Hooking up your computer to your home stereo system...

I hope this thread is in the right forum. But anyway, does anyone know anything about hooking up your computer to your home stereo system to play music from your computer through your home system? I'm trying to do that by plugging in a the single end of a Y audio cable(very similar looking to this one)

http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/3536/yaudiocablewe3.png

into my computer's headphone output socket, and with two couplers attached to the right and left male ends of the Y audio cable, I've connected a 12 ft. extension audio cable so that the hook up will reach my home stereo system.

Well, I started out by connecting the right and left ends of the 12 ft. extension audio cable into the Tape "IN" sockets in the back of my home stereo amplifier, but no sound came from my computer through my home stereo amplifier. I also had a live internet chat with a tech for the new computer that I just purchased, and he suggested that I first unplug my computer speakers' jack from the audio socket in the back on my computer(and I know that my pc speakers work okay) and try plugging it into my headphone socket to see if my pc speakers would play sound from my headphone socket. Well, they did, therefore, I know that nothing is wrong with the headphone output on my computer. But anyway, I decided to unplug the 12 ft. extension audio cable from the Tape "IN" sockets in the back of my home stereo amplifier and plug them into the CD "IN" sockets that I normally would have my CD player connected to. Well, that didn't work either.(And of course I changed media device modes on my home stereo amplifier like I would when switching from DVD, to Tape, to CD, to FM radio, etc.) But anyway, I asked about my situaton at a few electronic stores that I went to the other day and one salesman suggested that maybe I didn't have enough power running through the audio cables coming from my computer. Another salesman suggested that maybe something was wrong with the audio cables that I had such having corrosion in them. I don't know. All I know is that I should be able to do this, but I don't understand why I can't. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

You mentioned using the "tape in" jacks? I may be wrong, but I think those jacks are for input to the tape player for recording and aren't active unless the tape deck is recording. If you have an aux input, use that. I use the same cable you pictured, running from the PCs speaker output to my stereo's aux input, and it works fine.
A rather noisy quick check you can do is to plug in the RCA jacks into the input being tried, and with the volume down fairly low, touch the end of the pin jack. If the RCA jacks are live, you should get a nasty hum from the speakers.
On an older stereo I was using, I ran the PC speaker output into my tape deck record input, then set the deck to record but kept the tape paused, using the recorder as a sort of preamp I could adjust the volume level on.
Rick

 

Do you have a portable CD or MP3 player that you can plug into the stereo? This would at least positively identify where the problem is. If it doesn't work you could then try without the extension cord, and if that didn't work you could try a different cable.

Since the computer is working OK with it's normal speakers, I would not think it to be a problem with the comptuer at all, unless it's a matter of volume settings.

 

I just looked at my owner's manual, and for connecting a cassette tape deck, it says to "connect the output terminals(PLAY) of the device to the TAPE IN jacks...and the input terminals(REC) to the TAPE OUT jacks." Therefore, since my computer would correspond to the "output terminals of the device," it appears as if connecting the audio cable from my computer to the TAPE IN is correct. The input terminals(REC) of a cassette tape deck would be connected to my amplifier's TAPE OUT because it would be receiving the signal from the amplifier from other media devices(CD, Phono, etc.) to record. BTW, I don't have an aux input on my receiver/amplifier. Also, I'm going to check something out. Actually, I now have my extension audio cable that is connected to my pc's headphone jack, connected to my CD IN on my stereo receiver/amplifier, and I think that I may have to change my Input Setup because the initial settings for the CD input source are suppose to be set for "digital" input and the audio cable running from my computer is analog. I'll have to see how the setup is on my receiver. Maybe that will make a difference.

 

No, not yet. But I am working on it. Actually, there's a bank in my area that is offering free 1GB iPod nanos when opening up a new checking account. I might have to check that out. lol

 

You want to go from line out on your sound card (this will be a single plug) to line in on your stereo (two rca plugs). Other than phono/turntable, you should be able to use CD, DVD, Aux, etc. on your stereo for plugging the two rca plugs into.

 

Ditto!

 

Well, that didnt' help. Everything in the setup is correct, but I just don't understand the reason why music isn't playing through my home stereo receiver/amplifier. That is, IF I read the manual correctly. I have one of those high-end receivers(actually, it's a low-end, high-end receiver ) and the manual is a REAL pain in the neck to read. After having initially set up my sound system, I didn't think that I would ever have to go through reading the manual again. But here I am. But anyway, I'm going to try one more thing that I read in the manual, and if that doesn't work, I then think that I will start taking suggestions on other ways to hook up a computer to a home stereo system. I've heard of doing it through an iPod or through what is called AirTunes....Any other suggestions?

Also, herbalists, concerning your one suggestion:

just to be clear, are you saying to plug the audio cable/RCA jacks into the back of my reciever/amplifer(TAPE IN, CD IN, or whatever) and then to touch the pin jack on the opposite end of of audio cable that is suppose to be plugged into the headphone jack on my computer to see if I hear a hum from my home stereo speakers?

 

Well, the "one more thing" didn't work, therefore, anyone have any suggestions? I'm considering getting AirPort Express with AirTunes.

 

Do a little testing. Start with your stereo system.
1. Take a portable radio (or portable cassette player) and plug your cable (shown in post #1) into the portable earplug outlet of the portable player and then plug your dual connectors into your stero amphlifier "aux in" or "audio in" of something of that nature.

Keep adjusting the stereo controls until you can hear the audio from the portable player over your stereo system. Volume controls may also need adjusting.

2. Computer:
After success in step 1, remove the connector from the portable and plug the connector into the "Line Out" of the computer sound board. It's possible your already have your computer speakers connected to your "Line Out" connector--which means you need to buy a "Y" splitter. Using the splitter, you would plug the male connector from your stero and male connector from your computer speakers--both into the splitter and then plus the male connector from the splitter into the "line out" of the commputer sound dard.

Do not use the "speaker out" connector on your sound card--it is too weak. The splitter should have one male jacks and 2 or more female port connectors--all of the 1/8" same size. You can buy a "Y" splitter from radio shack or walmart, etc for a couple bucks.
http://www.radioshack.com/search/in...dphone cable&origkw=y-adapter headphone cable

3. It should not be necessary, but you may want to look at the Volume controls adjustments within your computer.
....Start/Programs/Accessories/Entertainment/volume controls.
Click Properties and checkmark everything so all will be displayed. (#1)
Then you should be something similar to settings in image #2.
Make sure your volume are turned up on wherever your audio is being played.
You may have to do a little trial and error.