PC to ancient NAD integrated

SteveFord · « **on:** 15 Jan 2018, 06:13 pm »

As I approach my dotage I find myself listening to a lot of concerts and documentaries on youtube.
What I'm doing right now is just using a set of cheapie Grados plugged into the Dell laptop.
What I would like to do is hook the laptop up to an NAD 3020 integrated and that way I can listen to it with my indescribably fugly Stax headphones which they marketed as Chick Magnets back in the 1980s. Experience has taught me otherwise unless pointing and laughing counts?

Seeing how the NAD is RCA inputs only and I'm a complete idiot when it comes to hooking stuff up to laptops, exactly what do I need to get to bypass the wimpy Dell headphone jack?
Thanks!

RDavidson · « **Reply #1 on:** 15 Jan 2018, 06:49 pm »

Male headphone jack to stereo female RCA splitter.
Everything should be straightforward from there.

Vincent Kars · « **Reply #2 on:** 15 Jan 2018, 07:20 pm »

If you want to bypass the onboard audio, a USB DAC is an obvious choice.

richidoo · « **Reply #3 on:** 15 Jan 2018, 08:37 pm »

Only 2 ways to get audio out of the laptop, headphone jack (which may not be too bad, prolly good enough for youtube) or a USB DAC. Dragonfly is $100.

I listen on AKG K701 headphones straight from my Lenovos T430 laptop, good enough.

Blu99Zoomer · « **Reply #4 on:** 15 Jan 2018, 08:59 pm »

Good luck with your new listening. Mine started similarly hoping to connect a computer to an old amplifier. After all the money I have invested though, maybe I should say "forget that idea" and invest in new chick magnets instead.

Best Regards,

Blu99Zoomer

Blu99Zoomer · « **Reply #5 on:** 15 Jan 2018, 09:03 pm »

"https://www.innerfidelity.com/content/bose-soundwear-companion-speaker" I have no connection to either the writer or the manufacturer. Your magnets just made me think of this recent article I had read. Save your external ear parts for the girls to chew on....

randytsuch · « **Reply #6 on:** 15 Jan 2018, 09:54 pm »

Stax cans either need an adapter which connects to speaker outputs, or a high voltage amp.

I'm guessing Steve uses an adapter, which means you can't connect to a headphone jack. Has to connect to speaker outputs from an amp.

There's a thread going on cheap USB dacs.
so USB out of your laptop to the dac, which would connect to the aux in of the nad, and you're good to go.

What's your budget Steve?
There are some pretty inexpensive dacs these days.

As an aside, one of my early upgrades was selling a pioneer receiver and buying a NAD 3020. Back when I was in college and the nad was the hot new thing. lol

Randy

charmerci · « **Reply #7 on:** 16 Jan 2018, 02:12 am »

Doublej · « **Reply #8 on:** 16 Jan 2018, 02:33 am »

I'd go the USB DAC route as others have suggested. You'll need something to convert the 3.5mm output of the DAC to RCA plugs. You can either use an adapter plus RCA interconnect or a cable with 3.5mm on one side and RCA on the other.

You can start with just the adapter plus RCA interconnect or cable and plug it directly into the laptop, see if you like the results and go from there.

Examples:

Adapter - https://www.amazon.com/Audioquest-3-5mm-Mini-Plug-to-2-RCA-Adapter-Hard/dp/B003VJX2F2/adapter

Cable - https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-3-5mm-2-Male-Adapter-Cable/dp/B01D5H8JW0

pfarthing · « **Reply #9 on:** 17 Jan 2018, 09:34 am »

As said, a USB DAC is one way. But if all you're doing is listening to low bitrate streams off youtube, then a simple 3.5mm to 2 x RCA stereo cable is simplest and cheapest.

You could also ditch the NAD and replace it with something like this http://www.teac.com/product/ai-301da/ which is an all-in-one USB DAC and amp, with Bluetooth, too.
NAD has an equivalent called the D3020

SteveFord · « **Reply #10 on:** 20 Jan 2018, 04:55 pm »

Thanks to all for your help.
I'll post a review with how it all works out once I get things set up.

SteveFord · « **Reply #11 on:** 26 Jan 2018, 10:08 pm »

I just went with a cable from the laptop to the NAD and Roxy Music Live At The Apollo never sounded so good.
I probably have the wrong cable from my art DI/O dac so wasn't able to get it to work.
This is what I used:
https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-3-5mm-2-Male-Adapter-Cable/dp/B01D5H8JW0

Doublej · « **Reply #12 on:** 26 Jan 2018, 10:21 pm »

Excellent!

What were you trying to do with Art DI/O? Were you trying to send an analog signal or a digital signal from the Dell laptop to the Art DI/O?

SteveFord · « **Reply #13 on:** 27 Jan 2018, 01:28 am »

Digital signal to the Art DI/O hoping to bypass the Dell's guts.
No matter what I tried no cigar.

Doublej · « **Reply #14 on:** 27 Jan 2018, 02:40 am »

Did you try a USB to SPDIF converter?

Unless your Dell has a digital optical output built in like the Apple computers you will need to use the USB port to get the bits out and and then a box to change them to SPDIF to feed the Art DI/O. Hence a USB to SPDIF converter.

A number of choices are presented here:

http://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/HW/USB_SPDIF.htm

SteveFord · « **Reply #15 on:** 27 Jan 2018, 11:04 am »

Thank you, further adventures await!

SteveFord · « **Reply #16 on:** 13 Jun 2018, 10:41 pm »

I could use some help here as there are problem in Stax land.
A Windows 10 update in April caused audio playback, both online and in the disc drive, the give a blip in the sound once every 7 seconds. It sounds like a warped record which makes the record skip a little bit.

Running right out of the laptop (Dell) causes the skip noise to turn into a BRAP! noise as well so I picked up a Behringer UCA202 which at least got rid of the BRAP! noise. Plugging the Behringer into the Art DI/O dac didn't help matters any.

This is on both CD playback and youtube stuff. Same results with the PC plugged in and running just off of battery power.

Any suggestions other than new laptop time? All the audio tests I've run says everything is fine, I've tried adjusting settings, reloading Windows 10 and no improvement.

Doublej · « **Reply #17 on:** 13 Jun 2018, 11:56 pm »

Have you applied the June Windows updates?

Have you installed and run the Dell Support Assist program to make sure you have the latest drivers, BIOS and firmware updates from Dell?

RDavidson · « **Reply #18 on:** 14 Jun 2018, 12:29 am »

Try Doublej's suggestion. The problem is probably related to drivers that need to be updated from Dell. If that doesn't fix the problem, then something else is wrong.

SteveFord · « **Reply #19 on:** 14 Jun 2018, 01:13 am »

Ugh, just got off the phone with Dell.

The problem, sir, is that you are using an obsolete computer which is nine years old and it is not designed to work with Windows 10. The expected life of a computer is five years and your computer is nine years old.
We do not have an audio card which will work with your computer but we are having very good deals on new computers right now if you'd like to make a purchase...