Hi All
Apologies if this has already been covered, but I cannot find exactly my question when trawling through the forum.
I have a high-end laptop - i7 HP Spectre running Windows 10 - and, to date, I have always played back from Dorico with a cable running from the headphones socket of the laptop to 2xRCAs plugged into the back of my amplifier and then to decent speakers.
I have heard that, even on a decent laptop, the headphone amp is pretty limited and I could get much better sound by bypassing it. Similarly, bypassing the onboard DAC could improve things drastically too. I have recently bought an Audiolab 6000a Play amp that has the usual AUX inputs, plus bluetooth and digital inputs (coaxial and optical); as well as a high quality DAC built-in.
I have tried to bluetooth the Dorico output to both my headphones and new amp. Although all other sound sources playback ok through Bluetooth, Dorico refuses to - and goes to laptop speakers. I have, rather timidly, played with some settings but to no avail. I’m scared to try too hard in case I upset Dorico (took me ages to get the damn thing to make a sound when I first got it!).
On my laptop, I have USB C sockets, a USB B, and a HDMI socket (currently used to connect a widescreen monitor).
Is there a way to bypass the laptop’s inbuilt DAC/headphone amp to make use of the new amp’s high performance. I get fabulous sound as it is - but would just like to know if it could be improved with, say, the purchase of some magic cable?
Thanks in advance
Pete