Brendan Hughes

Couldn't burn any CDs so copied a load of tracks onto the hard drive, lugged the computer into the living room, plugged it into the NAD amp and played that for four hours.

I connected it by a basic cable, red and black plugs going to a headphone jack. The plugs went to the AUX connections on the back of the amp (thought I read somewhere that's what it's for) while the jack went into the audio out from the PC (basic jobbie, couple of years old, no fancy soundcard).

I noticed that from the PC I had to turn the volume almost an extra quarter of a turn to play at the same volume as the hi-fi CD player. Predictably, during the party someone decided to pause the PC and put on a CD, almost blowing the speakers.

Any reason for this difference? Weak computer output / choice of AUX / choice of cabling?

Cupramax

If its not a silly question have you checked the volume settings for your soundcard on the PC? Thats where the problem is. If you're running 2000 or XP you should get a little speaker icon on your toolbar. Go into that and check the CD & Master output settings.

Jamz3k

Optical Cables and a specific Optical Out on ur computer is the way forward, no difference in volume or sound quality

C h a z

The headphone output on your PC will be a variable output. Check your settings, you should use a line level output from the pc as this allthough not fixed will not go above "line level" which the headphone output can.

Brendan Hughes

No such things as stupid questions when it comes to me and computers, unless it's me asking them! Running XP but no speaker icon. Control panel - Sounds - volume control shows the volume for the soundcard (Vinyl AC97 Audio ? ) is at max.

Note I was playing soundfiles via WMP, not playing CDs from the CD drawer, sorry if that wasn't clear. I'm asking about the difference between the PC outputting soundfiles via the sound socket on the back, compared to a NAD hi-fi CD player (not the PC's CD player), and they're both going into the same NAD amp.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Well, I'm no expert, but I'd think it's because your computer output isn't a line out, it's variable, and may be set a little low. Isn't it the same jack you'd use for the computer speakers? In which case, the volume can be controlled from the PC as well as the speakers, (at least it can on mine, and that's windows XP).

Were you playing via windows media player? Mine certainly has a speaker symbol for volume.

Alcazar

Jye

Try this m8. A bit basic but has a few good pointers. gl

http://www.teamcombooks.com/mp3handbook/10.htm

paulr

As Alcazar says in his post.check all those.

Brendan Hughes

ah-HAH!

Just off to flush my head down the bog a few times. Nobody mind? Good, carry on...

C h a z

RichA

Keep the volume down when using the headphone socket. It's a long time since I was heavily into audio, but standard amplifier inputs are looking for around 2v - you're better off having to increase the volume control on the amplifier than having to repair one because you've put to much juice through the pre-amp .

--Rich