 am
Hi Edna,
Sounds like a classic case of a dodgy 3.5mm output jack. Have you tried gently jiggling the jack?
David.
May 27th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
i need help how do i connect my laptop :S cos i dont seem to ave them stuff on my laptop :S confused help me !!!
June 21st, 2009 at 5:12 pm
serendipity a speaker went out on my TV now i know what those A/V jacks are for I can an outside speaker to fill in the void. A word of advice when buying ATV make sure when checking sound quality turn off all other TV’s in the area. hanks I can now know how to connect stereo speakers to my PC if I ever get the urge
April 21st, 2010 at 6:19 am
Cable Internet Packages…
Indeed you have thought this post out well….
May 16th, 2010 at 9:14 am
Thanks for the tips. Now got a redundant PC hooked up in our shop, easier than having quiet moments when the CD finishes.
May 30th, 2010 at 2:41 pm
This is a really good article. I enjoyed reading it. I gained a lot of information reading your post. I really loved it.
August 9th, 2010 at 7:58 pm
Hi, I tried this with my stereo (had that cable lying around for ever) and only then googled and came across your site. I ONLY have a phono input that works with a recordplayer. The sound is fine as long as I unplug it from the cable-radio. You say it is unlikely I will do any damage, but will it be fine if it sounds fine?
August 10th, 2010 at 8:13 am
I have been using a PC to TV converter box with decent results, no sound though.
September 8th, 2010 at 9:39 am
very easy guide. pictures were helpful thanks allot
March 7th, 2011 at 12:31 am
Thanks for this guide! I’ve been looking all around for something like this and it has been really, really helpful!!
March 18th, 2011 at 3:13 pm
Hi I’m trying tosetup my pc to record and playback thru my Hi Fi ,I
have bought online a NCH WAVEPAD EDITOR program but Icant sort out the interconnections.I want to be able to record between a cassette deck and a minidisc deck and play it back through a sony amp as well as recording from the cd in the computerbut i can’t seem to find the right connections and Im not getting a recording signal on the wavepad sound editor if U can offer any advice i would be grateful you can safely assume U R talking to a complete dummyI could alternatively phone or skype , my skype name is dave.dyer80 my phone is 0208 925 8313 Hoping U can help
Regards Dave