atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Computers & Programming Computers, Software, Accessories Computer sound card to stereo system

So... I'm trying to wire my computer sound card into my stereo receiver, to play music throughout the house. I spliced into the "line out" from the sound card before the computer speakers. I tied the stranded shield wire to the ground side of two RCA plugs going into my receiver as "tape 2 in", and the two hot leads from the sound card to the two center posts of the RCA plugs.I get good strong audio from my stereo now, but also get a pretty good hum which stays at the same annoying level regardless of the volume setting on my computer. I'm using cat-3 house wiring between the two, probably about 25'. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Chuck,

unfortunately the input quality you are getting from the line out of the sound card is very poor. If you really want to play music from your PC to your stereo and achieve a good sound quality, you will need a high end sound card that can produce a digital line out and a reciever that can handle the same in.

Check out www.extremetech.com. It is a user forum from Ziff Davis. They have a catagory on their for sound. You can probably get some good advise about equipment there.

Chuck,
The splicing and CAT3 is perhaps where you're picking up your hum. I used a Radio Shack 25' stereo extension (1/8" stereo plug one end, male RCA jacks the other end). From "Line Out" on my sound card (OLD ISA Creative SoundBlaster 32) to the "AUX" port on my receiver (not half bad older Fisher unit). No hum whatever and I can truly annoy the neighbors if I want! I can't swear to it, but it appears that this cable is either shielded or coaxial.

The hum you're experiencing is a grounding issue. Common grounding is always a problem... but here's the deal -- it's probably amplified by your "splicing" and connections and what not.

Try a 1/8" to RCA cable. Run long RCA cables from there into your receiver (tape in is a line level source, so that should be sufficient) and see if the problem is eliminated. I wouldn't be splicing those tiny speaker wires, too hard to deal with.

For the noise problem, you can also try ferrite collars around your cable to minimize noise.

I don't have any first hand experience with this or know how much you wanted to spend but I saw this in an ADI catalog after reading your post and thought you might want to take a look. They have em for around $200.
https://www.homedirector.com/AudioPoint/


(fixed link)


[This message has been edited by JOHNYREB (edited September 04, 2003).]