Hi Guys, The thing is with using the headphone output, is that it's an Unbalanced Output and as a consequence there is potential for Low Level Hum... A dedicated sound card offers more flexibility and would definitely ensure better results... Cheers, Bj

Hi Bj, unbalanced outputs in general aren't necessarily all evil. You just need to make sure that they are away from power lines or at right angles to them if they have to cross. You also want to keep the cable length as short as possible to help reduce the likelihood of noise being picked up. The internal sound card is more likely to impart noise in to the signal due to improper insulation from the computer's power supply and electronics, than the unbalanced cable being the problem. That and ground loops... but that's another story. Overall, I agree that an external sound card is the better way to go, but it really is horses for courses.

Sorry, but can you explain your first sentence. unbalanced outputs in general aren't necessarily all evil. You just need to make sure that they are away from power lines or at right angles to them if they have to cross. You also want to keep the cable length as short as possible to help reduce the likelihood of noise being picked up.

Hi Jim, sure. In general, balanced cables and inputs/ outputs are preferred because by their nature, they cancel out any noise that manages to find it's way in to the signal. Unbalanced cables and connections are not able to do this. However, just because you have unbalanced gear doesn't automatically make it bad, or not capable of good sound quality. The cables used on your hi-fi, will be unbalanced and I'm sure you're more than happy with the sound. There are ways to prevent noise entering your cables though and to do that you have to be aware of where the problems might come from. As Bj pointed out, power lines are one of the worst enemies of unbalanced connections. If you are running unbalanced cables near power lines then I would leave as much of a gap as possible (i.e. don't have them running side by side of each other) and if the wires do have to cross each other, try and make them cross at 90 degrees to each other. ... and, the longer the unbalanced cable the more likely it is to pick up noise, so keep the cables as long as you need them. Cheers, j