Best and not too expensive way to move analog sound out of a laptop?

[ejbpesca]

Besides using the headphone output, is there an interface that will take sound out of an average laptop via the USB port covert to analog then be able to plug into recorders or a mixer board?

Also, is there an adjustment on Windows Vista that will change the output of the headphones out from headphone to line out?

Thanks in advance.
jb

[Andrew_Malloy]

You could use something like this:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/UCA202/

There are better quality devices out there, but this is the simplest I could find.

[yeahforbes]

Also, any mixer will have no problem accepting the headphone output. The voltage certainly falls into the range that is considered "line level," with the only difference being that headphones are more of a load than a line input. So you'll be loading the laptop less than what it expects, which is not a problem. Now, you may have more noise with the headphone output compared to a USB interface (or possibly not with the Behringer), but in most situations nobody will notice.

Just be sure to use a stereo 1/8" to dual mono 1/4" (TS) cable and not a stereo 1/8" to stereo 1/4" (TRS) cable.