A Re-Sounding Success

From the Tech Vault Dept.: There can’t possibly be a more technologically dated piece in my files than this one. Here I am, in 1995, telling you how to hook up your computer’s audio output to your home stereo system. Who does that any more? As a matter of fact, I do. If there’s an indignity involved, it’s the horrific rewrite some subeditor put my piece through, so I’m satisfying my still-bruised ego by posting it here in its original form. (Photos by John Popplewell.)

                                                                                        

MY IDEA OF AUDIO HELL is the multimedia section of any computer show. There’s something about the output of all those tiny, tinny speakers that makes my back teeth think of fingernails on a chalkboard. Because most of those loudspeakers sound terrible. When it comes to any multimedia enterprise – I’m thinking especially of television now – audio tends to get short-shrifted. A few manufacturers are offering terrific computer speakers, but they’re not cheap. And chances are that right now you’re listening to a possible solution to the computer audio problem.

Let’s say that you recently picked up a multimedia kit for your computer. Which means you probably did what I did: shopped around for the right CD-ROM player and sound card combo, and then went along with whatever speakers were thrown in. Try this simple test: Heft one of the speakers in your hand. If it weighs about the same as this magazine, don’t look for your audiophile friends to swoon at the sound of it..

There are alternatives at hand. First and easiest is a pair of headphones. They sound better than those cheap speakers, and they bother nobody else. But headphones will always be a secondary technique, because nothing takes the place of being able to crank that music! You’ve got a good stereo system playing – so route the sound from that sound card into your stereo and enjoy the assault of real amplifier muscle. Or fire up a round of Doom and enjoy the assault.

Compared to a computer, a stereo is laughably simple. Its purpose is to reproduce the sound of a recording with as little added color as possible. My amplifier has a lot more power than the sound card in my PC, so it has an easier time getting those loudspeakers trembling. Why should I plug in my computer? Believe me, it’s not just to hear the cheesy voice annotations I’m finding all over the place. The fact is, a lot of the music tracks accompanying games and other good CD-ROMs are of high-quality, digitized sound. They deserve a better hearing. And Multimedia Beethoven won’t cut it at all on anything less than a good system.

Some sound cards give a choice of output. One line, intended for the speakers, is amplified. The other isn’t, and that’s the one to feed into your stereo. Let your stereo do as much of the amplification as it can – the result will sound better. If you have only one output jack, go with it, but keep the volume low at the computer end. No sense taxing your sound card’s feeble amplification power.

Finally, there is the aesthetic matter of speaker placement. Sometimes you have the luxury of placing those critters just far enough away from the walls and at exactly the right height so that the resultant frequency response and stereo imaging couldn’t be better. Sometimes you may have that luxury. I never do, and so the speakers go wherever they fit. At the very least, I try to place them so my ears land somewhere in the middle. And unless you’re dead sure of your wiring, this is a good time to check the lines that run from your amp to your speakers to make sure they’re consistent – positive lead going to positive lead in both cases.

Good loudspeakers are getting smaller all the time, but bad loudspeakers have always been little. We’re finally rebelling against those tiny TV speakers and plugging the tube into surround-sound rigs. Follow the following steps and we can liberate the audio of our computers.

Everything You Need for This Project

• Sound card (your choice) with audio output jack.
• Stereo (your choice) with audio input jack.
• Stereo patch cord to connect the two.
• Some jammin’ discs to try it out with.

Do’s

• Have a software-based volume control handy if the amplifier is across the room.

Don’ts

• Don’t plug the patch cord into your sound card’s input jack. At best it will produce no sound.
• Don’t plug the other end of the patch cord into your amplifier’s PHONO input. It will sound horrible.
• Don’t anger your neighbors, unless they’re seriously smaller and weaker than you are.

Intro and Steps

Step 1: Install a Sound Card.

It was part of the multimedia kit, packaged with the pair of laughably small speakers that sit nearby. After unplugging the power cords from your computer, remove the cover. Insert the sound card into a free slot on your system’s motherboard, taking care not to force any part of it in. And don’t accidentally dislodge any nearby wires. When you’re satisfied with your work, replace the lid on your computer and re-power it. If you’ve already done all of this, skip to Step 3.

Tip: Study the back of the sound card before you tuck it into the computer. Determine which is the output jack, and develop a facility for locating it just with your fingertips, without looking. Sound cards usually have two or three 1/8-inch jacks on their backsides, with words or icons stamped in the metal. If it’s icon-based, what looks like an aspirin is the microphone input; the triangle is a speaker output.

Step 2: Configure the Software Drivers.

Your sound card came with a few diskettes. A DOS-based installation usually requires that you put the first disk in drive A: and type INSTALL. For a Windows-based configuration, again with disk 1 in drive A:, choose Run from the File menu and type SETUP. The program will walk you through the process, choosing default settings. Unless you have some oddball hardware in your system, you’ll be all set. Reboot the machine to let the drivers take effect.

Step 3: Plug in the Junky Speakers.

Might as well try them, just to get a taste of that tinny sound you’ll soon be able to live without. A plug will be on (or packed near) the speakers. The stereo end of the plug has two black bands on a small silver shaft – it’s the same kind of plug that you find at the end of a Walkman-style headset. The other end splits into two plugs, one for each speaker, or it daisy chains from speaker to the other.

Step 4: Reroute Traffic to Your Amp.

You need a patch cord to connect to your amplifier. It has the aforementioned mini stereo plug at one end; the other end forks into two cords that each end in an RCA plug (sometimes called a phono plug). That’s the typical plug used with a home stereo: a small metal finger is surrounded by a larger metal cylinder. The cord you’re looking for often comes with a portable CD player, or it’s available at Radio Shack.

Tip: Measure the distance from your computer to your amplifier before you drive off to Radio Shack. If it’s greater than six feet, you’ll need an extension or two. Make sure you can cover the distance.


Step 5: Plug into Your Amp.

You can use any line-level input on the back of your amplifier, so don’t worry if it’s marked CD or TAPE or AUX. Just remember where you’re plugging into so you can select it later, especially if it’s a TAPE input. Some of them require a complicated selection ritual at the front panel. I have more to push two buttons to select TAPE 2,  one to choose TAPE 1, for example, so TAPE 1 made more sense as an input. It took me one patch cord and one six-foot extension to get from my computer to my amplifier.

Step 6: Fire it Up.

Start with the volume low. Play a known sound effect or CD through your system and adjust the result. For the best result, keep the volume at the computer end turned down. You want the big amplifier to do most of the work. Your multimedia kit software may have included a utility for playing audio CDs through the computer, even letting you listen while you run other applications (if you don’t have such a program, check ZiffNet). This also provides easy-access volume control if your amplifier is on the other side of the room and the phone rings and it’s your boss and . . . you get the picture. On the other hand, if you’ve got it really cranked, you probably don’t want to hear that phone!

– Computer Life, March 1995