Looking for a good Integrated Amp to connect to a PC

d34dj3d1

New Member
I was told recently that newer equipment isn;t as good as vintage. So, now i'm currently in search of something I can connect to my PC as that is my primary source for listening to music. My budget is $200-$400.
 
I think someone may not have given you truthful information. There is plenty of newer gear that is as good or better than vintage, probably just not in your budget.

For my PC setup, I use JRiver, a Foobar DAC, and a $30 Lepia amp driving Dynaudio 42s. DAC and AMP can be had for about $200.
 
I use Foobar2000 for my media player, what's a Foobar DAC ? and I was thinking of getting an external sound card and a Modi/Magni Schitt stack.
 
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Any amp with a tape record loop, i.e. tape (record) out and tape (monitor/playback) in can be used with the sound card already in place with your computer. Tape out on the amp to the line in on the computer and line out on the computer to the tape in on the amp. That sets up up to both record other sources on the computer, (I recommend Audacity for that) and playback from the computer. Basically the computer just becomes another source to the amp. For many years I was running my computer through my Dynaco PAT 5 / Stereo 4000. Now it is through my Mac MA6200.
 
You'll need a digital to analog converter (DAC) to get sound to the receiver from a PC unless you buy one that has some form of USB in which feeds an internal DAC, which is a bit rare.
 
You'll need a digital to analog converter (DAC) to get sound to the receiver from a PC unless you buy one that has some form of USB in which feeds an internal DAC, which is a bit rare.

The OP can use the sound card circuit that is built in. Most modern motherboards today (and for several years now) have very good to excellent D/A A/D conversion built on the board as a matter of routine. You need only use the line in / line out ports.
 
The Asu is an improvement on-board sound. Assume you have to switch from on-board sound to the Asus for sound in the BIOS. Do as Shelley suggested & assess the sound quality.
 
I don't know how to do that.

Ok. We can start with the basics. On the computer, probably on the back or side if it's a laptop there will be some small jacks. One will be for headphones, also called line out and one might be called line in, or aux in, or might even be for a microphone. Some computers combine the mic in with the aux in function on the same port. You will need to locate and identify those ports on your computer. The documents that came with the machine should identify them for you. If you no longer have those, (who among us do?) most computer manufacturers offer downloads of the documents on their websites.

On the back of your amplifier you need to locate a total of 4 jacks. There should be two labeled Rec Out or Tape Out or Tape Recorder or To Rec or some other variation on that theme of music going out of the amp to a tape recorder. One will be the right channel and one the left. There will be another two labeled Tape In, Rec In, From Tape, From Rec or some other variation on that theme. If you can take and post clear photos of the jacks on the back of the amp, clearly showing the jacks AND the labels on them, we can help you identify them

You will need some cables to connect the 2 devices together. They look like this:

41JGQR4TJML._SL500_AC_SS350_.jpg


The end with one plug will jack into the computer and the end with 2 plugs go into the amp. For just playback from the computer to the stereo you will need one. If you want to digitize (record) any of your analog music, you will need a second one.

Here is a link to this type of cable on Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Rankie-Cable...8&qid=1530288151&sr=8-4&keywords=3.5mm+to+rca

Once we know know what the jacks on the back of the amp are labeled, and you have correctly identified the line out/headphone jack on the computer we can you provide you with more exact instruction on how to plug in that cable and set you amp up to listen two the computer.

So, what we need you to do is:
  1. find or download your computer manual. Read it to identify the headphone out or line out jacks and the aux in or line in jacks
  2. Take clear photos of the rear of you amp so that we can read the labels on the jacks and post here
  3. Take clear photos of the front of your amp so that we can read the labels on the controls (especially the switches) and post here. This is so we can tell you how to set the controls to use the set up correctly.
Think you can do that for us?

Thanks

Shelly_D
 
I don't know how to do that.

How to do what? Connect things up, or change sound output devices?

For the former, read shelly_D's advice.
Note that, if you don't need to record anything on your computer, you only need to connect the computer headphone output (the green socket) to a spare line input on the amp (Aux, Tape, CD, etc, NOT the phono).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_card

For the latter, use the Device Manager (assuming you have Windows).

 
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