Can I connect my PC to a hi-fi system?

KatanaDV20

KatanaDV20

KatanaDV20

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Hallo
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Well, Im having a hard time finding some decent speakers for my PC and with pounding stereo systems available for a steal I've decided to check em out!

Im not talking £2000 Denon or somethin...Im talking about those £150 (or less) jobs you see in the shopping catalogues that look tacky but I've heard em thunder :cool:

Umm...probably a daft question but Im not too sure..can I hook one up to my PC? I wont "strain" or "overload" any components?

Thanx!! :)
 
A hi-fi like that will almost certainly have phono interconnect inputs for additional inputs. Just need a jack to interconnect wire or adapter. No problemo.

However, my advice would be to buy a separate hi-fi amp, and then separate speakers. For your budget you can get very respectable sounds from an amp / speaker set up like this.

This way, quality is higher, you have the base for a decent hi-fi separates system (eg you can add CD player later) and as time goes on you can upgrade the amp / speakers as you can afford to.
 
A well known store is currently doing a set of wharfdale 8.1 SE speakers with a Cambridge Audio A1 amp for £180 and they throw in an Ipod dock too (if that's of any use to you).

Alternatively try and pick something up second hand, you often get a bargain. The Cambridge Audio A1 or A5 paired with some wharfdale diamond 9.1 could probably be had for around £150 from an auction site and would sound much better than any of these cheap systems from a catalogue.
 
i use my hifi. On the back there is a AUX port with a red and white cable connector like those on scart leads. The cable is a phono to stereo jack cable which plugs from hifi to PC
 
I 100% recommend you get some hi-fi seperates instead of PC speakers

Check the Sticky in the home cinema section for other recommendations :)
 
Don't go for a flashing light argos special. I'd be more inclined to go for some higher end PC speakers than those.

Definitely look into a stereo amp and speakers for you PC. I've got my hi-fi hooked up to mine and it's brilliant.
 
Thanks for the info everyone. tom_nieto I totally agree that getting a good-quality system is important and I can afford such a system. However I dont want to throw too much money at them hee hee (saving up for a new monitor lol)

As tacky and flashy as the catalog systems are they will do the job and some of them really do have excellent sound. I can never really bump them anyway in my flat lol. And their low price include a 3.1 speaker system (in some cases even more) so I can have a wannabe surround-sound set up on the cheap lol.

Right off I go to the store then, woot :D
 
Sorry to burst your bubble but micro/mini systems don't sound very good, the subwoofer in a high street special is just a boom box.

If you want seperates (but small) look at the Teac range of systems.

o I can have a wannabe surround-sound
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3.1 isn't surround sound, it's front array and subwoofer. But to answer your question as long as the "hifi" has one line level input yes you can connect soundcard to it.
 
You could easily pick up a decent separate amp second hand for probably £20, speakers the same.

Some folk just won't listen eh :)
 
Ok ok! You guys have convinced me! I had a look at the mini/micro systems and decided that u lot were right...they arent very good
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The sperates route will be a little more expensive since I now also have to find some speakers but as they say...you gets what you pays for. And yea the used route is a good one, shall go to the Craft store today hee hee. :D
 
what about an Onkyo CR-515DAB and Q Acoustics 1010 speakers? which i'm thinking of getting, small, cheap and i've only seen really good reviews of it.
 
Raikiri said:
Alternatively try and pick something up second hand, you often get a bargain. The Cambridge Audio A5 paired with some wharfdale diamond 9.1 could probably be had for around £150 from an auction site and would sound much better than any of these cheap systems from a catalogue.
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I had this combination for a number of months and it produced a half decent sound quality. :)
 
All great ideas however what about hi-fi speaker not tending to be shielded won't that screw with the PC IF too close to the tower and monitor? :confused:
 
Not sure, id be interested to find out though, thinking about getting a similar setup myself. Surely it wouldn't effect an LCD monitor in the same way as it would a CRT?
 
Andrew G said:
All great ideas however what about hi-fi speaker not tending to be shielded won't that screw with the PC IF too close to the tower and monitor? :confused:
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No issues here, the HDs are the only thing that is likely to be affected and they are shielded.

Speaker is about 3 inches from the case and 12 inches from the HDs.
 
Thanks dunker, am checking that out now. Tons of choice out there, only downside you kinda have to go to a shop and see what it sounds like! Sound being such a subjective thing to each of us :) Well Im in no rush and will see whats out there locally first - 2nd hand store included!

Raikiri - dude your case looks awesome :) Like you got it from the Borg ship or somethin :D

Andrew G - I use two CRTs. One is the standard 17" Dell that came with my PC and the other is a 2nd hand 19" thats a bit older. The 19" is very sensitive and I even had to move it further away from my gfs PC - and she uses small & cheap £15 speakers! The Dell monitor is actually surrounded by 3 speakers but is not affected in the least! Wonder how they got around it, Im curious to know!
 
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If you're putting your speakers close to your PC make sure they're magnetically shielded. Most speakers are these days, but be careful. Your CRT screens will be messed up, but more importantly your HDDs will get wiped if they're not shielded.
 
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