First question, do you have a desktop computer or a laptop? If laptop, is it PC or Mac?
Best amp for simple sound output from computer
It's been a while since I have had a standard audio system (old system was destroyed in hurricane flood), and with my current personal situation, I have been doing all my listening through powered speakers from the audio output of my computer, such as Paradigm Active/20. I have all my audio files on my computer (or some removable hard drives), and so I am very comfortable with running the source that way. I also have my movies on my computer, and I stream radio sometimes. The point is that the old paradigm of a CD player, a tuner, etc. has been completely obviated. I have a pair of Montana Audio EPS that I had bought a demos from years ago that I have not been able to set up due to space, but eventually want to use them, so I will need to get an amplifier unit.
I suppose that one solution is to just do what I am doing now, taking the output from my computer headphone port and splitting it into RCA plugs to go into the input of the amplifier, but somehow I think this must be a degradation, although maybe the sound card part of the computer motherboard these days might be very high quality. I also have heard about BlueTooth being an option, such that I play something and the BlueTooth signal gets generated that the amplifier picks up and uses to power the speakers, but I wonder about the fidelity. Anyway, I don't care to have the input selections on the amplifier all cluttered with input selections that I don't need.
Something else I might be interested in is some type of media player that I could programatically drive from my computer; this media player could be a replacement for the external hard drives that have my complete collection (about 1.5 TB and counting), and would have some type of premium DAC, but I have no idea where to look.
Anyway, I'm open for any suggestions. I am definitely a newbie when it comes to computer-centered audio.
I suppose that one solution is to just do what I am doing now, taking the output from my computer headphone port and splitting it into RCA plugs to go into the input of the amplifier, but somehow I think this must be a degradation, although maybe the sound card part of the computer motherboard these days might be very high quality. I also have heard about BlueTooth being an option, such that I play something and the BlueTooth signal gets generated that the amplifier picks up and uses to power the speakers, but I wonder about the fidelity. Anyway, I don't care to have the input selections on the amplifier all cluttered with input selections that I don't need.
Something else I might be interested in is some type of media player that I could programatically drive from my computer; this media player could be a replacement for the external hard drives that have my complete collection (about 1.5 TB and counting), and would have some type of premium DAC, but I have no idea where to look.
Anyway, I'm open for any suggestions. I am definitely a newbie when it comes to computer-centered audio.
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