After I noticed this, I remembered that there was something similar on the stereo I owned. A bit over a year earlier, I had purchased a new stereo, since my old one would forget how to play CDs, driving me into a frenzy of hate. My new(er) stereo, made by Sony, also had a place where a digital audio cable could be connected. So, it would be just the simple matter of plugging the stereo and computer into each other, right? As you can no doubt tell, at this point I was still fairly optimistic about the whole matter.
The first problem occured when I realized that I was not in possession of a digital audio cable, especially since I wanted to set up my computer and use it that very moment. I managed to get ahold of a set of small portable speakers that could plug into the basic audio out jack, and this held me over for a few days. I, in the meantime, searched throughout my house looking for any random cables which may have accumulated in the basement, in the hopes that something there would meet my needs. I did find a cord that seemed as if it would work, connecting from the standard audio out jack on my computer to one of the RCA jacks on my stereo. Yes, I did write "one of the RCA jacks". There were two on the back of my stereo, for reasons which would only later become apparant to me. Now, this wasn't utilizing the Digital Audo connection, but if it worked, then I would have been alright with that.
The problem was is that it did not work. At least, not completely. Although music on my computer played through the stereo, it only played on one speaker. That was the purpose of the two RCA jacks: one for each speaker. Very well. After searching online, I found a "Y adaptor" which works somewhat like an extension cable, enabeling it to be plugged into both jacks on my stereo. I ended up heading to Circuit City to get this, and after finding out the rather exorbant price (fourteen dollars!), decided to buy it anyway.
RCA stereo cables:
The current bane of
of my existence.
It initially seemed as if this adaptor worked, and I was very happy that it did. And so I began to rip a number of the CDs I owned to my computer's hard drive. However, as time went on, I began to notice something a little odd. The left half of the songs were missing. Yes, you read that right. Although sound was now coming out of both speakers, it was still the sounds that would normally play on the right speaker playing out of both. In many songs this is not a problem, but with some (such as showtunes or Rammstein CDs) large portions of the songs are not played. This was unacceptable, and so I tried to figure out a way to correct this.
I tweaked with the audio settings in my computer, but nothing presented itself which could change the audio output. Thus, I was consigned to buying another cable. I went for a cable that had RCA connectors, so it would fit in the plug from my stereo to the Y adaptor. Suprisingly, I found this for only about five dollars from Best Buy. Alas, when I arrived home once more and plugged it in, I only heard nasty static. Apparantly this was a normal RCA cable, and I needed to get a Digital RCA cable. That made sense, and so I looked online for Digital RCA cables. The cheapest ones I found ranged anywhere from twenty to one hundred dollars, a price I was unwilling to spend. Eventually, however, I did find one priced at only seventeen dollars, available from Best Buy. Going to the store once more, I checked over the box, making sure that this was a DIGITAL cable and thus one that would presumably work with my computer. Everything looked fine, so I purchased my third cable.
I had taken it home and had taken the cable out of the package when I realized a slight problem. The cable itself looked to be just what I needed, but the RCA connectors on that cable weren't. In order to plug into my computer, the edges of the RCA connector had to be straight. On the cable I had, the edges of the connector were bevelled outward, thus preventing me from even plugging it in. The graphic below can explain this situation better than text can:
So, because of the design, I had just purchased a cable that I couldn't even plug into my computer, and thus a cable that was completely useless to me. And so I went back to Best Buy yet again to return this cable. As an interesting sidenote, I realized from this experience just why you should never go to Best Buy two days before Christmas. They took it back without any problems, even though I had opened the package, and once more I went home to ponder my predicament.
Mind you, all this time I had been trying to use the RCA connection, completely ignoring the Digital Cable connection. Looking once more at the back of my computer and stereo, I eventually figured that in order to utilize this, I would need a digital coaxial cable with an RCA connector on one end (for my computer) and an optical connector on the other (for my stereo). However, apparantly this type of cable only exists on the Internet, for that was the only place I found it. Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, none of this stores had the cable, and I did not want to order from some random website a cable that might not even work.
And so, I gave up. My original setup where only the right half of the song plays is what I am using this very moment. And for the most part it works. My CD player is literally an inch from my computer if I ever desire to play a song that needs both speakers. I spent a lot of time and effort to correct this, and yet ironically I am now back where I began.
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