At work, I use the headphone out of my notebook to an old Pioneer receiver Aux in (you can use any input but Phono). All you need is a cable that has a 1/8" mini phono at one end and left/right male RCA connectors at the other end (same cable that you would use to hook up a discman to a receiver). If your soundcard has a Line Out jack, then even better, as you won't have to deal with adjusting the volume of your soundcard and your receiver.
I use my computer as my main music source - I've copied most of my cd's to it and also have a lot downloads from iTunes etc. I'd like to be able to run a line from my computer to a receiver and then use the receiver to pipe the music to other rooms in my house. So my questions are:
(1) What type of input does a receiver need to have in order for me to be able to run a line from the computer to the receiver and play my downloaded music through the receiver? (I have a Dell, and the line from the desktop speakers and subwoofer to the computer looks very much like a simple headset wire and the out on the computer looks like a simple heaset jack. Of course, I'm sure it's more complicated than that.)
(2) Once I get the computer hooked up to the receiver, can I just start the music player on the compuer and then turn the receiver to the right input? Do I need a digital receiver in between the computer and the receiver?
(3) Is there a better way to do this?
Any tips / hardware suggestions on making this work would be appreciated.
Thanks!

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