Almost endless possibilities these days. Help us out.

What kind of computer and related line outs are available?

What kind of stereo system ie preamp or AV Reciever?

RG

That's entirely possible, although fairly inconvenient. The requirement would be for your computer to be in the same room with your stereo.

If your computer has digital outputs, you're in business. Connect your computer to an outboard DAC and connect the DAC to your amplifier. Or, if you have a receiver with a DAC in it, then you could just use that.

I assume you're on a PC, given that you're using RealPlayer as your primary (?) music player. Check the back panel and look for either an orange color-coded RCA connector (coaxial digital) or a squarish socket, probably covered with a plastic cap or rubber flap. That is optical digital (toslink).

Either of the above could be tapped and routed into a high-quality DAC.

Another option is to buy an external/upgraded internal sound card with analog outputs. Many quality cards also have digital outputs, so the DAC option would still be viable.

The final (and poorest-sounding) option is to connect your computer directly to your amplifier with a Y-cable minijack-to-stereo RCA adapter.

USB could be used as an output, but you'd have to buy a USB DAC.

No. I bought one and it sounds absolutely atrocious.

Quote:
I found an optical out on my pc hooked it to my dac. It worked but the sound just was not good is that normal?

I thought it would sound better than off the air FM but not true.

Assuming you have a competent tuner you will be hard pressed to get an internet stream to sound as good as off air FM.

RG

Does your computer only output optical digital? I ask because coaxial typically produces less jitter.

You can buy USB-to-S/Pdif converters, although I'm unsure of the quality of such devices.

It seems to me like you have two options:

1.) Buy an external sound card, or an improved internal one

2.) Buy a Mac

Perhaps someone else can put in their two cents, but I'm running out of ideas.

Oh! I totally missed that! So, we're working with internet radio, then? Well, that's a completely different story. Streams typically have bitrates of 128 kbps or less, and will sound hollow and flat when played back on a nice system, or even decent computer speakers.

Try using the optical output again, but this time, rip a CD in a lossless or uncompressed format. It ought to compare to a CD.

I had assumed that we were using with high-bitrate music files.