Which type of leads ?

[Corabar Steve]

As I said somewhere, I'm a little confused at the apparent lack of a mixer in this instance. I'm sort of hoping that the alleged "Amp" in this case is in fact a mixer.

Some DJ programs have a for want of a better word "virtual" mixer do they not? Coming from that to a set of powered speakers would work as detailed would it not?

However I awaiit a full answer to my earlier question before I can advise further.

[Excalibur]

Some DJ programs have a for want of a better word "virtual" mixer do they not? Coming from that to a set of powered speakers would work as detailed would it not?
.

They do indeed exist, and it would indeed work. It would be a far from ideal arrangement though, in my opinion.

[Chris]

Hold on there, I'm thinking we're short one mixer here, and dangerously ovr subscribed with amplifiers!!

Chris, please please don't connect the ( speaker ) output of an amp to the RCF's, there will be a very expensive bang.

Thanks for the friendly help, it's appreciated. Okay, let's start again, I have been using a laptop to mixer to amp to speakers for a while, but the speakers weren't powered or active. The situation now, is a laptop that I connect to an external soundcard, and I have a pair of (powered and active) ART 712's, I don't have anything to mix, so don't want to use a mixer anywhere and am obviously trying to keep to a bare minimum, the number of items in between the source of music to the speakers. I remember a setup I used a few years ago, where I went from a laptop-amp-speakers, without any mixer, but those speakers weren't active or powered.

[Jiggles]

You WILL need a mixer of some description. With out one you have little to know control over the sound that comes out the speakers!

Here is a simple diagram for you to understand what you need for each. What you want to look at is the first part of the diagram.

[Corabar Steve]

[Chris]

You WILL need a mixer of some description. With out one you have little to know control over the sound that comes out the speakers!

Here is a simple diagram for you to understand what you need for each. What you want to look at is the first part of the diagram.

Many thanks jiggles, the sound card has a mic input and volume control, so was hoping to get away without a mixer, but no worries and thanks again for your help. We all have to start somewhere! Would a mixer have any influence on the quality of sound coming out of the speakers?

[Excalibur]

Assuming everything else is equal, and you were going for the best quality sound, which type of leads from the amp to speakers would you go for?

Right, now that we've set some ground rules, let's have a bash at this.
Leads: Neutrik, Van Damme.
Sound Card: Maya, Gigaport, and there are some of even higher spec that I've forgotten. They're not cheap.
Mixer: Denon, Pioneer. ( Not forgetting Allen and Heath, Urei, and some of the Soundcraft in the bigger ones. )

Software mixers will not produce an acceptable control of the sound, for that you need a hardware one. Cheap soundcards are also a bad idea, usually. And apart from a range of laptops fitted with some very nice sound cards, the headphones socket on the laptop should be regarded as for emergency use only.

Hope this helps.

[Jiggles]

Baer sound quality then have a mixer. It means that there is a short unballenced lead ie from the laptop. To pick up interference. Then the mixer will create a ballenced signal to feed your speakers.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Many thanks jiggles, the sound card has a mic input and volume control, so was hoping to get away without a mixer,

Why on earth would you use a decent set of cabs and no mixer?

[Excalibur]

Baer sound quality then have a mixer. It means that there is a short unballenced lead ie from the laptop. To pick up interference. Then the mixer will create a ballenced signal to feed your speakers.

Any chance of that in something approaching English?