The Gramophone Player can be listened to directly through your computer’s speakers, but for an improved audio experience, it’s easy to listen through your hi-fi, says Audio Editor Andrew Everard.
 
One option is to connect your audio player to a computer, either using a cable, or wirelessly with a device such as Apple's Airport Express.
 
For a cabled connection all PCs offer a headphone output which can be connected into a hi-fi using a simple cable with a 3.5mm stereo plus on one end and a pair of RCA phonos on the other.
 
Some laptop computers also have an optical digital output concealed within their headphone socket, while desktop models may well have a digital audio output provided in addition to their line analogue outs. These can be connected to a conventional stereo amplifier by placing a digital to analogue converter, or DAC, between the two, or directly into a digital input on a home cinema receiver.
 
Alternatively, some DACs now have a USB input, allowing them to function as offboard soundcards, again for connection to a hi-fi system, while there are even some powered speakers available with a built-in DAC and preamplifier.

For a more detailed article about how to connect your computer to your hi-fi, see below.

Connecting your computer to your audio system
The case for feeding audio from computer to hi-fi is ever more compelling, says Andrew Everard

The arrival of the Gramophone Player is one of the most fundamental shifts in the history of the magazine, marking the replacement of the long-running cover CD with an extended range of content accessible anywhere you can fire up a network browser.

The encoding quality we’ve chosen – 256kbps – is on a par with all but the very best internet radio streams, and the switch-over to an online offering is part of a growing trend towards music both stored on, and streamed via, home networks and computers. You’ll have seen that trend developing in these pages over the past year or two, as more equipment has become available to act as an interface between computers, networks and audio systems, and even I have found myself switching from a severe case of iPod denial to ownership of an iPod Nano, an iPod Touch and an iPhone!

Lurk around the internet forums where such things are discussed, and you’ll find no end of debate about the best types of software to stream music and/or video from this kind of computer to that kind of client device: I’ve even seen sites publishing line after line of computer code to be typed in to make a product do something for which it was never designed. With all that in mind, it’s hardly surprising that many glaze over when it comes to the idea of connecting music on computer to a hi-fi system, which is why I thought the time was right for some back to basics advice, covering the simplest ways of bringing the two together.

And the starting-point couldn’t be simpler: every computer has an audio output of some kind, even if it’s just a headphone socket, so you can just buy a cable with a 3.5mm stereo plug on one end and a pair of standard RCA phono plugs on the other. Fit a 3.5mm plug into the computer’s headphone socket, RCA phonos into a spare line input on your amplifier, and you’re all done.

So far so good, but it’s not unknown for the headphone output to sound a little ropy, or indeed for there to be the potential for some interference when connecting up in this manner. So some form of digital connection may be preferable, especially if you have an AV receiver with digital inputs.

Some desktop PCs have a digital output, usually on an optical socket, while a surprisingly large number of laptops have a miniature optical output hidden in their headphone socket – you can buy optical cables with an appropriate plug, or an adapter.

If you have a conventional amplifier, you can buy an affordable digital-to-analogue converter to go between such an output and a standard analogue line-in, and many of these will also accept input from the USB socket on the computer. In essence, they function as an external soundcard for the computer, forming an interface between any audio the computer can play and the input of your amplifiers.

Does all that start to sound both complex and expensive? It isn’t: these devices offer simple plug-and-play operation, in that the computer will simply recognise them when they’re connected, and they take over audio functions. And expensive? I’ve just bought one such device to experiment with for the princely sum of £27, including next-day delivery.

If you have your computer to hand but want the audio sent to a hi-fi system across the room, there’s that Apple AirPort Express, but unless you just want to use it to stream music from a number of music applications you’re going to need add-on software. Fortunately, there are some wireless versions of the USB converter idea, such as the Sitecom WL-060.

Its little USB stick plugs into the computer, while the remote black box sits with your hi-fi system: the two pair up, and then you’re sending whatever audio your computer is playing wirelessly to the hi-fi. It’s simple, it’s effective, and it’s £50 or so, with similar devices available from companies such as Lindy and other computer accessories specialists.

If you haven’t tried it yet, I really do suggest you try to make the link between your computer and audio system: there’s no shortage of music available out there, legally and without charge. And of course there’s always the Gramophone Player...