2. digital
  3. 1373038554

Connect Laptop to DAC or preamp

Hello,
I've been spending a lot of time lately on you tube and have discovered some awesome concerts..... Would love to play this through my main stereo versus using headphones.

I know I can use the headphone out and convert to RCA connects and go into my preamp. Prefer not to as it does not provide the best in audio quality.

I have a AUNE DAC/Headphone amp with a USB input. Can I use the USB port on my Laptop connected to the USB port on the DAC? Would like to use the external DAC if possible.

Or, any other connect approaches that offer good sound quality?

Thanks!!!!!
pdspecl

Showing 2 responses by sfar

sfar's avatar
sfar
1,769 posts
 
If your laptop is a PC the USB output to the Aune DAC is the way to go, as Swampwalker explained.

I've had a couple of the Aune DACs and they're quite good. I used them with the optical output on Mac laptops from the combined headphone/mini-Toslink jack and thought that sounded a little better than USB but either is going to be an improvement over the headphone output.

And, as Swampwalker said, YouTube audio isn't great quality but getting yourself set up to use the USB output will give you considerably quality from other streaming services like MOG, where the 320 kbps output can sound pretty good.
sfar's avatar
sfar
1,769 posts
 
I haven't tried all the streaming sites but as far as I know MOG has the highest bit rate at 320 kbps, and Pandora Premium and Spotify are a little lower at 192 kbps. But I haven't used Pandora Premium or Spotify much since I got a MOG subscription. The combination of music on demand combined with algorithm-based music serving from MOG, at $5 at month, is pretty hard to beat for finding new music and hearing almost any music you can think of at a pretty reasonable bit rate.
More to discover