[jamst149]

So I recently hooked up my pc to my receiver. When playing music through itunes the audio auality is pretty bad. At low levels its fine but anything past what one might consider a low volume level and you can hear distortion.


Pc only had a stereo jack so its stereo jack to rca jack. Do I get a new sound card? Currently have SoundMAX Integrated Digiatal audio (came with pc)


Any advice

 

[eldritch]

Are you increasing the volume on the PC or on the receiver? Try adjusting each one independently and see if one way or the other is better.


As for the connection, I would definitely recommend getting a soundcard with either coax or toslink SPDIF out. I personally use a Soundblaster X-Fi XtremeMusic with the digital I/O module but the Auzentech cards are also recommended by others on here.


Mez

 

[jamst149]

Tried both. Increasing sound on receiver is def the better option. Seems anything past 50% on pc and it gets real bad. Much more room for error on receiver volume but still thats not great either.


My receiver is ~10 years old. Would it even have either of those 2 options?

 

[jamst149]

Tried both. Increasing sound on receiver is def the better option. Seems anything past 50% on pc and it gets real bad. Much more room for error on receiver volume but still thats not great either.


My receiver is ~10 years old. Would it even have either of those 2 options?

 

[eldritch]

You would have to look at the back of the receiver or in the manual. The digital jacks are typically labeled "COAX" or "OPT".


Mez

 

[tsang1101]

Your playing MP3's through itunes right? A few things you might want to try,


1. Try a few of the 'lossless' audio formats as opposed to MP3 check here mp3's wildly vary in quality especially if your not ripping them yourself. Then check the quality.


2. A problem I had with itunes was that I had, without my knowledge, turned on some kind of equalizer in itunes and that made things almost unlistenable. Sounds kind of like what you have, I couldn't turn it up any higher than half way with out getting massive distortion. So check for that.


3. Like eldritch said, try and pass the audio digitally from your pc into your receiver. If it's 10 years old it might not have digital in's and outs. And if it doesn't, i'd say try and pick up a new reciever and a cheap soundcard(only get a cheap soundcard if you're only going to use the digital out, if you're using analog best to spend a bit more

)


Good luck!

Tristan