Use sound from my laptop?

[unclet]

Ok, I got a laptop free and was planning on using it for my Jukebox project.   I most likely (based on a suggestion in this forum) will store all my mp3s and videos on a server and access them via a network connection.

My concern now is how will the sound be and what do other people do?  I guess I was planning on simply plugging in external computer speakers to the laptop and have those be the sound I use.    Although something tells me this just will not be suitable.  If I  take the output from the laptop and use real stereo speakers will this be much better?  I read that some people use amplifiers .... what will this do for me?  

Obviously I have no idea about stereo stuff, so please tell me what are my options with producing nice sound at an affordable price?  

[crashwg]

if you buy a decent set of pc speakers that should be all you need.  I'd suggest spending about $80 on a set of altec lansing.  Then again, if you already have a reciever, I'm pretty sure there are some sound cards, audigy maybe???, that have an optical output, and nothing will beat that!!!

[Paul Olson]

Most older laptops only have a headphone jack.  On mine, I can hook up powered computer speakers and it works fine.  I hooked it up to my home stereo once, and there was alot of feedback.  I never did find out what caused it, I think maybe the receiver didn't like the small amount of power from the headphone jack.

Paul

[Mamezilla]

I have a Toshiba pentium 1 233 MHz notebook, and have connected the headphone jack to a stereo receiver numerous times, and it works great.  Just use an adaptor with a male  1/8" stereo connector to 2 RCA females jacks, and you're all set.  Just make sure that

• you connect on your receiver in a "AUX", "TUNER" or "TAPE" input.
• you do not connect in a "PHONO" input if your receiver is a bit old, because older phono cartridges with magnetic coils produced far less voltage than ceramic cartridges that are used today, so in those times, the "PHONO" inputs in older receivers had greater amplification than the other inputs.
• you set the volume levels in the WAV and main volume control in your Windows mixer (if in fact you are using Windows as a OS) to enough level so that you drive up the input of your receiver, without pushing them too far so that you don't overload the input.  Also do not forget that many notebooks have volume controls (volume pots) directly on the machine, so this is something you must consider and adjust also.  THis is only a matter of trying different levels on every controls mentionned until reasonable performance is achieved.

A set of stereo computer speakers with a subwoofer connected to the headphones jack of the notebook would give you great results also.  I'd go with an Altec-Lansing set, like crashwg said.

Good luck with your project.  I know this can work.  By the way, if your notebook has a usb nput, you could save money for hard disk storage.  Since notebook hard drives are much more expensive, i bought a 80 gigs Western digital IDE drive that i've putted in an external enclosure, which has a USB to IDE interface and an external power supply.  I've bought one of these in a local electronic store for $60.00 canadian.  Works like a charm, and you can always unplug that drive from the notebook and carry it to connect it into other computers.