USB music player?

S

SteelBlue05

Guest
The earphone socket on my laptop is broken. Is there some sort of device I can connect to my laptop via USB or Firewire in order to be able to route sound through to my speakers.

I have been conecting my speakers via the headphone socket up until now.

Thanks
 
SteelBlue05 said:
I have been conecting my speakers via the headphone socket up until now.
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Is there not a separate line out which would be more appropriate for connecting speakers than the headphone socket? Normally sound cards (inbuilt or separate cards) have three main connections: line in/mic, line out (speakers) and headphone. The line out and speaker connectors may have different impedance characteristics suited to their main purpose. You can notice this in some cases by a difference in loudness - e.g. connecting some speakers to a headphone socket will result in very low volume levels.
 
No, it only has a headphone socket and mic In. It also has what looks like a TV out symbol socket.

Is it common for laptops to have a sound out socket besides the headphone socket? Neither my own laptop nor my work laptop have one.
 
Oh - just checked my laptop (Sony Vaio PCG-K23) and it too only has A/V out, mic in and headphones out connectors on the site. I assumed that it also had a separate line out. My mistake. Looks like it is possible to get USB to audio adaptors in case that's of any use to you - e.g. see [broken link removed]. Are you sure that the headphone jack cannot be repaired?
 
Yeah I think the headphone socket could be repaired, but I am pretty sure it would involve replacing the whole sound card and probably costly.

The link looks interesting, I wonder will the likes of Real Player send sound out through USB.
 
This could be a software rather than hardware problem. You should have external speakers on your laptop. Are they working? If so then the problem is a hardware one and the only solution is to send in the machine for repair. If the external speakers are not operational then the problem is a software one and you can rectify this by just re-installing your sound system from the original CD.
 
Well, the headphone socket will kind of work when moving the connection around, its just very loose.

Is there a way of routing sound through to USB and into something that will then send it to external speakers. I think the link Clubman sent may handle the usb to speakers issue. Now how to route sound to usb ?
 
SteelBlue05 said:
Now how to route sound to usb ?
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I presume that when you install one of these devices it appears as a new sound output device and you just select that in Windows or whatever application you use to route sound output to it.
 
I've got Creative external USB sound card which works great. I picked it up last year in WalMart in the U.S. for about 40 dollars. You could run your speakers of that! BTW I presume that you are using powered speakers. Link: [broken link removed]
 
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[broken link removed] is probably about as cheap as youre going to get. Heres [broken link removed] closer for under 50e.

I bought a similar card, real basic stuff, and it works a treat. Any USB card with audio outs will do, unless you want gold plated connectors in which case the skys the limit on price.
 
car said:
[broken link removed] is probably about as cheap as youre going to get. Heres [broken link removed] closer for under 50e.
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Is [broken link removed] not even cheaper assuming that the headphone output is sufficient?
 
ah yeah, it is, but define cheap, you might lose that thing coz its so small and then youd have to buy another one costing you god knows how much to replace in time and money and stress.

Whats that? phone call for me? I'll be right there.....
 
SteelBlue05 said:
Well, the headphone socket will kind of work when moving the connection around, its just very loose.
Click to expand...

Almost certainly then the socket connectors have broken the solder seal to the PCB, very common problem. Simple fix for someone with a soldering iron. Is the laptop still under warranty?
 
Thanks for all the replies. No, the laptop is not under warranty.

I think all I need is the usb adapter thing Clubman mentioned and then just figure out if the software I use to play mp3s (Philips Musicmatch) will output to usb.
 
SteelBlue05 said:
then just figure out if the software I use to play mp3s (Philips Musicmatch) will output to usb.
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I reckon that once you install the USB audio device you will see a new audio option in Start -> Control Panel -> Sounds and Audio Devices Properties -> Audio -> Sound playback - Default device etc. and once you select the new audio device as your default then all Windows applications that generate sound will work through that - i.e. the applications themselves may not have specific options for selecting the output sound device or be aware of USB at all and Windows will take care of it for you. However ask for advice about specific devices before buying just in case.
 
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