Connect Marantz NR 1402 to laptop for Audio only

[nonbaryonic]

Hey guys, I'm fairly new to high end audio so this might be a basic question for most.

This is my current setup:

LED TV
PS3
Marantz NR 1402 receiver
KEF T105 5.1 speakers
A generic toshiba laptop

The PS3 is connected to the TV via a HDMI. The TV is connected to the receiver via a optical cable. The laptop is connected to the receiver via the 3.5mm audio cable (laptop audio out to Aux-in on the receiver).

My question is, how do I improve the sound from the laptop, since all my FLAC / 320 kbps music is on my computer and that's my preferred source? I had the following options:

a) Connect laptop to TV via HDMI and then play music
b) Connect laptop to receiver and then play music
c) Get an external USB DAC and connect laptop to receiver via this. This seems to be the recommended way, but I'm not sure as the receiver already has a DAC built in, so I'm not 100% sure.

Thanks a lot for your help.

 

[americanaudiophile]

Your laptop has HDMI out so you can connect it directly to the Marantz and that will work for audio and/or video. The Marantz does have a DAC in it. Other option is to use a usb to spdif adapter such as the M2Tech.

 

[nonbaryonic]

Thanks - greatly appreciated. While I understand how to do this conceptually, I spent hours today figuring it out but I couldn't run anything via an HDMI from the receiver. Here's what I did:

Connected the HDTV box HDMI to the 'SAT' input on the receiver
Connected the PS3 HDMI to the 'game' input on the receiver
Connected another HDMI from my laptop out to the DVD input on the receiver

After connecting all these inputs to the receiver, I connected the ARC port (out) on my receiver to the ARC port on my TV. This means, my TV only has one HDMI connected to it.

Unfortunately none of these worked. I did go to the 'Amp' menu where you can assign inputs and meddle around - tried all settings but nothing seemed to work. Just to make sure that I'm doing it right, I'll give quick example of what I did. Assigned 'SAT' to HDMI 3, and connected the HDTV HDMI in the third slot on my receiver. When done, I switched input on my receiver to SAT. Unfortunately it was no sound or video for either of the options.

I realize this is a pretty long post and apologize. If I can't resolve it soon, I fear I'll have to call someone to my place to fix it, or first maybe call tech support.

Thanks again!

 

[americanaudiophile]

It sounds like you have the connections right. Call Marantz tech support. They may be able to figure it out.
Good Luck.