How To Kiss Frogs

[Simon]

Bonjour and all that,

In the name of sexual harmony and in the hope that God's digital pencil will somehow breach the dam of my orgasmic ignorance with regard to pc audio, I have an appeal to make to any idle digitalphiles with a mind to help me out.

It's the wife - stop that sniggering at the back - who has discovered the joy of downloading files from youtube in mp4 but actually for the soundtrack. Yoga music. :eek:

Heard played by WMP over a standard fairly recent Asus with Windows 7, the cat left the room shaking his head in dismay.

I've tried plugging in some cheap active Sony pc speakers to some improved effect. Is there a simple and easy route to go a stage further ( apart from swapping the wife )? I dunno, a better configuration, a better free media player, a better soundcard, better speakers that sort of thing?

The pc audio needs to remain portable as we move about quite a bit so no plans for dacs or anything tho' I've got a Bantam Gold that I'd like to hook it up to at some point, not a priority.

Any thoughts?

I look forward to basking in the incandescent glow of your collective wisdom.

[StanleyB]

Given the constraints that you have imposed, I can only suggest that you swap the cheap Sony PC speakers for an expensive set.

[The Grand Wazoo]

Marco's going to hate me for saying it, but your needs are the exact fit for these (http://www.avihifi.co.uk/adm9.html)

[Marco]

There are occasions when one may be forced into having little computer speaker-ettes in one's life. The affliction, however, need only be temporary.

Marco.

[realysm42]

I agree with the better speakers thing but external DACs needn't not be portable; m2, halide and a number of mother manufacturers have created some excellent portable DACs, so I wouldn't write them off!

[Simon]

Thanks for the pointers - the active speakers exude the dangerous allure of audio porn. But I can't see me dragging a grand+'s worth of sonic jewellery around in the back of the van while on my travels.

The dac route isn't ruled out just not really relevant here.

I have 3 fixed systems which do vinyl, cd and av to my satisfaction.

To narrow the focus a little, what I'm really getting at is trying to find a happy crossroads capable of equating portability - as in hotel rooms and even the odd campsite around Europe - with file-based mp3 and 4 audio which doesn't end up sounding like the screech of chalk on a blackboard.

We're in the right wood, but not quite barking up the right tree, alas.