Expert: Cleggsan - 4/24/2011

Question
Hi! Let's assume that I have a set of speakers and an amplifier and I want to listen music from my computer (new macbook pro). I'm planning to connect the computer to the amplifier. So does the computer's soundcard affect the tone in anyway? Or is the sound/music produced only in the amplifier? What is the best way to connect my computer to an amplifier? Is it better to use these ipod docks and connect them to the amplifier than to use and connect computers, sound quality wise? Thanks...

Answer
Music from a computer is almost always compressed signals such as MP3 or Itunes stuff.  It's high fidelity quality is already somewhat compromised by the compression techniques used in those formats to keep the storage/memory requirements as low as possible.

Therefore, you will not be altering or adding deterioration to the music signal in any appreciable way by going through the PC outputs to the input of the amplifier system you have employed.

Sound quality should be identical or virtually identical from either the soundcard or from the iPod docker outputs.

Happy listening.