Turning computer into stereo reciever

[cmills83]

Work with me here. I am looking to get rid of my reciever and my cd player and just use my computer, easy. But I actually want some power like 100w per channel for two speakers. How do I go about doing this? Is there some sort of external receiver out there that plugs into the computer usb? pci slot? anywhere? The computer speakers I have now are too small and even if I spliced the wire there just isn't enough power.

[Catweazle]

A TV tuner card should also function as an FM receiver, I'm not sure if specialised radio tuner cards are available.

You need a decent set of 2.1 speakers for your PC, which will have a sub-woofer with the ampflifier built in. If you can't afford a set (they're fairly inexpensive) then run a lead from the audio-out socket to the 'Auxilliary input' sockets on your existing stereo amplifier. A hifi store will help you work out the necessary cable for the job.

Oh yes - the better your soundcard, the better it'll sound coming out from the speakers. Nothing can overcome the low quality of a shitty PC soundcard!

[cmills83]

I found a cable that plugs into the sound card at one end and has rca's at the other so I will just run that from my comp to my receiver for now due to lack of funds. Thanks for your reply! What kind of sound card do you recommend? Thanks again.

[Catweazle]

As long as the plug for the soundcard end is a stereo one, then that's the cable I was referring to!

You need to work out just what the soundcard in your PC is. But if it's an old crappy one, then a SoundBlaster Live! DE 5.1 soundcard would be perfectly fine for your purposes, and is quite inexpensive, at only about double the price of the cheapest 'cheap 'n' nasty' soundcards available. It's got quite good sound quality. For a few dollars more, you could get an OEM Soundblaster Audigy internal soundcard which is of a higher quality again.