Recently I heard a presentation of some music played on a PC through an amp. At one point this was terrible, and eventually I pointed out that the levels on the amp needed to be up, and the volume levels on the PC needed to be down.
The input overload distortion was considerable before this, and only slight afterwards.
Many people don't understand this, and while not exactly "hi-fi", they make systems sound far worse than necessary because of their lack of knowledge.
I assume the output from the laptop PC was via the headphone socket. It occurs to me that the problem could at least have been made less likely if there are attenuation cables for linking PCs to amps. This would not be an excuse for ignorance, but might actually be helpful, as presumably a 3-6dB attenuation (maybe even 10 dB) would make it much harder for the PC to drive the amp into input overload distortion.
Alternative "solutions" to this problem based on DA converters, various digital cables etc. would cost more, and almost certainly not be taken up by punters who only do this kind of connection infrequently.
Are there any ready made attenuator cables for this purpose available cheaply?
PS: I think the cables need to be around 4 metres long. Presumably an easy DIY job for anyone with knowledge, but many people might simply want an off-the shelf solution, say £9 from an Amazon seller!
PPS: A cheap audio attenuator box, if such exists, might also be acceptable.