RunOutGroove
Addicted Member
OK, so I just bought one of these little amps. I found a good deal on it in the local ads - $40. The one caveat might be that the remote doesn't work as the seller warned me of that, but I haven't gotten to testing it because I need to buy a battery for it and the truth is that I don't really need it anyway. I'm using it with my computer so it'll be on the desktop so no need for a remote... Other than that though it seems to work well. I have it powering some little Energy speakers that I also bought though the ads for all of $20 (not sure of the model but they're 10" high with 5" woofers). The sound is definitely richer and more transparent than the Altec Lansing computer speaker setup I was using before (with a built in amp, tiny satellite speakers and a subwoofer - and not terribly bad actually for such a cheap, tiny unit - I think I got the thing for free or maybe $5 at a garage sale!) This new setup doesn't compare to the sound that I get with my hi-fi, but that's why we have hi-fi systems, right? Overall though I'm pretty happy with what this little system can do.
My question is this: how to hook this thing up to my computer for a digital, rather than analog connection? I've got it currently hooked up with a cord that goes out of the 8th inch jack of the computer and terminates into RCAs that hook into the amp. The amp has a built in DAC that I'm assuming is probably better than the one built into my 10 year old iMac and the fact that the only analog connection would then be from the amp to the speakers, should be that much better, no? My computer doesn't have a Toslink connection so I can't use that, but it does have USB. I didn't have a USB to USB cord in my wad of computer cords so I went to find one at the computer shop. There I explained what I was wanting to do and the guy at the shop (who admittedly doesn't know anything about this amp) said that he felt sure that it isn't designed to be directly hooked up to a USB connection on a computer. He said that USB connections on these kind of things are typically meant to hook up a hard drive or memory stick (which doesn't really make sense to me as I don't see that the SMSL amp has anything like a menu system to access files), but to go directly from a computer would risk damaging either/both the amp and computer. He wanted to sell me this junction box gizmo that would go between the computer and the amp, with USB from the computer and that USB or RCA out to the amp. That thing has it's own DAC though, which seems like a redundancy and maybe not as good as the one in the SMSL Q5...
I realize that at this point folks' eyes might be glazing over and that I've maybe provided too much information (but I don't really know what might be useful). Getting to the crux of the matter then I ask, with this amp is it OK (is it safe!) to go from its USB directly to my computer?
And one more question, I configure something in the preferences of my computer (I can figure out the details myself) to get the audio to output via USB, right?
My question is this: how to hook this thing up to my computer for a digital, rather than analog connection? I've got it currently hooked up with a cord that goes out of the 8th inch jack of the computer and terminates into RCAs that hook into the amp. The amp has a built in DAC that I'm assuming is probably better than the one built into my 10 year old iMac and the fact that the only analog connection would then be from the amp to the speakers, should be that much better, no? My computer doesn't have a Toslink connection so I can't use that, but it does have USB. I didn't have a USB to USB cord in my wad of computer cords so I went to find one at the computer shop. There I explained what I was wanting to do and the guy at the shop (who admittedly doesn't know anything about this amp) said that he felt sure that it isn't designed to be directly hooked up to a USB connection on a computer. He said that USB connections on these kind of things are typically meant to hook up a hard drive or memory stick (which doesn't really make sense to me as I don't see that the SMSL amp has anything like a menu system to access files), but to go directly from a computer would risk damaging either/both the amp and computer. He wanted to sell me this junction box gizmo that would go between the computer and the amp, with USB from the computer and that USB or RCA out to the amp. That thing has it's own DAC though, which seems like a redundancy and maybe not as good as the one in the SMSL Q5...
I realize that at this point folks' eyes might be glazing over and that I've maybe provided too much information (but I don't really know what might be useful). Getting to the crux of the matter then I ask, with this amp is it OK (is it safe!) to go from its USB directly to my computer?
And one more question, I configure something in the preferences of my computer (I can figure out the details myself) to get the audio to output via USB, right?
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