pioneer recievers

[tojo619]

Are there any companies out there besides Pioneer that able you to connect your PC to your reciever to play music?????

[ThomasW]

Any PC with a soundcard can be connected to any receiver, via the soundcard output and a line level input on the receiver.

[tojo619]

oh, didn't know that thanks!

[wildfire99]

I prefer to buy a cheap coax cable with F->RCA adapters on the end, and go from S/PDIF out on the soundcard to the digital coax in on the receiver. Lots easier (unless you are doing multichannel out without that DD Mastering Studio or multichannel game audio thing).

[Ray_D]

I am currently playing my PC from my sound card's SPDIF out to the digital input to my ONKYO receiver. Sounds great.

[BobEllis]

An advantage of using the SPDIF connection is that the receiver's SPDIF connection is frequently isolated, preventing ground loops. My Dell laptop cannot be connected to any unisolated input without causing lots of hum unless it is on battery power.

[RandyMidd]

I think what's confusing you is Pioneer's advertising of WMA9 Pro playback...it's a surround format from Microsoft.

BTW Do you plan on using a PC or a laptop to play your music?

It's often best to let the soundcard pass the digital data to your receiver and let it do the coverting to analog. This is because hopefully, your receiver has better components that accomplish the conversion.

You probably know your speakers must see an analog signal...CDs and ripped music is digital info to be read and converted to analog, somewhere somehow.

I use an inexpensive USB external soundcard on a laptop (but could use it on anything with a USB port), it's an M-Audio Transit...connected to the receiver with an optical cable...the receiver's onboard DAC (digital analog converter) will convert the digital information (to analog) with better quality than if I let the soundcard do the conversion.

Your receiver should have digital inputs of some sort to use its onboard DAC.
- Hope that helps.

[RandyMidd]

JVC makes receivers with an USB port in them and says will play music directly connected to your pc or wireless...nice, but there's more important features to consider when making a decision on a receiver purchase...for me the absence of preamp jacks is a deal killer.

[Dennis H]

Quite a few receivers these days, including some Pioneer models, have USB or ethernet ports on the back so you don't need to use the computer's soundcard. The computer becomes the soundcard.