AudioCircle

Audio/Video Gear and Systems => The Discless Circle => Topic started by: SteveFord on 15 Jan 2018, 06:13 pm

Title: PC to ancient NAD integrated
Post by: 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?

(http://www.audiocircle.com/image.php?id=174583)

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!

Title: Re: PC to ancient NAD integrated
Post by: RDavidson on 15 Jan 2018, 06:49 pm

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

Title: Re: PC to ancient NAD integrated
Post by: Vincent Kars on 15 Jan 2018, 07:20 pm

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

Title: Re: PC to ancient NAD integrated
Post by: richidoo 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. (http://www.audioquest.com/dragonfly-series/)  Dragonfly is $100.

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

Title: Re: PC to ancient NAD integrated
Post by: Blu99Zoomer 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

Title: Re: PC to ancient NAD integrated
Post by: Blu99Zoomer 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....

Title: Re: PC to ancient NAD integrated
Post by: randytsuch 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

Title: Re: PC to ancient NAD integrated
Post by: charmerci on 16 Jan 2018, 02:12 am

...

Title: Re: PC to ancient NAD integrated
Post by: Doublej 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

Title: Re: PC to ancient NAD integrated
Post by: pfarthing 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

Title: Re: PC to ancient NAD integrated
Post by: SteveFord 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. 

Title: Re: PC to ancient NAD integrated
Post by: SteveFord 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

Title: Re: PC to ancient NAD integrated
Post by: Doublej 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?

Title: Re: PC to ancient NAD integrated
Post by: SteveFord 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.

Title: Re: PC to ancient NAD integrated
Post by: Doublej 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

Title: Re: PC to ancient NAD integrated
Post by: SteveFord on 27 Jan 2018, 11:04 am

Thank you, further adventures await!

Title: Re: PC to ancient NAD integrated
Post by: SteveFord 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.

Title: Re: PC to ancient NAD integrated
Post by: Doublej 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?

Title: Re: PC to ancient NAD integrated
Post by: RDavidson 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.

Title: Re: PC to ancient NAD integrated
Post by: SteveFord 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...

Title: Re: PC to ancient NAD integrated
Post by: WGH on 14 Jun 2018, 01:38 am

Quote from: SteveFord on 14 Jun 2018, 01:13 am

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. 

You may be able to roll back the update, a quick google search will tell you how, if not then it's...

Back to Windows 7. You can still buy disks and .iso images and download Windows 7 drivers from the Dell site. After a week of updates you will have a new computer.
Ideally there is a hidden partition for a factory reset which costs nothing and includes the drivers but there are always the updates to deal with.

Never 10 from Steve Gibson's website will prevent Win 7 upgrading to Win 10.
https://www.grc.com/never10.htm (https://www.grc.com/never10.htm)

Title: Re: PC to ancient NAD integrated
Post by: dB Cooper on 16 Jun 2018, 09:49 am

Is the computer a dedicated audio machine or multipurpose? If dedicated, forget all the Windows bullsh** and install Audiophile Linux, a low-overhead Linux distribution written with audio functionality in mind.

https://www.ap-linux.com/

Title: Re: PC to ancient NAD integrated
Post by: Doublej on 16 Jun 2018, 12:34 pm

Quote from: dB Cooper on 16 Jun 2018, 09:49 am

Is the computer a dedicated audio machine or multipurpose? If dedicated, forget all the Windows bullsh** and install Audiophile Linux, a low-overhead Linux distribution written with audio functionality in mind.

https://www.ap-linux.com/

Does Audiophile Linux support the ability create a Live USB stick so one can try it first without installing it on their machine?

On a related note....downloading....3.4kB/sec days left...

Title: Re: PC to ancient NAD integrated
Post by: dB Cooper on 19 Jun 2018, 02:46 pm

Most distributions do but I haven't tried.

Looks like you are having some download issues; some can be found as torrents which can be faster...

WOW that's bad.  Found a year-old forum with a similar complaint. Nobody's gonna want to put up with that no matter how good the distribution is.

As one forum I checked said, you could probably accomplish the same with other distributions. There are 'small footprint' variations of Ubuntu for sure. They at least have a viable downloading process and 'live stick' options. The 'Computer Audiophile' forum site may have more support. Playing audio just isn't that difficult as modern computing goes (a Pi can do it ferfuxake); I think mainly you need to get out from under the Windows OS bloat with the old computer, and the right Linux is probably a good way to do that.

Update: Checked their website and apparently you can do a (presumably faster) paid download for 3.99 EUR ($4.61). I might still try one of the low-overhead Ubuntu variations though such as Lubuntu linux (http://).

Speaking of a Pi, if you already have the USB DAC, you can get a Pi setup running for <$100. Computer Audiophile would be a good resource on that too.

Title: Re: PC to ancient NAD integrated
Post by: SteveFord on 19 Jun 2018, 09:45 pm

This is a multi-purpose laptop.
I've tried all sorts of stuff, still got a frog croaking away in there.

It may be back to Windows 7 for this one.