Windows 10: how do I connect my dell laptop to audio line input of an amplifier

how do I connect my dell laptop to audio line input of an amplifier using the headphone jack

:)

 

Line level audio not accepted as a "microphone" input

Hi Greg -

Thank you for the quick reply!

I do understand the differences in signal levels. The references you provided explain the different levels, but do not address my question.

My problem lies in the internal connections the OS provides.

I want to use a specific program that is looking for a microphone input.

I use an external preamp to boost the microphone signal up to an instrument level, which allows me to use a switch to select between the 'mike' input and other higher level inputs before it gets routed into my audio interface to the PC.

The program I want to use doesn't see the input from my audio interface as a 'mike' input.

Any program that works with 'mike' inputs must be relying on the motherboard or soundcard to have already amplified the 'mike' signal to a level it can work with. I don't believe the programs are working with the low level microphone output signal.

I want to be clear here - I am not suggesting putting the amplified microphone signal into a "microphone" input on the PC. In fact I have turned off the internal motherboard sound system, because I use a high quality audio interface to bring audio into the PC on a USB line.

So it is a question of internal routing. How can I get a boosted 'mike' input found on a 'instrument' level input line to be accepted as speech by a program?

 

Can't isolate line audio from mic input; audio driver not showing.

Excellent reply. I set Audacity as you suggest and it works. To my perfectionist mind, there's one flaw: with all volumes to max, the recording level is rather low, as the attached snip shows. Any ideas how to increase it? My previous Win 7 laptop allowed far more level than this, using a Realtek driver.

 

Audio input

I have a Dell Inspiron 13 running Windows 10. Can the headphone jack be used to input as well as output audio? If so, how? Maybe there's a driver for that? If not, how can I line-input audio?