Laptop SPDIF Cable to Stereo

Hi,

I have a dv2000 HP laptop with a SPDIF output on the front beside the headphones output and im not sure what cable I would need to transfer the sound from my laptop to my stereo with this output? Also is it better quality using the SPDIF rather than the headphones ouput to transfer the sound to the stereo?

Thanks.

 

If your dv2000 is similar to my HP tx1308ur, I believe its a standard 3.5mm analog stereo jack for an additional listener's headphones. This jack also does double duty as an S/PDIF audio output port. Then you'll need a TOSLINK audio cable with a mini-TOSLINK adapter to fit in that tiny hole. This is fiber optic digital cable, not coax digital cable. Then you'll have to configure Vista in the Control Panel>Sound applet to output audio as a digital audio signal out that port instead of the default analog stereo. Digital audio signal circuitry will always transmit a better signal quality than cheap analog audio op amps that can introduce feedback hum. An analog stereo reciever cannot decode digital audio signals. The expensive part of all this is that you'll need an A/V Reciever that can decode the many possible types of digital audio signal types out there, which can have names like Dolby 5.1, PCM, DTS, etc., and these are meant to heard through multiple speakers (2 front, 2 back, 1 subwoofer) found in home theaters. You'ld then have to also configure the reciever to take in the digital audio signal and process the output to a stereo speaker pair or analog stereo RCA output if you're staying in the stereo world.

If you steer clear of going the digital audio route through an S/PDIF connection, you'll be spared the expense of a TOSLINK cable and a required A/V reciever. My suggestion is to first go to Radio Shack and buy a cheap 3.5mm to stereo RCA cable and keep things analog and simple. You might find the quality of analog audio "good enough".