Line level out of a laptop? And using a computer power source?

[Jaredturp 10+ year member]

Alrighty so my newest little project is speaker towers for my room. Is there any way to get line level out of my laptop? L.O.C.?

Also I'm trying to use a nice computer power supply I had laying around to power a car amp, how is that done??

I realize that I need to buy a home amp, but I'm 16 and thus have very little money and this is just a little way to get some jams while my car is out of commission.

Thanks in advance.

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[Johnny Law.Lulz 5,000+ posts]

I have a converted power supply ill sell you, and i dont believe there is a LOC for laptops, get a headphone jack to RCA cable and use that for amp inputs.

 

[Jaredturp 10+ year member]

How much for the Power Supply and what wattage? Also I have the chord that is 1/8" to RCA, but I just question whether that would work or not.... you say yes?

 

[DarkScorpion 10+ year member]

Yeah, for PC's you'll usually just use the headphone out jack. If you're seriously interested in hi-fi audio out of your pc, you'll want to look into buying an external DAC (digital-to-analog converter) which will take sound via USB from your PC and turn it into a low-level output (RCAs). With a regular desktop PC, you can use a nice PCI based sound card to give you similar results, but with a laptop, an external soundcard or external DAC are your best choices. A 1/8" to RCA cable will work perfectly fine. Don't be surprised at the amount of noise that comes from your setup, though. It's common with most laptops and their headphone-out jack.

You can use almost any computer power supply to power your car amplifier, but you need to make sure the PSU is capable of withstanding the current draw of the amp. Look on the side of the PSU at the big sticker: it will say the amperage of the 12+ rails; the higher, the better as this is what the PSU is capable of delivering on the 12+ volt rail. To use a computer PSU, you'll just hook up a 12v wire and a ground wire directly to the amp, then short the green and any black wire on the main 24-pin (or 20-pin, if using an older PSU) harness.

 

[Jaredturp 10+ year member]

Thanks man!