Dell Optiplex 9020 x64 - analogue audio terrible!

chrisund123 · December 21, 2022 at 3:30 PM

Hi,

I put LE 10 (latest stable) on a Dell Optiplex 9020 (4th Gen i7) to use as an internet radio. Only trouble is the 3.5mm analogue audio output is absolutely awful quality, really tinny and far worse than it ought to be.

I hooked it up to a TV via the DisplayPort output and the audio is fine (for a TV!), but that's not how I want to use it - I'm looking to hook it up to an amp via the analogue out.

Am I doing something wrong?

**Da Flex** · December 21, 2022 at 3:48 PM

We don't downsample analogue output, so it is what it is.

Read here, how to get better analogue audio by additional hardware: Click!

chrisund123 · December 21, 2022 at 4:35 PM

Interesting! I'm currently using a much older Dell optiplex 780 with Volumio to do the job, I was expecting the newer (and better?) 9020 to be at least as good as the 780 as far as the audio quality goes.

I'll do a bit of experimenting tomorrow with some different hardware, try LE on the 780 and Volumio on the 9020 and see how things compare.

**Da Flex** · December 21, 2022 at 6:32 PM

If you want to dig deeper, check the screening effect of the internal analogue cables. That might be the difference between both boxes.

**chewitt** · December 22, 2022 at 10:20 AM

The internal chips on motherboards are often dreadful. If you want good analogue output, consider some kind of USB DAC device.