Laptop direct to power amp?

yes....however when you connect it, make sure that the volume on the apple is all the way down....and then adjust it louder as needed. You may have some hum/noise if you run the laptop off A/C. If so, unplug it and run it off batteries.

i have my laptop running into powered quad speakers, yes i mess the analogue but it works to listen, buy yourself a cheap dac from pacificvalve, around 100

I use the headphone out from my mac in my bedroom system. I am running through a homemade pair of interconnects to an adcom amp to a pair of modded maggies mmgs. The amp and speakers cost me 500 bucks and the rig is almost as musical as my main system.