Hammond Music

Posts Tagged ‘equipment racks’

Laptop computers have become popular, a primary reason for this is that they’re just so portable. They have a number of uses in our lives, from work (word processing, catching up on email and work on the go) and play (browsing the Internet, playing media files and gaming online). The flexibility, functionality and portability of a laptop means that it is ideal for connecting to other parts of your life, in different areas of your home. One example of this is connecting your laptop to the technology on your hifi stand.

If you want to connect your laptop to your hi-fi system, it’s important to make sure you have the right equipment. You will need a laptop with a sound card, a program to play the media files, a 3.5mm male auxiliary cable, and a hifi stand. Many of the newer systems have an auxiliary in, it looks a lot like a headphone port, but some of the older ones don’t. You don’t need to worry if yours doesn’t have an auxiliary. There’s a solution. You can obtain a connector cable, such as a 3.5mm female to 2 RCA male. A hifi is built to work with a stripped down section of wire, so make sure to consult the manual for your model. There you wil find what connector is appropriate.

When deciding the software that you’ll use, remember that most operating systems come with a default media player. For example Windows Media player on Windows and iTunes or QuickTime on Mac OS. There are some free alternatives, if you don’t have or want those featured on your machine. Such as VLC media player, which is built for most platforms. For other programs, Google free media player, or visit sourceforge.net

Now you are ready to connect it all. Make sure your hi-fi system is plugged in and turned on, and your laptop is powered up and logged in. Connect the 3.5mm auxiliary cable to the line out jack on your laptop and the auxiliary in jack on your hifi stand. If you need to, set your systems input to auxiliary, then try playing a media file to check the sound quality.

Due to differences in the capabilities of individual systems, and other factors, your sound quality may not be as good as normal. Luckily, there are a few tips that have helped others and may be just what you need. First you should check the frequencies and equalizer on your hi-fi system. Then check to make sure your computers output volume is at the right levels. Another possible way to increase the sound quality is to plug the auxiliary cable into the headphone jack on your computer, instead of the line out jack. When the program is open, check that the equalizer levels are what you’d expect and that they look good on your laptop’s sound manager too.

Sometimes things go wrong, and here are some common istakes made when connecting a laptop to a hifi system. First check all the connections and make sure all wires are plugged firmly in place. If they are in plugged in properly and still don’t work, it could be that one of them is faulty – this is more likely if you bought a used or second-hand wire. Check to see if they work on another piece of AV equipment to test. Make sure your laptops sound works, try playing something through the internal speakers if your laptop has them. Also make sure your speakers are good.