i have hooked up my laptop to my stereo using the headphone jack on my laptop to my amp of my stereo.

with the phono jack on the amp unfortunatley there is serious bassy interference/distortion when everything is connected and turned on (albeit without music playing) so what other connectons can i use?

Youd want to check whether your laptop has a lineout port, or a way to make the headphone jack lineout thru software. Maybe it even has an optical out, but its unlikely.

My main guess would be its just down to where priorities are placed on laptops, and SQ really isnt one of them.

"phono" jack on the stereo is probably for a record player (remember vinyl)?. you want to use the line/tape in, not phono.

try google "RIAA equalisation"

Yeah, use anything BUT phono. Also laptop outputs are not that great, some of the interference will come from that as well. Expect a little but no too much.

i thought as much.

i have other inputs that work too, they are dvd, d-tv, tape 2 etc?
interference is definetly less with these.

which would be the best one to use or would they all be identical?

best would be tape or tuner - as DVD and other 'potentially digital' sources often have lower input gain to cope with extreme signal levels.

set the volume on the laptop to about 3/4 and adjust the level from the amp.

i use mine straight into the stereo with no noise..
and then the s-vid for movies

nice
tried going digital from the lappy to the surround?

My old laptop had a particularly crappy soundcard, bought one of these for under $50. Worked very well.

http://www.creative.com/products/product.a...10246&nav=2

cheers mate i will give it a go