Originally Posted By: jazzmammal
One of my rare disagreements with you Matt. Years ago Mac went around and around with people saying the same thing, the headphone outs of a laptop are not that good. That was true maybe 10-15 years ago but not in the modern world. As you know you basically count the age of a computer in dog years so 12 years ago is ancient history.

Newer laptops all have versions of HD sound built in so people can play movies, stream music and play HD games on them. The sound is fine. I used to run the headphone outs to my mixer in my home studio with no problem.
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Bob

This thread has diverged a bit.

Yes, you can use the headphone jack of a laptop into a mixer. Sweetwater explains the problems but agrees you can do it if you do it carefully. https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/headphone-outputs-used-line-outputs-for-line-level-gear/

That does not make it the right thing to do.

The quality of the soundcard in the modern laptop is indeed better now, but that was never the issue. Voltage, impedance, and distortion are the issue. Mac is an electrical engineer, and he knew.

If for no other reason, I detest using a headphone jack to connect to a mixer, and especially a PA, because those jacks are of low quality and they wear out easily, so if the connection is jostled, you are in for a massive loud crackling. You risk your recording or performance on a thirty-cent part that goes bad easily.

All this is to say that the better solution is to buy an audio interface that connects by USB to the laptop.

BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.