The Song Fight Bulletin Board

I've been using a 1/8" to 1/4" converter in the headphone jack of my laptop to plug it into amps/PAs. My headphone jack has become realy loose recently and is not reliable. Is there an alternative (inexpensive) solution?

Thanks!

You might look into USB soundcards... I can't recommend a specific one, but take a look around. I think the headphone jack has some sort of impedence mismatch that will make the volume weird when you pretend it's a lineout, also, so not a great idea in general (?).
-bill

Thanks, I'm looking at some USB sound card stuff right now. A lot of them aren't USB 2.0.

I just need to run FL Studio through a PA, does it make a notable difference if it is USB 1.0/1.1?

Thanks again!

Probably not. I use the M-Audio Mobile Pre, which I picked up used for pretty cheap. I also hear good things about the M-Audio Transit.

Ken

I didn't mention that with my laptop I use a card that slots into the PCMCIA slot - VxPocket 440 - it's a little unwieldy, since it has this load of XLR jacks on cables sticking out the side of the laptop. It works well, I think, though. Problem is that it is also not cheap.
-bill