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Best way to connect PC to PA ?

I'm wondering how you guys connect your PC to your PA system?

I've made up a rig of adaptors and cables to go from the small connector on the sound card to a "pair" of standard quarter inch jacks... and plugging those into my Amp... but I'm getting a lot of noise along with the sound.




The earphone jack on the standard laptop is electrically equivalent to an unbalanced stereo line output. Use of adaptors to break the signal out to L and R channels and then into any set of Line Level inputs on your PA will yield a very good result. (TIP: When doing this, make sure that the software mixer of your laptop has the Master and Wav, Software MIDI synth, outputs turned all the way up! This will drive the line the hardest, which is what we need here, for lowest signal to noise ratio and fullest sound. Get your volume level at the PA with the hardware fader.)

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And... is the Sound Out connector on a typical PC sound card a 1/8 or 3/32 stereo female jack?



Actually, most of them today are likely to be metric, but the 1/8" size will usually work.

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And the ultimate question... What is the best way to get professional quality sound out of your PC for a live rehearsal or performance?

Thanks for any help.



If your laptop is fairly new, there really is not a good enough advantage to buying an aftermarket soundcard for playback of programs like BIAB. This is because today's laptops are shipping with very good D-A output converters in them due to the customer demands to watch (and hear) multimedia.

*ANy noise you experience is likely due to an AC GROUND LOOP. Use of a Radio Shack Ground Loop Isolator between laptop output and PA will safely eliminate that noise. Less than $20US


--Mac

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